LDV102

30 FAURÉ ∙ THE MUSIC FOR CELLO AND PIANO Fauré composed his first pieces for cello, the Élégie and the Berceuse , at a time when he frequented the cultivated bourgeois salons of the late nineteenth century. Jacques Bonnaure wrote of them, somewhat provocatively: ‘If one knew only these pieces, one would think that Fauré was a purveyor of confectionery.’ Would you agree with that? Xavier Phillips: At that time, Fauré also wrote a lot of romances for voice. He was quite consciously setting himself up as a romantic, in the sentimental sense of the term. That’s how he made a name for himself, yielding to fashion in the deliberately sugary character of pieces like the Berceuse . . . If you didn’t know the rest of his output, you might indeed think that his music belongs wholly to that universe. But Fauré was a craftsman. At the beginning he did what was expected of him, in order to give himself the means to express himself more freely and genuinely personally in his later career. Yet this salon music remains authentic and extremely refined: how can one not be moved by the Élégie , how can one not melt on hearing the Berceuse , which is so delicate, so infinitely tender?