Fauré: Valse-Caprice No. 2, Op. 38 // Christine Croshaw

Much of Fauré's piano music is difficult to play, but is rarely virtuosic in style. The composer disliked showy display, and the predominant characteristic of his piano music is a classical restraint and understatement.

The four valses-caprices are not a cycle, but rather two sets of two, the first from Fauré's early period and the second from his middle period. Morrison calls all four "more 'caprice' than 'waltz'", and comments that they combine and develop the scintillating style of Chopin and Saint-Saëns waltzes. They show Fauré at his most playful, presenting variations before the theme is heard and darting in and out of unexpected keys. Aaron Copland, though generally a keen admirer of Fauré's music, wrote, "the several Valses-Caprices, in spite of their admirable qualities, seem to me essentially foreign to Faure's esprit. His is too orderly, too logical a mind to be really capricious." Cortot, by contrast, spoke approvingly of their "sensual grace ... perfect distinction ... impassioned tenderness."

Chopin's influence is marked in the first two pieces. Orledge observes that the right-hand figuration at the end of No. 1 is remarkably similar to that at the end of Chopin's Waltz in E minor. In No. 2 Nectoux detects the additional influence of Liszt (Au bord d'une source) in the opening bars. In the closing bars of No. 2, Orledge finds a resemblance to the end of Chopin's Grande Valse Brillante, Op, 18.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_music_of_Gabriel_Faur%C3%A9#Valses-caprices

Performed by Christine Croshaw

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