Just a notch above Sergei Prokofiev and Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) is my favorite classical composer. A master of small forms, Fauré wrote magnificent chamber music—his piano trio, quartets and quintets; cello and violin sonatas; and string quartet are all masterpieces. 

 

I discovered Fauré’s musical elegance about four decades ago, when I saw French film director Bertrand Tavernier’s classic Un Dimanche à la Campagne (A Sunday in the Country), which used excerpts from Fauré’s late chamber pieces to incisive effect. Indeed, critic John Simon, in his 1985 rave of Tavernier’s film, wrote that conductor Herbert von Karajan sent a letter to Tavernier congratulating him on what Karajan considered, in the broadest sense, the most musical film he had ever seen.

 

To its credit, for its Midsummer MusicFest, the 92nd Street Y on Manhattan’s Upper East Side brought the Bell-Isserlis-Denk Trio & Friends—violinist Joshua Bell, cellist Steven Isserlis, pianist Jeremy Denk, with  their friends, violinist Irène Duval and violist Blythe Teh Engstroem—for two all-Fauré concerts jammed with chamber masterworks. 

 

I was only able to attend the first night (even though the second recital had even better works on the program) but was delighted by the passionate and precise performances of such glorious music of quiet clarity and eloquence.

 

The July 9 concert began with Fauré’s mighty A-major Violin Sonata, the most well-known work on the program, expressively performed by Bell and Denk. Isserlis then joined the pair for an artful reading of the sublime Piano Trio. 

 

After intermission, Isserlis and Denk played lovely versions of two of Fauré’s small-scale gems: the Sicilienne (which features one of the composer’s most ravishing melodies) and Berceuse. I would have preferred to hear one of Fauré’s two great cello sonatas—both among the peak works of his late period—instead of these subtle miniatures, but Isserlis must have had a good reason for excluding them. 

 

This remarkable concert ended with all the musicians onstage to play Fauré’s masterly Piano Quintet No. 1, one of his most brilliant works—although I prefer, by just a hair, the even more majestically intimate second quintet. The interplay, energy and ebullience of the performers during this heavenly half hour was something I haven’t experienced very often.

 

Kudos to the five friends—and bravo to Gabriel Fauré!