The Pro Arte Piano Quartet was made up of leading London-based\ninstrumentalists, many of whom also played in the Melos Ensemble of\nLondon. Pianist Lamar Crowson was, and remains, one of the great\nchamber music pianists of all time (and a soloist in his own\nright). Kenneth Sillito led, for several years, the Academy of St.\nMartin in the Fields. Terence Weil was principal cellist of the\nEnglish Chamber Orchestra and, like viola player Cecil Aronowitz, a\nfounding member of the Melos Ensemble. Together they made three\nrecords for L’Oiseau-Lyre, the Decca subsidiary and they are all\nnow issued on Decca Eloquence from Australia.

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A handful of works date from the last few years of Fauré’s life\nand they have been held by many commentators to be the quintessence\nnot only of Fauré’s own works but of all French music. The C minor\nPiano Quartet appeared in 1879 when Fauré was 34, and the\ninfluences of Schumann, Mendelssohn and Liszt are inevitably to be\nfound, as in all chamber works of the period. The D minor Trio\ndates from 1923, a year before Fauré’s death. He was now 78 and\ndeaf, an infirmity that accentuated the inward-looking elements\nthat had been present in his style from the beginning.

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