This year marks the centenary of the death of Gabriel Fauré, prompting, one hopes, a much wider appreciation of the French master who is still primarily remembered for his Requiem. The Canadian pianist Louis Lortie stole a march on the commemorations with this recital, a beautifully conceived programme with works by Fauré framing a series of six pieces written in tribute by pupils of his – Maurice Ravel, George Enescu, Louis Aubert, Florent Schmitt, Charles Koechlin and Paul Ladmirault – commissioned for a special edition of La Revue Musicale of 1922.
Lortie’s sympathy for the fluidity and lyricism of Fauré’s writing was immediately apparent in the 9 Préludes, Op 103, with which he began, each contrasting in texture. Their melodic lines were invested with a certain serenity, the implicit logic in the densely chromatic harmonic progressions teased out, figuration mercurial. These same qualities were manifest in the larger-scale Ballade, Op 19, with playing of great lucidity and expressiveness. Gradations of tonal colour were finely controlled, Lortie using the acoustic of the Dora Stoutzker Hall to maximum effect, allowing his sound to resonate fully but, in his unhurried way, also allowing it to decay as though gently dissolving into air.
In the culminating Thème et Variations, Op 73, Lortie conveyed the nobility of the theme and the inventiveness of the 11 variations – their cast as symphonic as Schumann’s Op 13, on which the work was modelled – with easy flair. The contemplative final utterance again indicated a composer immersed in a world of his own imagining, a feeling further reflected in Fauré’s exquisite Nocturne No 4 and the Sicilienne from Pelléas et Mélisande, given as encores.
The Pavane was Lortie’s sole familiar inclusion; overt virtuosity came in Schmitt’s Hommage, wild but playful too, and as different as could be from the ascetic fugal unfolding of Koechlin’s piece. The reverence of all six composers for their teacher was clear and mirrored in the immaculate pianism and artistry of Lortie’s approach, his advocacy of Fauré unfailingly persuasive.
• At Wigmore Hall, London, tonight.
