佛瑞:鋼琴音樂 尼可拉．史塔維 鋼琴 Nicolas Stavy / Faure – Piano Music

This recital could almost have been entitled Around Faurein Sixty Minutes, as the programme devised by Nicolas Stavyspans the entire career of the composer. In April 1863, when Gabriel Faurenoted down the Sonatarecorded here for the first time, his 18thbirthday was still a month away –the masterly Nocturne in B minor Op. 119, on the other hand, is Faure'sfinal work for the piano, composed only two years before his death in 1924.

Between them, and the other works included on the disc, a fascinating trajectory takes shape. In the Finale of the sonata we hear a young man enjoying himself as he experiments with a Haydnesqueidiom; a few years later there are traces of Mendelssohn and Schumann in 3 Romances, and of Chopin in Mazurke–also a world première recording. Especially when it comes to the choice of genre, Chopin is still an influence during the 1870s and Nocturne No. 1and the Ballade, but both works testify to a composer finding his own voice. Faurewent on to compose another 12 nocturnes and two of these, No. 6 in D flat majorfrom 1894 and the aforementioned Nocturne in B minor, serve as snapshots illustrating Faure'slater career and the composer's path towards increasing abstraction and a style characterised by timelessness and a detachment from fashionable trends.