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The title group of songs here is the leadoff item; it is a group of love songs that, from Fauré's perspective, was addressed to his married girlfriend of the time, Emma Bardac (the poet, Paul Verlaine, had someone else in mind, and Fauré ended up getting a taste of his own medicine when Bardac later took up with Claude Debussy). It is a remarkable group, somewhat Wagnerian, and as progressive harmonically as anything else Fauré ever wrote. In the version performed here by tenor Nicky Spence, Fauré added a string quintet to his voice-and-piano original. This is not often heard, and it has a steamy, romantic atmosphere, murky in the best way. Listen as the cycle builds up to the final L'hiver a cessé ("Winter Is Over") with its ebullient assertion that "the saddest heart must surrender to the great joy that fills the air." The performances here by Spence, accompanist Julius Drake, and the Piatti Quartet (with Tim Gibbs on double bass) are well worth seeking out. The rest of the album consists of an assortment of songs from across Fauré's decades-long career to texts of various poets; they're something of a mixed bag, but all are performed at Spence's usual high level. Hyperion's sound from St. Silas the Martyr Church is clear enough but adds none of the inwardness the songs need. Audiences responded to the great distinctiveness of the title song cycle by putting this album on classical best-seller charts in early 2025.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - PAUL VERLAINE, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Piatti Quartet, MainArtist, StringQuartet - Tim Gibbs, MainArtist, DoubleBass - Jessie Ann Richardson, Cello - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer - Michael Trainor, Violin - Emily Holland, Violin - Zahra Benyounes, Viola
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - PAUL VERLAINE, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Piatti Quartet, MainArtist, StringQuartet - Tim Gibbs, MainArtist, DoubleBass - Jessie Ann Richardson, Cello - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer - Michael Trainor, Violin - Emily Holland, Violin - Zahra Benyounes, Viola
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - PAUL VERLAINE, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Piatti Quartet, MainArtist, StringQuartet - Tim Gibbs, MainArtist, DoubleBass - Jessie Ann Richardson, Cello - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer - Michael Trainor, Violin - Emily Holland, Violin - Zahra Benyounes, Viola
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - PAUL VERLAINE, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Piatti Quartet, MainArtist, StringQuartet - Tim Gibbs, MainArtist, DoubleBass - Jessie Ann Richardson, Cello - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer - Michael Trainor, Violin - Emily Holland, Violin - Zahra Benyounes, Viola
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - PAUL VERLAINE, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Piatti Quartet, MainArtist, StringQuartet - Tim Gibbs, MainArtist, DoubleBass - Jessie Ann Richardson, Cello - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer - Michael Trainor, Violin - Emily Holland, Violin - Zahra Benyounes, Viola
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - PAUL VERLAINE, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Piatti Quartet, MainArtist, StringQuartet - Tim Gibbs, MainArtist, DoubleBass - Jessie Ann Richardson, Cello - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer - Michael Trainor, Violin - Emily Holland, Violin - Zahra Benyounes, Viola
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - PAUL VERLAINE, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Piatti Quartet, MainArtist, StringQuartet - Tim Gibbs, MainArtist, DoubleBass - Jessie Ann Richardson, Cello - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer - Michael Trainor, Violin - Emily Holland, Violin - Zahra Benyounes, Viola
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - PAUL VERLAINE, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Piatti Quartet, MainArtist, StringQuartet - Tim Gibbs, MainArtist, DoubleBass - Jessie Ann Richardson, Cello - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer - Michael Trainor, Violin - Emily Holland, Violin - Zahra Benyounes, Viola
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - PAUL VERLAINE, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Piatti Quartet, MainArtist, StringQuartet - Tim Gibbs, MainArtist, DoubleBass - Jessie Ann Richardson, Cello - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer - Michael Trainor, Violin - Emily Holland, Violin - Zahra Benyounes, Viola
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - Leconte de Lisle, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - Armand Silvestre, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - Armand Silvestre, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - PAUL VERLAINE, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - Leconte de Lisle, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - PAUL VERLAINE, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - Armand Silvestre, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Sully Prudhomme, Lyricist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer - René-François-Armand Prudhomme, Lyricist
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Charles Grandmougin, Lyricist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Charles Grandmougin, Lyricist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Charles Grandmougin, Lyricist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - Armand Silvestre, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - PAUL VERLAINE, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Simon Perry, ExecutiveProducer - Gabriel Fauré, Composer - Catulle Mendes, Lyricist - Julius Drake, Piano, MainArtist - Nicky Spence, MainArtist, TenorVocalist - Matthew Bennett, Producer - Ben Connellan, RecordingEngineer
℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
Album review
The title group of songs here is the leadoff item; it is a group of love songs that, from Fauré's perspective, was addressed to his married girlfriend of the time, Emma Bardac (the poet, Paul Verlaine, had someone else in mind, and Fauré ended up getting a taste of his own medicine when Bardac later took up with Claude Debussy). It is a remarkable group, somewhat Wagnerian, and as progressive harmonically as anything else Fauré ever wrote. In the version performed here by tenor Nicky Spence, Fauré added a string quintet to his voice-and-piano original. This is not often heard, and it has a steamy, romantic atmosphere, murky in the best way. Listen as the cycle builds up to the final L'hiver a cessé ("Winter Is Over") with its ebullient assertion that "the saddest heart must surrender to the great joy that fills the air." The performances here by Spence, accompanist Julius Drake, and the Piatti Quartet (with Tim Gibbs on double bass) are well worth seeking out. The rest of the album consists of an assortment of songs from across Fauré's decades-long career to texts of various poets; they're something of a mixed bag, but all are performed at Spence's usual high level. Hyperion's sound from St. Silas the Martyr Church is clear enough but adds none of the inwardness the songs need. Audiences responded to the great distinctiveness of the title song cycle by putting this album on classical best-seller charts in early 2025.
© James Manheim /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 23 track(s)
- Total length: 00:57:42
- 1 Digital booklet
- Main artists: Nicky Spence Julius Drake Piatti Quartet
- Composer: Gabriel Fauré
- Label: Hyperion
- Genre: Classical
© 2025 Hyperion Records Limited ℗ 2025 Hyperion Records Limited
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