Faure: Cello Sonatas

Following their triumphant Casals encores disc, Alban Gerhardt and Cecile Licad are reunited for a disc of music by Fauré. His two cello sonatas are among the masterpieces of the cello repertoire, looking back to the 19th century but also with an edginess that may well reflect the time in which they were written during and immediately after the First World War. Remarkably, Fauré was in his seventies by the time he wrote them. There is some debate as to how fast the last movement of the first sonata should go so Alban Gerhardt has recorded two versions, to be programmed to the listener s taste. Alongside the sonatas are some of Fauré s most seductive bon-bons, including the Sicilienne, Élégie and the Papillon (so-named at his publisher s insistence, much to Fauré s annoyance as he hated fluffy titles).