LDV102

34 FAURÉ ∙ THE MUSIC FOR CELLO AND PIANO Let’s get back to the sonatas. They both seem to have been built around their slow movement: no.1 on a recollection of the Élégie (which was originally intended to be a movement in a sonata), no.2 on the Chant funéraire written to commemorate the centenary of the death of Napoleon I. Cédric Tiberghien: It’s true, that three-movement structure is very symmetrical. One has the impression that the first movement prepares the way for the central slow movement, and that the finale is a sort of release after it. The finale of the First Sonata, Allegro commodo, begins peacefully, while that of the Second, Allegro vivo, explodes right from the first chord. There’s a mixture of momentum and languor in the Allegro commodo of no.1. Cédric Tiberghien: Yes, it radiates a quiet happiness. When I was a child, my parents used to listen to Fauré’s chamber music on their hi-fi. I associated this finale with a carefree spring Sunday. You have to leave this music free to go its own way . . . At the start, time is ticking by: we consciously chose the fluid playing style we use here, the economical pedalling, the clarity, the limpidity of the semiquavers. The whole life of the piece lies in those semiquavers. The euphoric atmosphere is generated by the élan of the melody, but also by the piano accompaniment, which is constantly in motion from the movement’s opening to its exultant conclusion.