On Gabriel Fauré’s birthday, I am fascinated to learn that the composer was not only hugely popular in England, having visited there many times, he was also greatly admired by Sir Edward Elgar.
Fauré was staying the month with Elgar’s friend, Frank Schuster, prior to the London premiere of Elgar’s Symphony No. 1, in 1908. Following a rehearsal, the two attended a dinner party held by Schuster in their honor.
What did the two of them talk about? Their moustaches, I hope.
On Gabriel Fauré’s birthday, I am fascinated to learn that the composer was not only hugely popular in England, having visited there many times, he was also greatly admired by Sir Edward Elgar.
Fauré was staying the month with Elgar’s friend, Frank Schuster, prior to the London premiere of Elgar’s Symphony No. 1, in 1908. Following a rehearsal, the two attended a dinner party held by Schuster in their honor.
What did the two of them talk about? Their moustaches, I hope.
On Gabriel Fauré’s birthday, I am fascinated to learn that the composer was not only hugely popular in England, having visited there many times, he was also greatly admired by Sir Edward Elgar.
Fauré was staying the month with Elgar’s friend, Frank Schuster, prior to the London premiere of Elgar’s Symphony No. 1, in 1908. Following a rehearsal, the two attended a dinner party held by Schuster in their honor.
What did the two of them talk about? Their moustaches, I hope.
On Gabriel Fauré’s birthday, I am fascinated to learn that the composer was not only hugely popular in England, having visited there many times, he was also greatly admired by Sir Edward Elgar.
Fauré was staying the month with Elgar’s friend, Frank Schuster, prior to the London premiere of Elgar’s Symphony No. 1, in 1908. Following a rehearsal, the two attended a dinner party held by Schuster in their honor.
What did the two of them talk about? Their moustaches, I hope.
Today is the anniversary of the births of two outstanding French composers: Jules Massenet (1842-1912) and Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924).
Massenet’s fluency and emotionally direct style made him the most successful French opera composer of his generation. Fauré was the more progressive of the two. He wrote meticulously-crafted music of great nuance, with a harmonic sense that seemed to yearn for the 20th century. As an administrator, he blew the dust off the Paris Conservatory and ushered in an era of unprecedented reform.
Here are two absorbing interpretations of music by these very different French masters.
Joan Sutherland sings a selection from Massenet’s medieval romance “Esclarmonde”:
Germaine Thyssens-Valentin, a Fauré pupil, plays his Nocturne No. 6 in D-flat:
Joyeux anniversaire, mes amis!
PHOTOS: Fauré (left) and Massenet en plein air
Aaron Copland (92) Beethoven (95) Composer (114) Film Music (120) Film Score (143) Film Scores (255) Halloween (94) John Williams (185) KWAX (229) Leonard Bernstein (100) Marlboro Music Festival (125) Movie Music (135) Opera (198) Philadelphia Orchestra (88) Picture Perfect (174) Princeton Symphony Orchestra (106) Radio (87) Ralph Vaughan Williams (85) Ross Amico (244) Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner (290) The Classical Network (101) The Lost Chord (268) Vaughan Williams (103) WPRB (396) WWFM (881)