About Gabriel Fauré's Music

[dreamplaying]

Dear all in piano street:

The most of the time one reads the same discussion subjects about Liszt, Rachmaninoff, virtuoso pianist/composers or who is the best pianist of the world. However I very rarely read or hear something about Gabriel Fauré’s music in this forum. There is some time that I hear Faure´s music and I simply find it exquisite and the icon of what a real “musician” should become to be, not speed race champions playing Liszt or Rachmaninoff. Some days ago I heard an interview in www.radioclasssique.fr to a famous European pianist who practically stated that Fauré was the best French composer while always Debussy and Ravel were and are by far the references for French music. I assume that right here in this forum one finds a representative sample of the musical world in terms of piano students, professors, professional pianists, and so on. Please specialist on piano affairs, why do you think this composer has not been properly rated?.

[mikey6]

Coz he's bloody HARD! from my reading og him, his personality he was a very inward, and this shows in his music, there's no flashy bravura, no Wagnerian pashion - it's restrained music and hard to connect with. - maybe another reason for he public's slow response to it.
The Requiem get's performed regularly. As for his piano music, I don't know much so can't really comment.  I'm listening to his quintets at the moment, there's some great colours (Get the Domus recording - they're classics by gramophone rating) but I can't really figure them out yet.

[lamia]

It's tragic, the way Fauré has been overlooked. People often reply that his music is "difficult", but I don't find his music inaccessible in the least (for either listener or preformer), certainly not any more inaccessible than the more popular impressionists; and I consider him up there with Chopin, Debussy, & the like.

The reason I would give for his lack of popularity is simply that he was never properly championed. Scriabin, for example, was championed by none other than Horowitz, and even still he remains a bit obscure; yet the efforts of Horowitz went a long way. Fauré, on the other hand, has had smaller names promote his work, some which have not done him full justice; and he was very much ignored by the big shots: what a pity we don't have recordings by Cortot or Rubenstien of the complete Fauré Nocturnes!

On a side note, I do believe that Valdo Perlemuter was perfect in Fauré, whom he recorded much of.

His time will come. I have faith in that.

[pianistimo]

my two favorite french composers (or three?) are cecile chaminade, gabriel faure, and francis poulenc.  the reason is that i like the simple melodies and don't care about a bit more repetition in their composition.  they are each very unique composers, though.  to me, cecile is a master of the smaller forms, faure has an 'in' on the sound of a harp, and poulenc the sounds of the renaissance.

in 'the great pianists' (page 388) 'faure composed elegant piano music largely influenced by chopin and schumann, though with a great deal of harmonic and melodic ingenuity.  (it was faure's style that led to such works as falla's noches en los jardines de espana and d'indy's symphony sur un chant montagnard francais.)'

for me, saint-saens was taken a step farther (and saint-saens was faure's teacher).  the idea of building harmonies on fourths for example (instead of triads).  i'd like to analyze the 'theme and variations' of faure sometime.  i understand his ballade (for piano and orchestra) was written and dedicated to his teacher saint-saens.  the orchestra is lightly scored.  this gives the piano the harp-like softer quality that u don't always hear in other music.  to me it is distinctly french, elegant, and persuading. 

ps  how do pianos have affairs?  i'm just curious on that one?


i forgot to mention that i really like the sounds of open chords (large and widely spaced).  u have an element of harpishness there - too.

[pianistimo]

happened to find this whilst googling 'harp and faure.'  www.jeffreychappell.com/kb_faure.htm

apparently he wrote an 'impromptu for harp'  (i didn't know that) and it mentions his contributions to composition in some of his other works.  guess that his sixth impromptu op 86 is his own piano transcription of the 'impromptu for harp.' 

[lamia]

my two favorite french composers (or three?) are cecile chaminade, gabriel faure, and francis poulenc.  the reason is that i like the simple melodies and don't care about a bit more repetition in their composition.  they are each very unique composers, though.  to me, cecile is a master of the smaller forms, faure has an 'in' on the sound of a harp, and poulenc the sounds of the renaissance.

in 'the great pianists' (page 388) 'faure composed elegant piano music largely influenced by chopin and schumann, though with a great deal of harmonic and melodic ingenuity.  (it was faure's style that led to such works as falla's noches en los jardines de espana and d'indy's symphony sur un chant montagnard francais.)'

for me, saint-saens was taken a step farther (and saint-saens was faure's teacher).  the idea of building harmonies on fourths for example (instead of triads).  i'd like to analyze the 'theme and variations' of faure sometime.  i understand his ballade (for piano and orchestra) was written and dedicated to his teacher saint-saens.  the orchestra is lightly scored.  this gives the piano the harp-like softer quality that u don't always hear in other music.  to me it is distinctly french, elegant, and persuading. 

ps  how do pianos have affairs?  i'm just curious on that one?


i forgot to mention that i really like the sounds of open chords (large and widely spaced).  u have an element of harpishness there - too.

You've got good tastes! I want to look into Chaminade; I read a review of a CD of her music and I thought, That sounds like my cup of tea!

Yes, Fauré did write a very famous work for harp. You'll love it!

[franz_]

I just played 'Les Berceaux' with a singer in concert. It's a beautiful piece.

[bartolomeo_]

There is an "Elegie" of his for cello and piano that is considered part of the standard cello repertoire.  I have a book of his stuff for cello and piano, which on the whole I find hauntingly beautiful, though I've never explored his solo piano works.

[dreamplaying]

happened to find this whilst googling 'harp and faure.'  www.jeffreychappell.com/kb_faure.htm

apparently he wrote an 'impromptu for harp'  (i didn't know that) and it mentions his contributions to composition in some of his other works.  guess that his sixth impromptu op 86 is his own piano transcription of the 'impromptu for harp.' 

Thank you very much for this information. It is certainly an interesting reading about analysis of Faure's music. In fact the sixth nocturne is my favorite one.

Regards