1895 in Music

Music reviews for music published in 1985.

1. Gabriel Faure: “Theme et variations” in C-sharp minor, Op. 73 (7/10)

This is one of Faure’s longest works for piano, featuring 12 versions of a theme, a very common Romantic practice. (Perhaps common even in the Classical era – I don’t really know.) The theme itself feels almost martial to me but, as Copland alluded to in his assessment, with an air of tragedy.

The variations are kind of what you would expect – different tempos and approaches, some of which are pretty captivating others less so. I suspect this is a demonstration piece, basically, saying “I can do this too.”