Make Music Part of Your Life series: Gabriel Fauré – Élégie pour violoncelle et piano – Germaine Thyssens Valentin & Robert Salles

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Gabriel Fauré – Élégie pour violoncelle et piano
– Germaine Thyssens Valentin & Robert Salles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

Fauré in early middle age

The Élégie (Elegy), Op. 24, was written by the French composer Gabriel Fauré in 1880, and first published and performed in public in 1883. Originally for cello and piano, the piece was later orchestrated by Fauré. The work, in C minor, features a sad and sombre opening and climaxes with an intense, fast-paced central section, before the return of the elegiac opening theme.

Composition

In 1880, having completed his First Piano Quartet, Fauré began work on a cello sonata. It was his frequent practice to compose the slow movement of a work first, and he did so for the new sonata.^[1] The completed movement was probably premiered at the salon of Camille Saint-Saëns in June 1880. The movement, like the quartet, is in the key of C minor. Whether the rest of the sonata would have been in that key is unknown: Fauré never completed it, and in January 1883 the slow movement was published as a stand-alone piece under the title Élégie.^[1]

Jules Loeb, dedicatee and cellist at the premiere

Pablo Casals, who premiered the orchestral version

The first performance of the work under its new title was given at the Société Nationale de Musique in December 1883 by the composer and the cellist Jules Loeb to whom the piece is dedicated.^{[2][n 1]} The Élégie was a great success from the outset,^[1] and the conductor Édouard Colonne asked Fauré for a version for cello and orchestra. Fauré agreed, and that version was premiered at the Société Nationale in April 1901, with Pablo Casals as soloist and the composer as conductor.^[2

Related articles

• Elegie
• November 24 – Faure’s Pavane, Rutles
• All Fauré
• Classical music: The annual National Summer Cello Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music will hold a FREE memorial concert for Janos Starker this Sunday, June 9, at 8 p.m.
• The Fauré Project

MAKE MUSIC PART OF YOUR LIFE: Gabriel Fauré – Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15

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Published on Jan 21, 2013

Gabriel Fauré – Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15

Antoine Tamestit, viola / Trio Wanderer:
Raphaël Pidoux, violoncello
Vincent Coq, piano
Jean-Marc Phillips-Varjabédian, violin 

1. Allegro molto moderato 
2. Scherzo. Allegro vivo 
3. Adagio 
4. Finale. Allegro molto

Gabriel Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 1, in C minor, Op. 15 is one of two chamber works written by him for the conventional piano quartet combination of piano, violin, viola and cello. Despite being in a minor key it is predominantly positive in tone, though with some hints in the slow movement of the emotional turmoil of Fauré’s life at the time of the composition.

In 1877, after wooing her for five years, Fauré had finally become engaged to Marieanne Viardot, daughter of the well-known singer Pauline Viardot. The engagement lasted for less than four months, and Marieanne broke it off, to Fauré’s considerable distress. It was in the later stages of their relationship that he began work on the quartet, in the summer of 1876. He completed it in 1879, and revised it in 1883, completely rewriting the finale. The first performance of the original version was given on 14 February 1880. In a study dated 2008, Kathryn Koscho notes that the original finale has not survived, and is believed to have been destroyed by Fauré in his last day

Fauré in 1875

Related articles

• Gabriel Faure and the Dolly Suite
• Review: French music played with verve by German trio
• Gabriel Fauré – 4, review
• Gabriel Fauré – Pavane in F-sharp minor, Op. 50.

Gabriel Fauré, ballade for piano and orchestra, op. 19, Vasso Devetzi, Serge Baudo

No, this is not about Paris. I was floating in memories letting them carry me away. Doing some resetting too.

The first symphonic work by G. Fauré (1845-1924), the great master of french song, had its première in 1881. It was composed earlier when the composer broke his affair with Marianne Viardot (yes, Pauline´s daughter). When Liszt played the work in a friendly meeting with Fauré, arranged by Saint Saens in Weimar in 1877, he said ´´this is too difficult“, leaving the scholars ever since aghast. Some of them claim that Liszt had troubles of vision at that time.

Vasso Devetzi, greek pianist, Thessaloniki, September the 9th, 1927- Paris, November the 1st, 1987. An ambitious artist who defined herself in her cv through her friendships. So, friend of the composer Mikis Theodorakis and late friend of Maria Callas. In the 50´s she moved to Paris. She became friend with Marguerite Long, Henri Sauguet, René Dumesnil, Bernard Gavoty, Claude Rostand, Jacques Fevrier, Jean Roire. . . It is said that M. Long gave the score of this ballade to Devetzi. In the 1960’s and 1970’s she lived long periods in Soviet Union. Soprano Galina Vishnevskaja and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich were her good friends, and she often accompanied them. During her last years she was the president of the Maria Callas Foundation, which provided international scholarships for young singers. She organized the ceremony of spreading Callas´s ashes in the Aegean sea. Greek people, regretfully, rarely talk about Devetzi.

The ballade was recorded in 1963 in Salle Wagram in Paris. An excellent result in my opinion. Serge Baudo conducts Devetzi and the Orchestre de la Socièté des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris, long and dull name for the ancestor of the Orchestre de Paris. Chant du Monde, France. 

 

Fauré – Volondat/DE Hooge – Masques et bergamasques, Op 112

0:00 : Ouverture
3:25 : menuet 
5:51 : gavotte 
9:05 : pastorale