Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 09/21/2011, uploaded on 03/15/2012

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Second only to Robert Schumann in Fauré’s admiration was Frédéric Chopin, and the influence of the Polish expatriate can be seen in the selection of titles Fauré employed in his piano music: Nocturne, Barcarolle, and Impromptu. Though numbered among the first Romantics, Chopin considered himself a Classicist; though a prime example of late French Romanticism, Fauré often tempered his works with a Classical restraint. Like his predecessor, this influence of Classicism by no means meant his works for piano were easy to perform. On one occasion, the great Franz Liszt, while attempting to perform a piece by Fauré, remarked that he had “run out of fingers.” For much of his career, Fauré was an organist, and though the piano was his medium of choice for keyboard music, he nonetheless wrote with a proclivity towards the fingerings and idioms more comfortable for an organist than a pianist. Lending even more difficulty was the fact that Fauré was also ambidextrous and equally inclined to place a melody in the left hand as in the right, or in notes alternating between the two. Fauré’s output for the piano spanned many decades of his career, from the 1860s to almost his death in 1924.

The Nocturne No. 6 in D-flat major, op. 63 is considered to be one of the finest of Fauré’s thirteen essays in the form. Of this work, Aaron Copland remarked that Fauré had finally freed himself of the shadow of Chopin. It was composed in 1894, after a six year hiatus from the piano, and ten years after the previous Nocturne in B-flat major. It opens with a tranquil dolce melody, but colored with dusky hues by the harmonies outlined in the embellishing accompaniment of flowing triplets beneath it. Later supplanting this serene opening section is a contrasting melody in C-sharp minor, imbued with a sense of restlessness in its syncopated accompaniment. Modulating to the key of A major, yet another theme steals upon the listener’s ear, this time foreshadowing the works of Debussy. With this collection of themes, the nocturne builds to a powerful climax in A major, at which point it suddenly breaks off. Deftly returning to a closing phrase of the openings section, Fauré effects a transition back to the tonic key that is truly ingenious, and the serene, consoling music heard at the beginning of the piece closes the nocturne.       Joseph DuBose

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Nocturne No.6, Op. 63 in D-flat Major      Gabriel Fauré

One of the great masterpieces of French piano music, this piece fits into both Romantic and Impressionist style. The Sixth Nocturne of the 13 written, it is separated by ten years from the previous five, which Fauré composed within less than two years.

Similar to the Sonata above, it starts with a slow and delicate theme, yet here it lays the base for the emotional development. The nocturne is multi-sectional, each one bringing a different sentiment, from wandering and lively to an appassionato climax, inevitably leading back to the opening theme.     Anna Shelest

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.