Fauré: The Music for Cello & Piano Andreas Brantelid & Bengt Forsberg

• Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924):
• 1Romance, Op. 6903:31
• 2Papillon, Op. 7702:40
• 3Sérénade, Op. 9802:53
• 4Berceuse, Op. 16 (Arr. for Cello & Piano)03:24
• 5Cello Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 109: I. Allegro05:39
• 6Cello Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 109: II. Andante07:06
• 7Cello Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 109: III. Finale. Allegro comodo07:43
• 8Morceau de lecture (Version for 2 Cellos)00:54
• 9Dolly Suite, Op. 56: I. Berceuse. Allegretto moderato (Arr. for Cello & Piano)02:22
• 10Sicilienne, Op. 7803:35
• 11Élégie, Op. 2406:41
• 12Cello Sonata No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 117: I. Allegro06:13
• 13Cello Sonata No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 117: II. Andante07:05
• 14Cello Sonata No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 117: III. Allegro vivo04:39
• 15Andante for Cello & Organ (Early Version of Romance, Op. 69) [Version for Cello & Harmonium]03:59
• Total Runtime01:08:24

Info for Fauré: The Music for Cello & Piano

Gabriel Fauré cannot be regarded as a precocious composer: by the age of thirty he had hardly composed anything except songs and a few short piano pieces. There was nothing to indicate that he would go on to produce a body of chamber music unequalled among his peers. He wrote: ‘For me art, especially music, consists of elevating ourselves as far as possible above the everyday’ (letter to his son, 31st August 1908), and had little time for programme music, picturesque elements (no Hispanicisms here), evocations and ‘local colour’, distrusting brilliant colours and excessively subtle sound combinations. He wrote little orchestral music, finding instead songs and chamber music to be the ideal vehicle for ‘expressing the unsayable’ (Jean-Michel Nectoux), for the ‘delightful ambiguity’ and ‘the exquisite and deceptive mirage of a moment’ (Vladimir Jankélévitch).

This recording contains all of Fauré’s music for cello and piano, covering different phases of his career, from his so-called ‘salon’ period (the Berceuse) up until his later period (the Sonatas) when, suffering from deafness, he relinquished the charm that had hitherto characterized his music, developing a pared-down, even ascetic style, reduced to the bare essentials.

Andreas Brantelid, cello
Bengt Forsberg, piano

Andreas Brantelid
was born in Copenhagen in 1987 to Swedish/Danish parents. He made his concert debut at the age of 14 with the Royal Danish Orchestra playing the Elgar Cello Concerto. Since then he has appeared as a soloist with all the major orchestras in Scandinavia.

Highlights in season 2015/16 include his debut with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony as well as re-invitations to the DR National Symphony, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Helsingborg Symphony and Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra. In July 2016 he will be on tour with Veronika Eberle (violin) and Shai Wosner (piano) and perform in Bad Kissingen, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Frederiksvaerk Festival among others. In addition he will give recitals at the Bergen Festival, at the Uppsala Congress Center as well as at the Philharmonie Cologne. In following seasons he will be on tour with the London Symphony Orchestra in China, return to the Iceland Symphony and give his debut with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart SWR.

Last season he made his debut with the London Philharmonic and MDR Leipzig Orchestras as well as returned to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He also made his debut in Japan, performing with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. In earlier seasons Andreas worked with the Seattle and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras and also performed at the Konzerthaus in Vienna with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra. Other concerto performances have included debuts with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with the Tonhalle Zürich, Vienna Symphony, Brussels Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, and Munich and Scottish Chamber Orchestras. He has worked with many distinguished conductors including Vasily Petrenko, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Thomas Dausgaard, Philippe Herreweghe, Andrew Manze, Andris Nelsons, Jonathan Nott, Sakari Oramo, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, and Robin Ticciati.

Andreas’ recent recital and chamber appearances included Seoul, Berlin, Paris, Dresden and the Dortmund Konzerthaus, where he has been a ‘Junge Wilde’ artist. He has previously performed in New York (Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully), London (Wigmore Hall), Chicago, Zurich, Vancouver, Barcelona and Salzburg. In the 2008/09 season he was nominated by the European Concert Hall Organization for their ‘Rising Star’ recital series. Andreas very much enjoys collaborating with other musicians and has played at many important festivals including Jerusalem, Schleswig-Holstein, Bergen, Lockenhaus, Kuhmo, Verbier, and the City of London.

His debut concerto disc of the Tchaikovsky, Schumann and Saint-Saëns Cello Concertos with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra was released by EMI in 2008. This was followed by a disc of chamber music by Chopin including his cello sonata (2010) and an Encore disc (2012). A disc of complete works for cello and piano by Grieg was released by BIS in March 2015. In 2014, Andreas Brantelid was appointed adjunct professor at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus.

Andreas won 1st Prize in the Eurovision Young Musicians Competition (2006) and the Paulo International Cello Competition (2007). He was a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship winner in 2008. He was also recently a member of the Lincoln Centre Chamber Music Society in New York and the BBC’s New Generation Artist scheme. He studied with Mats Rondin, Torleif Thedéen and Frans Helmersson. Andreas plays the ‘Boni-Hegar’ Stradivarius from 1707, kindly lent to him by the Norwegian Art Collector Christen Sveaas.

Bengt Forsberg
Although he often appears as soloist with major symphony orchestras in Sweden and Scandinavia, much of his renown is focused on his work as a chamber musician, both in Sweden and abroad – as soloist as well as together with other prominent instrumentalists, such as cellist Mats Lidström (with whom he has made several recordings for Hyperion) and violinist Nils-Erik Sparf.

His collaboration with mezzo soprano Anne Sofie von Otter has been particularly successful and they regularly perform all over the world. They have also made many joint recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, which have received great international acclaim.

Mr. Forsberg´s repertoire is exceptonally wide and he has become particularly renowned for playing unknown music by well-known composers as well as for exploring lesser-known and unjustly neglected composers, such as Medtner, Korngold, Alkan, Chabrier and Sorabji. He is also the music director of a Chamber Music Series and Festival in Stockholm.

Booklet for Fauré: The Music for Cello & Piano