Masques et bergamasques, which takes its title from Verlaine's sad, mysterious poem Clair delune, is a late stage work that the composer himself described as melancholy and nostalgic, but it's hardly romantic, being instead pointedly neo-classical in character and shape. The playing here under Yan Pascal Tortelier is very satisfying, as are the elegant flute solos of the exquisitely delicate Pavane, performed here without the optional chorus, and in Dolly. The rarely heard Overture to the opera Pénélope is also effectively presented here.
The biggest concertante work here, the Ballade of 1881, is Fauré's orchestration of his piano piece of the same name; it's gentle music that persuades and cajoles in a very Gallic way.
Though not an overtly virtuoso utterance, it makes its own exacting technical demands on the soloist, among them being complete control of touch and pedalling. The highly regarded Fauréan Kathryn Stott meets these with consistent success.
There's little rhetoric and no bombast in Fauré's art, but how civilised he was, and what sympathetic interpreters serve him here! The recording is warm yet also delicate.