This recital ranges through Op 51 to 87, characterised by Guy Sacre in his fine annotation as Fauré’s radiant “second style”. And once more it is difficult to resist saying that Fauré’s ultra-sensitive and personal idiom is hardly for earthbound listeners. For here is music of a harmonic and rhythmic iridescence quickly shadowed by darker imaginings. The scope, too, is remarkable from a composer too frequently characterised as limited. “Larmes” has a near-operatic declamation (where “the salt of sobs mixes with that of the swell and spindrift”) while “La rose” is magically radiant. In the inimitable “Mandoline” from the Cinq Mélodies de Venise a mischievous tripping charm “softens to paint the shimmering of silk jackets, blue shadows and the halo of a pink-grey moon”, a reminder that figures from the commedia dell’arte were central to Fauré’s fantasy. Such music requires special qualities from both singer and pianist, and while Yann Beuron and Billy Eidi hardly eclipse memories of Gérard Souzay and Dalton Baldwin (Testament, 4/04) or Hyperion’s glorious four-disc set (3, 7, 8, 12/05), their ardour and commitment are unmistakable. At once sensitive and strong they are true to a clearly beloved composer whether in the voluptuously beautiful “En sourdine” or in the heart-breaking reflection of “Prison”. All lovers of a still misunderstood composer will want to add this well-recorded album to their collection.