Élégie, op. 24

Fauré composed the Élégie in 1880 as the slow movement of a cello sonata he never finished. Its first public performance was given in December 1883 at the Société Nationale de Musique by Jules Loeb, with the composer at the piano, and the piece was published with a dedication to Loeb. Fauré orchestrated the accompaniment in 1895, for a performance by Pablo Casals. The single melodic idea returns after a more agitated central section, and the work has stayed in the cello repertoire as one of the few short pieces of its period still played unaltered.