Dumont now brings his polished technique and refined musicianship to bear on music less frequently encountered in the concert hall but no less sophisticated, and often imbued with the most profound melancholy, the Nocturnes of Fauré. A previous set of the Chopin nocturnes also won golden opinions for Dumont’s exquisite touch – the French high-fidelity magazine On-Top Audio rated it among the finest cycles on record – but Fauré’s universe is, if anything, even more private, more overtly expressive than Ravel’s watchmaker delight in textures, yet flowing with undercurrents of troubled modernity.
François Dumont plays a magnificent Gaveau piano from 1922. He recorded for Piano Classics the Complete Piano Works by Ravel and a CD with Wagner/Liszt transcriptions.
