Composed 1875-6); 26 minutes

Fauré composed two violin sonatas, but only a single movement survives of a planned violin concerto. 

Completed in the mid-1870s, his First Violin Sonata, was his first chamber work and remains among his most frequently performed works. At 30, Fauré had already met Liszt and, with help from friends, made the pilgrimage to Bayreuth to hear Wagner’s operas at their source. But while many contemporaries fell under Wagner’s spell, Fauré listened with discernment, absorbing only what enriched his own voice.

A new emotional voltage runs through the First Sonata, moving beyond the contained elegance of his earlier piano pieces, songs, and sacred works. It opens with a long, restrained phrase before surging into sweeping, gracefully wrought sequences that reveal the natural flow of his emerging mature style. Fauré consulted virtuoso violinist Hubert Léonard, a pupil of Vieuxtemps, to ensure the music speaks idiomatically for the violin—though some of his original ideas have since been published as alternatives.

The slow movement is all ebb and flow in an intimate, warm exchange between violin and piano. The scherzo is sparkling and light-footed, with the charm of Mendelssohn and perhaps even more wit. At its première, this radiant movement was encored on the spot. The finale picks up the emotional thread and spins it into music both passionate and clear-headed. No rhetorical gestures, no formulaic writing—just a luminous, full-hearted close. “There is no stronger work among those which have appeared in France and Germany over the past several years, and there is none with more charm,” wrote Saint-Saëns.