Overview
Introduction
The nine préludes are among the least known of Fauré's major piano compositions. They were written while the composer was struggling to come to terms with the onset of deafness in his mid-sixties. By Fauré's standards this was a time of unusually prolific output. The préludes were composed in 1909 and 1910, in the middle of the period in which he wrote the opera Pénélope, barcarolles Nos. 8–11 and nocturnes Nos. 9–11.
In Koechlin's view, "Apart from the Préludes of Chopin, it is hard to think of a collection of similar pieces that are so important". The critic Michael Oliver wrote, "Fauré's Préludes are among the subtlest and most elusive piano pieces in existence; they express deep but mingled emotions, sometimes with intense directness ... more often with the utmost economy and restraint and with mysteriously complex simplicity." Jessica Duchen calls them "unusual slivers of magical inventiveness." The complete set takes between 20 and 25 minutes to play. The shortest of the set, No 8, lasts barely more than a minute; the longest, No 3, takes between four and five minutes.
- Prélude No 1 in D♭ major
Andante molto moderato. The first prélude is in the manner of a nocturne. Morrison refers to the cool serenity with which it opens, contrasted with the "slow and painful climbing" of the middle section.
- Prélude No 2 in C♯ minor
Allegro. The moto perpetuo of the second prélude is technically difficult for the pianist; even the most celebrated Fauré interpreter can be stretched by it. Koechlin calls it "a feverish whirling of dervishes, concluding in a sort of ecstasy, with the evocation of some fairy palace."
- Prélude No 3 in G minor
Andante. Copland considered this prélude the most immediately accessible of the set. "At first, what will most attract you, will be the third in G-minor, a strange mixture of the romantic and classic." The musicologist Vladimir Jankélévitch wrote, "it might be a barcarolle strangely interrupting a theme of very modern stylistic contour".
- Prélude No 4 in F major
Allegretto moderato. The fourth prélude is among the gentlest of the set. The critic Alain Cochard writes that it "casts a spell on the ear through the subtlety of a harmony tinged with the modal and its melodic freshness." Koechlin calls it "a guileless pastorale, flexible, with succinct and refined modulations".
- Prélude No 5 in D minor
Allegro. Cochard quotes the earlier writer Louis Aguettant's description of this prélude as "This fine outburst of anger (Ce bel accès de colère)". The mood is turbulent and anxious; the piece ends in quiet resignation reminiscent of the "Libera me" of the Requiem.
- Prélude No 6 in E♭ minor
Andante. Fauré is at his most classical in this prélude, which is in the form of a canon. Copland wrote that it "can be placed side by side with the most wonderful of the Preludes of the Well-Tempered Clavichord."
- Prélude No 7 in A major
Andante moderato. Morrison writes that this prélude, with its "stammering and halting progress" conveys an inconsolable grief. After the opening andante moderato, it becomes gradually more assertive, and subsides to conclude in the subdued mood of the opening. The rhythm of one of Fauré's best-known songs, "N'est-ce-pas?" from La bonne chanson, runs through the piece.
- Prélude No 8 in C minor
Allegro. In Copland's view this is, with the third, the most approachable of the Préludes, "with its dry, acrid brilliance (so rarely found in Faure)." Morrison describes it as "a repeated-note scherzo" going "from nowhere to nowhere."
- Prélude No 9 in E minor
Adagio. Copland described this prélude as "so simple – so absolutely simple that we can never hope to understand how it can contain such great emotional power." The prélude is withdrawn in mood; Jankélévitch wrote that it "belongs from beginning to end to another world." Koechlin notes echoes of the "Offertoire" of the Requiem throughout the piece.
