Cello Sonata No. 2 (Fauré)

In early 1921 Fauré had been commissioned by the French government to write a funeral march for a ceremony to be held on 5 May at Les Invalides to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Napoleon.

[3] On 10 November Fauré wrote to his friend and benefactor Charles Martin Loeffler asking him to accept the dedication of the cello sonata, which he had completed that same day.

The critic Nicolas Southon comments that the movement "combines a simmering sensitivity with skilful canonic writing", which Fauré "seems to use just for the pleasure of it".

The critic Roger Nichols comments, "In the measured repeated chords of the accompaniment and the long majestic cello lines it looks back to the successful Élégie, now coloured with more enigmatic harmonies".

He notes that the chorale-like theme, centred on the dominant E flat, has its intensity increased when the piano repeats it and makes a sudden modulation to the distant key of B minor.

The expected return of the first theme becomes instead a contrasting section with the piano in divided octaves, and the cello in pizzicato chords and repeated notes.