Concerts and lectures explain to the public the long wave of a composer who was destined to influence generations of artists after him, to come down to us.
For the one hundred years since his death, Gabriel Fauré will be celebrated at Palazzetto Bru Zane with seven concerts and a conference over the March 23—May 23 period. Fauré is a composer standing at the antipodes of conventions, all the while mentoring a whole new generation of musicians. In the early 1900s, Fauré took it upon himself to step a way from musical Romanticism and create a more serene environment. At the time, the French musical world was deeply divided. Fouré didn’t study at the Paris Conservatory. A pupil of Saint-Saëns’ at the Niedermeyer School, he soon developed an interest in avant-garde concerts. Back in the nineteenth century, the CV of a French composer was quite a regular affair: the Paris Conservatory, the Prix de Rome for musical composition, and a keen interest in opera. The industry’s highest honours were reserved only to those who kept true to that very specific path. Gabriel Fauré was the first to attain the same via a totally different route.
As a child, he was sent to learn music at the school founded by Louis Niedermeyer, who taught him composition. Other teachers were Clément Loret (organ) and Camille Saint-Saëns (piano). While his education comprised both old and modern music, his teachers thought of him as a church music composer-to-be. Fauré did, in fact, work as a choirmaster and organist, but in the Parisian salons, he showed a different version of himself. After securing the favour of wealthy sponsor, he found in French aristocracy a space to express freely, a space that was perfect for his sense of music, close to French mélodie. Fauré authored 111 mélodies. In the early 1900s, Fauré is consecrated in the French music Gotha. After paying his dues to the world of opera with Prométhée and Pénélope, Fauré was made director of the Paris Conservatory (1905) and member of the Institut de France (1909). His latest years might seem a concession to Academia, but it is proved that Gabriel Fauré kept being mentoring his students towards more and more modern forms of music.
