BBC Third Programme, 4 August 1962

To many music lovers it may seem unnecessary to stress the importance of Fauré. His music is widely known, its individual character universally recognised, and yet there remains a feeling among many musicians that he has never quite achieved the recognition that is his due. It's not difficult to see the reasons for this. Towards the end of his long life – he lived to be nearly eighty – revolutionary changes began to take place leaving him apparently unaffected, other composers drawing more attention to themselves, and in addition to this it must be admitted that he was a composer of somewhat limited scope, his best works tending to be in the smaller, more intimate forms. He was to some extent eclipsed by Debussy, the originality of whose musical thinking is more obviously striking and whose output covers a wider range of feeling. But the fact remains that the more closely one examines his music the more one is brought to realise that the extreme sobriety of his manner hides a talent of a highly individual kind. There's an element of understatement in his music which has limited his public appeal, and that demands a correspondingly greater effort on the part of the listener than does music of a more extrovert character. One must remember, too, that he came to maturity at a time when Wagner had reached a position of undisputed ascendancy, and that nothing could be further from the spirit of German romanticism than is his music.