Marc-André Hamelin has built a rock-solid reputation by tackling and conquering some of the highest peaks of virtuosic piano literature. From Liszt to Godowsky, and Kapustin to Bolcom, he's performed and recorded them all to great critical acclaim and demonstrated as well that he can just as masterfully compose his own complex and technically demanding music with the release of his Etudes.

Which begs the question, why Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) now of all people? For one thing Fauré's piano music is full of intricate passage work and subtle modular harmonic shifts, more so within the Barcarolles, that require a perceptive musical mind like Hamelin's to uncover and convey. Unlike Erik Satie's music for example which is rather static, in typical French style Gabriel Fauré's music on the other hand is always on the move, carried forward by rhythmical dance-like impulses. Hamelin finds the melodic core within all of its impressionistic abstraction and brings it to the surface with clear elucidation.

As an added bonus this recording also contains the beautiful Dolly suite for piano four hands, performed here by Marc-André Hamelin and his wife, Cathy Fuller, who unbeknownst to me is also an accomplished musician who holds degrees in Piano Performance from the New England Conservatory. Its final movement, the lively Le pas espagnol, must have been a joy for them to explore together.