The first volume in an exciting new cycle dedicated to the complete piano music of Gabriel Fauré and recorded on French instruments of the period which are uniquely attuned to the composer’s elusive sound-world.

Recording Ravel’s piano music for Piano Classics, the pianist François Dumont won glowing reviews for performances to the manner born. ‘There is much to envy and admire in Dumont’s lucid and refined performances. He is ideally sensitive and accurate in “Le gibet” (Gaspard) in a manner that would surely have won Ravel’s admiration. Cool, elegant and affectionate… you will never catch him playing for effect, always respecting the composer’s wish that his music should be played rather than interpreted.’ (Gramophone)

Dumont now brings his polished technique and refined musicianship to bear on music less frequently encountered in the concert hall but no less sophisticated, and often imbued with the most profound melancholy, the Nocturnes of Fauré. A previous set of the Chopin nocturnes also won golden opinions for Dumont’s exquisite touch – the French high-fidelity magazine On-Top Audio rated it among the finest cycles on record – but Fauré’s universe is, if anything, even more private, more overtly expressive than Ravel’s watchmaker delight in textures, yet flowing with undercurrents of troubled modernity.