Review: Erato's Vintage Fauré Collection--An Excellent Bargain

This attractively priced 12-CD box contains familiar and mostly excellent performances of Fauré's complete piano, chamber, and orchestral works, plus choral favorites such as the Requiem and the Cantique de Jean Racine. Jean-Philippe Collard is the featured pianist, while the orchestral stuff goes to Michel Plasson and his Toulouse forces. Start with the haunting barcarolles for solo piano, then move on to the gorgeous piano quartets and quintets. As a starter collection and introduction to this most fastidious, quietly adventurous composer, you really can't go wrong.