In 1846, two months before Gabriel Faure was about to celebrate his first birthday, the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax took out a patent on his new musical hybrid, the Saxophone. This was no more than an interesting chronological coincidence. However, the works which Faure went on to compose were to contain some of the most beautiful and expressive melodic material ever written, material which lends itself so well to transcription for saxophone.

During much of Faure's life, the saxophon...