Fauré (1845-1924), even more than Debussy and Ravel is THE French composer... His music is very expressive, but never falls into pathos, and he manages to combine power of expression with refinement and distinction, a perfect classicism with such personnal touch that he's recognizable from the first note...
People ignoring most of his music accused him sometime of writing only salon music!... that certainly wouldn't be a crime, but isn't even close to the truth, and it simply means that those which said that knew only the few pieces (not many indeed!) of this type which, at a certain time where famous in the salons, few of his hundreds of melodies where charm and delicacy could be misinterpreted as superficiality and lack of power... They forgot the sonatas for violin & piano, the ones for cello & piano, the trio, the quartets, the quintets, the operas and his so profound Requiem!
This second sonata for violin & piano, like all the works of Fauré's later period, is constructed on a very wide use of conterpoint... but at the same time is extremely impassioned... That was recorded during a concert in Bruxelles, in 1982, with at the piano, Marie-Madeleine Petit, who, at about that time was recording the integral of Messiaen's melodies with piano. She also had been the pianist in the reference recording of the « quartet for the end of time » by Messiaen (Erato).
For more music and discoveries :
www.jeanclaudeferet.net
But, unfortunately for the moment, the texts are still only in French (but music goes over that border isn't it !).