Fauré’s piano works are of central importance within his compositional oeuvre. He dedicated his “Ballade”, composed in 1879, to his teacher Camille Saint-Saëns. Structurally and in terms of its lyrical character the work breaks from the genre’s epic form and takes on the traits of the sonata form. In 1881 Fauré arranged his “Ballade” for piano and orchestra and the work was premiered in this new scoring.

Drawing on the most recent discoveries and comprehensive source research, the work is pre...