Much of this Sonata was written during the summer of 1875 --- a particularly happy year for Fauré. This happiess is reflected in the music: moreover, of his ten chamber works this is the only one in a major key.
The lukewarm or even hostile reception given to the Sonata in 1876 seems surprising to us today, when the work is so popular --- Saint-Saëns, writing in the Journal de la Musique (22nd May 1877), was almost is only defender : 'This is the music of a new champion : he is possibly the most redoubtable of them all, for he possesses not only profound musical skill but also great melodic inventivefless and a sort of unconscious naïveté which is the most irresistible of all forces. This Sonata as ever possible attraction : originality of form, skilful modulations, unusual sonorities, unexpected rhythms --- and all this is bathed in such utter charm that the mass of ordinary listeners will accept th most startingly audacious novelties as completely natural." These intelligent remarks give an admirable summary of Fauré's peculiar merits.
The "mass of ordinary listeners", however, did not agree with Saint-Saëns. Neither did the
music-publishers. Not one of them was willing to publish the Sonata. In the end Fauré had it
published by Breitkopf and Härtel in Germany, with absolutely no financial profit to himself. The
work was dedicated to Paul Viardot (son of Pauline and Brother of Marianne). It had its public
première at one of the Trocadéro Chamber Concerts on July 5th 1878, as part of the Paris
Exhibition of that year. but passed almost unnoticed. It had obviously made its appearance too
early in the history of French music - ten years before the famous Franck sonata in the same
key in fact. Since then it has thororghly made up for its early neglect.
The whole of Fauré is already present in this ardent and radiant work. Present too ---
understandably --- are other, oddly heterogeneous composers : the Romantic passion of
Schumann is there, alongside Saint-Saëns's supreme formal elegance - though in Fauré's
hands the latter gains in flexibility and in smiling geniality. The work is in the traditional four
movements, each of which is on quite a large scale.
This movement is all instinct with ,life and passion - conveyed with a warm directness in music at is more Schumannesque than anything else written by Fauré. This influence is clear as early as the initial statement of the first subject by the piano (alone), with those characterisic syncopations. This theme somewhat inclines towards C sharp minor, but the entry of the violin with a melodic consequent re-establishes the main key. The cantabile second subject modulates in rising sequences that are typically Fauréan. There is no attempt here to provide a contrast with the first subject. After this compact exposition comes a more generously-proportioned development-section, beginning with a cano.n for. both instruments - based mainly on he first theme. In a series of marvellous modulations, with an elusive rhythm of rapid staccato violin quavers (leggierissimo) , Fauré shows himself already a harmonist of genius. This passage leads to a jubilant proclamation of the (modified) second subject, and then there is a moment of calm before the recapitulation (the two instruments present the opening theme in octaves). A short coda (based on this same first subject) ends the movement.
Formal analysis: exposition - bars 1-99; development-section 100-267; recapitulation 268-384' coda 385-409.
This gentle reverie is full of serene purity. It has a rocking rhythm rather like that of a barcarolle. In structure it iS not so much a Lied in five sections (as come critics maintain): as another accomplished example of sonata-form. The first theme is presented by means of a dialogue between Violin and plano. The instruments change roles after 8 bars. This first subject, which is elegiac rather than funereal, leads on to a second thematic idea - in the key of F (the relative major) - whose emotional tension, deriving from a structure based on rising sequences, recalls the second subject of the opening Allegro. The development-section, based on the first subject, begins in A minor. Then, in a series of opulent and audacious modulations, a great climax of ardour and tormented passion is built up - ever more agitated in both feeling and note-values. The recapitulation presents the first theme (imperceptibly altered) in B flat and the second - bursting with Romantic fervour - in D major. A fine coda, full of contemplative serenity, reveals for the first time the vast horizons of the man from the Ariège who composed it.
Formal analysis : exposition - bars 1-49; development-section 50-83; recapitulation 84-115; coda 116-125.
Emile Vuillermoz compares this dazzlingly virtuoso piece, with its mischievous verve and airy agility, to "the drunken gambols. of two butterflies as they chase one another over a sunny meadow." Soaring flights from the plano are answered by violin spiccati, in a miniature whirlwind of notes. The irregular phrase-lengths add to the sense of capriciousness here. The Scherzo proper is in ternary form, with a warmly lyrical interlude in 0 flat. The Trio has a supple and Schumannesque 3/4 melody in F sharp minor, over continuing rapid semiquavers from the piano. The return of the Scherzo comes by way of a witty staccato and pizzicato transitional passage, rich In modulations, With references to the opening dialogue of the movement - slower now.
Formal analysis: Scherzo - bars 1-132; Trio 133-206; Scherzo 207-363.
Both the tempo-indication and the look of the music are deceptive : in fact the first theme is almost nonchalant in its unhurried leisureliness But things soon warm up, with a feverishly syncopated crescendo whose irresistible current carriues s us on towards the second subject. This impassioned, almost Brahmsian theme (in F sharp minor) is presented by the violin in octaves. There is even a third thematic idea, languorous, melodious, and voluptuous in the manner of Schumann. The return of the first theme leads to the development-section, which is based on it --- though rhythmic contrast is privided by episodes by 2/4, first on the violin (in the key of the Neapolitan sixth, B flat). and then on the plano, In the recapitulation the first subject is in C major and the second In A minor --- an admirable stroke of logic, for the first subject can then revert to the main key (A major) In the coda. This transition is brought off with consummate ease and naturalness, and the ending --- brilliant but not showy, vigorous without over-insistence --- reveals a Fauré who is an aristocrat among classical artists. This sonata, though it does not have quite the profoundity or intensity of the mature works, derives it abiding charm from it youthfullness of spirit, Fauré wrote it at thirty, and it is fur of the intoxication of young love.
Formal analysis: e posijon - bars 1-124; development-section 125-208; recapitulation 209-328, coda 329-377
Brussels, June 1970
Harry HALBREICH
Marinkyo's School > Gabriel Fauré > Notes by Harry Halbreich > Violin Sonata No.1, Op.13
