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Nick Barnard's review "Chant nostalgiques"
Posted by John Harris on February 20, 2023, 10:53 pm
Felix Apprahamian writes in his notes to a crd recording of Faure's "la Bonne Chanson" : "In 1898, Faure was persuaded to score an arrangement of the piano accompaniment for string quintet and piano. This was successfully performed at a soiree given at the London home of Faure's friend Frank Schuster on Apr.1. The following day, in a letter to his wife, Faure recorded "Yet, for my part, I still find this accompaniment redundant, and prefer the simple accompaniment." He added however: "But it's effect was great: Schuster, Sargent and Mme Maddison wept with emotion" The material of this arrangement "unpublished and lost" according to Robrt Orledge's Book "Gabriel Faure (Eulenburg, London, 1979) was for years in the collection of the late Anthony Bernard, including the autograph full score" This may shed a little more light on this arrangement.
John - many thanks for the extra information. I like the idea that Faure himself was swayed by the impact of his own arrangement. Since I wrote this review a few weeks ago I'd followed up other versions of the quintet accompanied version and - like Faure(!) - I think its great.
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Felix Apprahamian writes in his notes to a crd recording of Faure's "la Bonne Chanson" : "In 1898, Faure was persuaded to score an arrangement of the piano accompaniment for string quintet and piano. This was successfully performed at a soiree given at the London home of Faure's friend Frank Schuster on Apr.1. The following day, in a letter to his wife, Faure recorded "Yet, for my part, I still find this accompaniment redundant, and prefer the simple accompaniment." He added however: "But it's effect was great: Schuster, Sargent and Mme Maddison wept with emotion" The material of this arrangement "unpublished and lost" according to Robrt Orledge's Book "Gabriel Faure (Eulenburg, London, 1979) was for years in the collection of the late Anthony Bernard, including the autograph full score" This may shed a little more light on this arrangement.