蜜芽传媒

Donald Macleod follows the dramatic thread running through Gabriel Faur茅's musical output. Today, whimsy, influenza, a close shave with bankruptcy and a late, great chamber work.

After the success of his opera P茅n茅lope, Faur茅 was keen to write another - but it was not to be. The Great War intervened and for the time being, costly new productions were out of the question. P茅n茅lope would be Faur茅's last venture onto the operatic stage, although he did at least live to see it revived, at the Op茅ra-Comique in Paris - see it rather than hear it, as by now his deafness was total, forcing him to resign his directorship of the Paris Conservatoire. There was one last commission for the stage - a rather curious one from the fairy-tale principality of Monaco, for a lavish 'divertissement' inspired by the F茅tes galantes poetry of Verlaine - Masques et bergamasques. It was a great success, underlining Faur茅's hard-won status in French artistic life - further underlined when he was made a 'Grand Officier' of the Legion of Honour, a distinction rarely accorded to musicians. On the debit side of the balance, Faur茅 became seriously ill in the flu pandemic that swept Europe after the war; and he 'caught a cold' financially speaking when the devaluation of the franc shrunk his pension. Only the help of American friends, including the painter John Singer Sargent, saved him from penury. In gratitude, Faur茅 sent Sargent the manuscript of his 2nd Piano Quintet, a magnificent flowering of the composer's final years.

Masques et bergamasques - suite Op 112
Seattle Symphony
Ludovic Morlot, conductor

Piano Quintet No 2 in C minor, Op 115
Jean-Philippe Collard, piano
Quatuor Parrenin

'Je me suis embarqu茅' (L'horizon chim茅rique, Op 118)
G茅rard Souzay, baritone
Dalton Baldwin, piano

Producer: Chris Barstow.