Faure's last nocturne

As mentioned before, Faure has left 13 nocturnes composed in from young days to last years in his life. It is interesting compositions of these nocturnes are scattered throughout, at least, the latter half of his life. His mind or idea in each part of his life may be incorporated into relevant nocturne composed at the time.

This 13th nocturne is the very last one. Among all his works, it is situated the last three. The rest two are his famous chamber music, Piano Trio OP120 and String Quartet op121, jewels in all chamber music history. This nocturne could be regarded as a culmination of this genre for him and also of his life of composition. It is comparable with his other last swan songs. 

In the beginning, it is a kind of elegy. The tune of the very first nocturne also sounds like an elegy. But the structure is much more complicated. A lot of dissonant chords are used and counterpoint is comprised of, which makes this music even more complicated. Not indulged in sorrow itself, Faure seemingly wanted to express bitterness in mind. Jean Michel Nectoux pointed out in his research book "Gabriel Faure 1845-1924" that he had been influenced by the disaster by WWI when he composed this piece. Faure also has lost normal hearing ability by this time. Higher range of audio sounded lower while lower range higher with his hearing. What a tragedy for a musician! It was worse than total deafness. And Faure seemed to have tendency for depression. We could hear his that inclination in various music he composed at different times. No doubt he has had that psychological burden around his very last chapter of his life. 

Honestly, his inclination toward pessimism resonates with me in the almost same age as he composed this piece. Whenever I listen to this piece played by Jean Philip Collard, I feel Faure was playing it beside me. It's a treasury experience for me.

 

By the way...the CD became to turn fast like carzy at certain point of the Nr1 nocturne. This CD is a brand new one which I recently bought. Recent CDs could have troubles from the beginning and I have almost given it up. But, when I looked up carefully the surface of the CD, I found contamination of a fingerprint on it. Maybe, I have touched it with oily thing on my fingers. Cleaning it carefully with a soft cloth, I found the trouble had gone. I knew it could happen but have never experienced such a trouble myself. I learned one more thing in my life.