LDV102

33 XAVIER PHILLIPS, CÉDRIC TIBERGHIEN Deafness was an affliction Fauré shared with Beethoven. What impact did it have on him and his creative activity, on these late works? Cédric Tiberghien: He was deeply affected by it. There’s a dark, dramatic side in his late music, in some of the barcarolles and nocturnes, in the slow movements of the two cello sonatas. The minor keys, especially D minor, are recurrent. I think that his deafness isolated him from his environment, forcing him to withdraw into his inner world. This preserved the integrity of his highly personal language, keeping him away from the influences, movements and developments of his time. Throughout his long life, he never deviated from his form of musical thought, no matter what was going on around him. Xavier Phillips: The composers of his time, Debussy, Ravel, were very attracted by jazz, American influences, Arabic-Andalusian music and so on. But Fauré, not at all! He steered his own his course, imperturbably, to the point of obstinacy. You can certainly attribute that to his deafness, but it’s not the only reason. It reveals a specific trait of his character. His music is resolutely French, devoid of the slightest Germanic influence, even though he wasn’t a nationalist like Debussy!