Faur: Romance sans paroles Op. 17, No. 3 // Christine Croshaw

Fauré wrote these three “songs without words“ while still a student at the École Niedermeyer, in about 1863. They were not published until 1880, but they then became some of his most popular works. Copland considered them immature pieces, which “should be relegated to the indiscretions every young composer commits.“ Later critics have taken a less severe view; Morrison describes the Romances as “an affectionate and very Gallic tribute to Mendelssohn's urbanity, agitation and ease.“ The commentator Keith Anderson writes that although they were a popular French counterpart to Mendelssohn's Songs without Words, Fauré's own voice is already recognisable. Instead of placing the slowest piece in the middle of the set and ending with the lively A minor piece, Fauré, already with musical views of his own, switches the expected order, and the set ends pianissimo, fading to nothing. Wikipedia: %