Gabriel Fauré: Fantasie Op. 79 For Flute And Piano

Fauré’s exquisite Fantaisie is one of the jewels in chamber music for which we are indebted to his time at the Paris Conservatoire. The flute professor there, Paul Taffanel, had asked his colleague for a virtuoso examination piece. Fauré presented him with the manuscript in 1898 with the explicit indication “to modify unplayable passages” before using it in the exam. As the autograph score no longer exists, we do not know what and how much Taffanel might have changed; however, the result is a brilliant recital piece.