Gabriel Fauré

The role of Sadko today is being played by Roman Gabriel. Scooter the Wonder Dog will be played by Gabriel Gonzaga.  The role of the Bobsie Twins is being played by Gabriel and  Labial Lipgloss. The role of Ken Moss is being played by Gabriel Landeskog. The role of Brian Carpenter is being played by Gabriel Iglesias.   In the third half of the program, the role of Lenny the Listener will  be played by Gabriel Olds.
Gabriel Urbain Fauré  (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many twentieth-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, nocturnes for piano and the songs "Après un rêve" and "Clair de lune". Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a harmonically and melodically much more complex style.
Fauré, Gabriel, 1845-1924. Fantasie for piano and orchestra, op.111. London,[1974] Alicia de Larrocha, piano; London Philharmonic Orchestra; Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor.

Fauré, Gabriel, 1845-1924.  Cinq mélodies de Venise, op. 58.  Philips.   Cover title: Mandoline and other songs.  Souzay, Gérard, 1918-2004. baritone   Baldwin, Dalton. piano

Fauré, Gabriel, 1845-1924.  Piano quartet in G minor, op.45.  RCA Victor [1964]   For violin, viola, violoncello, and piano.   Festival Quartet. Nikolai Graudan, cello; Szymon Goldberg, violin; Victor Babin, piano;  William Primrose, viola

The complete songs of Gabriel Fauré. Westminster, [1956]   Renée Doria, Berthe Monmart, sopranos; Jacques Dutey, Pierre Mollet, baritones; Paul Derenne, tenor; Simone Gouat, Tasso Janopoulo, Harry Cox, piano.


In 1920, at the age of 75, Fauré retired from the Conservatoire because of his increasing deafness and frailty. In that year he received the Grand-Croix of the Légion d'honneur, an honour rare for a musician. In 1922 the president of the republic, Alexandre Millerand, led a public tribute to Fauré, a national hommage, described in The Musical Times as "a splendid celebration at the Sorbonne, in which the most illustrious French artists participated, [which] brought him great joy. It was a poignant spectacle, indeed: that of a man present at a concert of his own works and able to hear not a single note. He sat gazing before him pensively, and, in spite of everything, grateful and content."
Fauré suffered from poor health in his later years, brought on in part by heavy smoking. Despite this, he remained available to young composers, including members of Les Six, most of whom were devoted to him. Nectoux writes, "In old age he attained a kind of serenity, without losing any of his remarkable spiritual vitality, but rather removed from the sensualism and the passion of the works he wrote between 1875 and 1895."

In his last months, Fauré struggled to complete a string quartet. Twenty years earlier he had been the dedicatee of Ravel's String Quartet. Ravel and others urged Fauré to compose one of his own. He refused for many years, on the grounds that it was too difficult. When he finally decided to write it, he did so in trepidation, telling his wife, "I've started a Quartet for strings, without piano. This is a genre which Beethoven in particular made famous, and causes all those who are not Beethoven to be terrified of it."  He worked on the piece for a year, finishing it on 11 September 1924, less than two months before he died, working long hours towards the end to complete it.  The quartet was premiered after his death;  he declined an offer to have it performed privately for him in his last days, as his hearing had deteriorated to the point where musical sounds were horribly distorted in his ear.

Fauré died in Paris from pneumonia on 4 November 1924 at the age of 79. He was given a state funeral at the Église de la Madeleine and is buried in the Passy Cemetery in Paris.