LDV102

32 FAURÉ ∙ THE MUSIC FOR CELLO AND PIANO Do the sonatas revert to a Classical style? Xavier Phillips: Yes, if you consider the Romantic character of the early works. The Classicism of the sonatas is accompanied by a pronounced conciseness that verges on aridity. The style has been distilled. There’s still the same tendency to develop the discourse, but at the same time everything is extremely precise, which may seem paradoxical. Fauré wrote in a letter, shortly before composing his Second Sonata: ‘It’s such a nuisance to be old! I’ll notice it less once I’ve got back to my work.’ His last pieces, composed in a very short space of time, constitute an extraordinary final bouquet, amazingly fresh and vigorous. Cédric Tiberghien: They have the kind of energy that has not been altered by age. The lines are strong. The melody becomes incredibly firm. Everything is very dense, concentrated. Fauré pares down his style to the essence. But I don’t think that he wanted to return to his youth, that he wanted to cling onto it pathetically, with a feeling of nostalgia. This final period of his creative life corresponds to a form of glorious fulfilment, a blossoming of all that has gone before. Once he was freed from his time-consuming duties as director of the Paris Conservatoire, which he carried out until the age of seventy-five, his music took on a new lease of life, in spite of his deafness.