Trio Wanderer FAURÉ - PIERNÉ Trios avec Piano

Gabriel Fauré’s Piano Trio is a late work (1923) which at once aroused the admiration of his contemporaries and is now regarded as one of the finest trios in the French repertory. The much less well-known Trio of Gabriel Pierné, premiered a year earlier, is characterised by its solid architecture, its great melodic richness, and a notably inventive rhythmic style. Two masterpieces that make an eminently logical coupling. It was premiered in Paris, at the Société Nationale de Musique, on 11 February 1922. Pierné himself played the piano part, with George Enescu on the violin and Gérard Hekking on the cello. After the concert, the composer Paul Ladmirault wrote a very flattering article in Le Courrier musical. One understands what Ladmirault meant when he wrote that it ‘may take its place alongside the finest chamber music of César Franck and M. Fauré’.

"the Wanderers’ versions rank with those of Domus (Hyperion) and Pascal Rogé and friends (Decca)... Harmonia Mundi has done the trio and Tamestit’s voluptuous viola proud. The sound is sumptuous, almost symphonic in scale and expansiveness, especially in the surging Brahmsian outer allegros. The intimate Fauré has rarely sounded more dramatic or passionate." (Hugh Canning / Sunday Times)