Lost Faure score sells for £20,000

A previously unknown piano duet by the composer Gabriel Faure has sold at auction for £20,000.

Faure is best known for his piano duet the Dolly Suite, written 100 years ago, which was the theme tune for BBC Radio's Listen with Mother.

The recently discovered manuscript dates from around 1870, is believed to be complete and remains unpublished.

It was sold at Sotheby's auction house, in London, on Wednesday.

Sotheby's senior music manuscript specialist, Dr Simon Maguire, said: "It is extremely rare to discover an unrecorded piece of music by such an important composer, and it is particularly thrilling to reveal a duet to the public in such a polished form for the first time since it was composed over a century ago."

Faure's musical style influenced many 20th-century composers and his harmonic and melodic language affected how harmony was later taught.

An extract of the newly discovered work was performed for Radio 3's In Tune by the pianists Ashley Wass and Hamish Milne.