Fabulous Fauré at Community Music Monday March 7, 2011

Dear Musicians and Music Lovers:

The Trinity Chamber Players welcome pianist Peter Basquin for a reading of the Piano Quartet in C minor, Opus 15 by Gabriel Fauré, one of the great French composers from around the turn of the last century. Fauré’s talent was recognized when he was quite young, but thankfully he resisted the stereotype and refused to die early, racking up nearly fourscore years between 1845 and 1924.

From the age of four or five, Fauré enjoyed playing a harmonium in a chapel near his home, and by the time he was nine years old his talent had been recognized. He was sent to the École de Musique Classique et Religieuse in Paris, where he spent the next eleven years of his life. Camille Saint-Saëns became the piano teacher at the school when Fauré was 16, and they struck up a friendship that lasted until the end of Saint-Saëns’ life. Saint-Saëns introduced his students to the great contemporary composers of the time, including Wagner and Liszt.

As a young adult, Fauré made his living as a church organist and teacher, although his real passion lay with the piano and composition. He took a great interest in the music of Wagner, frequently traveling to see his operas. Despite his interest, Fauré’s music betrays little direct Wagnerian influence. He was also reported to be a great organist and improvisateur at the organ, yet curiously he wrote no music for the instrument.

During the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, Fauré volunteered for military service, and saw action in the Siege of Paris and a few other battles. This war turned out not to be another of the lovely little wars that the morally bankrupt European royalty fought with each other all too frequently. The French declared war while stubbornly embracing outmoded muzzle-loading bronze cannon, while the Prussian forces’ adoption of all-steel, breech-loading, long-range artillery pieces manufactured by Krupp gave them a deadly advantage that decimated the French ranks. We music-lovers are fortunate that Fauré emerged from the conflict unscathed.

Fauré was appointed professor of composition at the Paris Conservatory in 1896, and counted among his pupils Maurice Ravel, George Enescu, and Nadia Boulanger. He was appointed head of the conservatory in 1905. His tenure was marked by an open-minded attitude toward new music, a break with the conservatory’s conservative past (what’s in a name?).

The first piano quartet, written in 1883, sounds unmistakably French in the tradition of César Franck, yet also sounds fresh and forward-looking. It’s also ravishingly beautiful now and then, so be sure to sit next to somebody you like (we’re always trying to help).

Next, community musicians are encouraged to join us for a reading of Handel’s Concerto Grosso in A minor Opus 6 No. 4. We’ve expounded upon these pieces previously, and we still stand by everything we said. In the last movement of this concerto, Handel’s penchant for borrowing from himself is in evidence once again; a soprano aria from his opera Imeneo is employed as the theme. It’s all done with great wit and polish, so we don’t feel betrayed in the slightest.

We’ll end the evening with a reading of Beethoven’s first string trio in Eb Major, Opus 3, written in 1894, when he was 24 years old. It’s good music (it’s Beethoven, for Pete’s sake) but it is also chock full of musical ideas that he continued to develop throughout his career, and no doubt we’ll point out many of them as we go along.

So, pack up your dinner, your instrument, and/or your ears and join us for some enjoyable music-making and listening!

Let’s play!

Jim (the violist)