Improvisation in C sharp minor, Op.84, No.5

Fauré’s Op.84 is a collection of eight little pieces which were written at various times between 1869 and 1902 and which the composer considered too slight to warrant separate publication. The first and fifth of them, for example, a so-called Capriccio in E flat major and a so-called Improvisation in C sharp minor - the titles were supplied their publisher in spite of Fauré’s protestations - were written for sight-reading tests at the Paris Conservatoire. The C sharp minor piece was written in 1901, when the competing students had the good fortune to find themselves confronted by a tiny masterpiece with a poetic beginning, a surprisingly passionate development and a fragrantly delicate ending.