Fauré Centennial Festival

Although trained as a choirmaster and organist, Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) was a somewhat reluctant church musician. He left a body of sacred music that would not be too notable if it were not for the major exception of his “Requiem” (1892), perhaps his most famous work. He was a great improviser at the organ but left no works for solo organ in notation. His style in sacred vocal music often converges with his style in secular vocal music and the first half of this concert places these styles side by side. Beginning with the pastoral “Messe Basse” for women’s voices, the program includes two Latin motets before sliding into three secular duets by way of the canticle “En prière” (At Prayer), a liminal genre—half sacred, half secular.

The second half of the concert shifts to music for strings beginning with the Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso—a showstopper—by Fauré’s teacher Camille Saint-Saëns, and ending with Fauré’s mysterious, dream-like and sometimes violent Second Piano Quartet (1886).

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View the program here.