It is not difficult to see why Fauré’s example was inspiring to a generation of composers who were quickly tiring of impressionism. They easily overlooked the fact that Fauré had his roots in the Romantic movement, because his was a pre-Wagnerian brand of romanticism—delicate, reserved, and aristocratic. Moreover, no matter what its derivation may have been, it possessed all the earmarks of the French temperament: harmonic sensitivity, impeccable taste, classic restraint, and a love of clear lines and well-made proportions. —Aaron Copland

Music moves me all the more when the methods used are clear, correct, precise, and even concise. —Fauré

Fauré wrote those words in 1896 at the age of fifty-one. By then he had composed a quantity of orchestral music, but there were no symphonies or concertos, and none to follow. Instead, he applied his principles of clarity, precision and concision to smaller musical forms. Composition for Fauré was primarily “for music’s sake”—the pure idea.
Fauré was the youngest of six children and a precocious talent. When he was nine, his parents sent him to the Niedermeyer school in Paris, known for its training in church music, and that training influenced Fauré throughout his career. In 1861, Saint-Saëns arrived at the school to teach piano, broadening Fauré’s outlook with music of Wagner and Liszt, and a lifelong friendship formed between them.
Fauré started his professional career as an organist but was pulled away for service in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. After returning to church music, he was deeply moved at hearing the Wagner’s Ring cycle. He managed to take the best aspects of Wagner without joining the legions of Wagner imitators of the day. In 1896, he obtained a professorship of composition at the Paris Conservatory, where his influence was felt for decades through influential students like Maurice Ravel and Nadia Boulanger. He eventually became director of the Conservatory, which proved a mixed blessing, as he found less and less time for composition. Worse yet, his hearing started to fail, forcing him to pare down his harmonic language and leaving him looking outdated and obsolete during the rush of late Impressionism and modernism that was sweeping through France.
Fauré’s Ballade for Piano and Orchestra in F-Sharp Major, op. 19 began its life in 1879 as a piece for solo piano. In 1881, Fauré adapted the piece for small orchestra, retaining the piano solo, and dedicated the piece to Saint-Saëns. The orchestrated Ballade was premiered on April 23, 1881, with Fauré at the piano. Fauré presented the Ballade to Liszt at their second meeting in Zürich in July, 1882. Reading through the piece, Liszt suddenly stopped and said, “I have no more fingers,” asking Fauré to continue and underscoring the elusive individuality of the piece. The Ballade is in three distinct but continuous sections: a wistful Andante cantabile, a more animated central section (Allegro moderato); and a joyful but delicate conclusion.