Musical Pointers

Belle Epoque: A Portrait of Gabriel Fauré
Roy Howat with Emily Kilpatrick (piano)

CD 1: Barcarolle No. 6, Op. 70
Nocturne No. 6, Op. 63
Pavane, Op. 50 (arr. Roy Howat and Wendy Hiscocks)
Thème et variations, Op. 73
Barcarolle No. 5, Op. 66
Nocturne No. 1, Op. 33 No. 1
Mazurka, Op. 32
Barcarolle No. 7, Op. 90
Nocturne No. 9, Op. 97
Barcarolle No. 8, Op. 96
Nocturne No. 12, Op. 107
Souvenirs de Bayreuth
Air de danse from Caligula, Op. 52 (World premiere recording)

CD 2: Dolly, Op. 56
Nocturne No. 4, Op. 36
Pièce en forme de Mazurka (World premiere recording)
Prélude (world premiere recording)
Pièces brèves, Op. 84
Nocturne No. 5, Op. 37
Sicilienne, Op. 78
Nocturne No. 7, Op. 74
Barcarolle No. 4, Op. 44
Nocturne No. 10, Op. 99
Nocturne No. 13, Op. 119

ABC Classics 476 3423 [2 CDs 68 + 69 mins; £14.99]

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This timely Australian recital release is the culmination of a multi faceted Fauré experience in London with Roy Howat, whose important discography includes also the piano music of Debussy and Chabrier. No one ever has been able to bring comparable authority combined with pianistic excellence to serving this favourite composer of his and mine. It pays tribute to his colleagues and partners in life and piano, and comprises two perfectly judged full length mixed programmes.

Howat is far from diffident about the depth of his knowledge of the French piano repertoire but there is also a disarming modesty about his way. At a recent chamber concert with a Fauré piano quartet and piano quintet it was left to violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved to mention, after a pre-concert conversation, Howat's monumental tome The Art of French Piano Music which embodies the research which informs these performances. Howat had mined every single documented recollection of Fauré that could be unearthed (including Fauré's own playing on piano rolls) to establish once and for all the composer's firm views about how his music should be played, always "in time", and abhorring sentimentality and rhythmic sloppiness. But that message had to be re-iterated again and again at his Fauré Master Class at the Royal Academy of Music in May.

These recitals centre around Nocturnes and Barcarolles, placed in wider context for pleasurable listening. There are of course many recordings of Fauré's well loved piano music by fine pianists, including Howat's teacher Vlado Perlemuter, who played several of the works to the composer himself, but it is safe to say that these of Roy Howat should become the bench-mark recorded performances for long ahead. The presentation is exemplary, the notes as comprehensive as space allows, clearly printed for easy reading, with the cover illustration above to convey nicely something of the mood of the times.

Modestly priced, this twofer is an essential purchase for Fauré lovers, as too is the Yale University Press book.

Peter Grahame Woolf