'New forms, well-chosen modulations, strange timbres, the use of wholly unexpected rhythms', this is how Camille Saint-Saëns praised the first work of a young colleague, the First Violin Sonata by Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), in the Paris Journal de Musique on 22 May 1877. He continued: 'Over it and around it hovers a charm which persuades the mass of ordinary listeners to accept the most violent novelties as being entirely natural.' Chamber music and the small forms continued to be the special fi...