Marriage

Donald Macleod looks into Fauré's married life and his encounters with the music of Richard Wagner.

Gabriel Fauré’s story begins during the second half of the 19th century, when the musical world was dominated by the heavily romantic voices of composers like Wagner, Brahms and Liszt. Fauré became a key protagonist in a musical revolution that opened audiences’ ears to new modes of expression - modern, refined and utterly French. As a composer, and as a teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, he left a huge legacy on the music of the 20th century. This week Donald Macleod explores some of the many turning points in Fauré’s career, and how those events affected his life and his art.

Gabriel Fauré was often asked by the megastar singer, Pauline Viardot, to turn his attention to opera, and he set off to experience the greatest operas of his day. He commented that Wagner’s music made him ‘weary with admiration’ but he never became a total devotee of the Wagner cult. In 1883, Fauré married to Marie Fremiet. Their liaison seems to have begun by Fauré pulling Marie’s name out of a hat! Their life quickly settled into a comfortable routine but it soon must have been obvious to Marie that she would have to play a subsidiary role in her husband’s world.

Gabriel Fauré and André Messager
Souvenirs de Bayreuth
Jean-Philippe Collard, piano
Bruno Rigutto, piano

Fauré
Piano Quartet No 1 in C minor, Op 15
Hermitage String Trio
Kathryn Stott, piano

Ballade in F sharp, Op 19
Kathryn Stott, piano

Les roses d’lspahan, Op 39 No 4
Olga Peretyatko, soprano
Basel Symphony Orchestra
Ivor Bolton, conductor

Produced by Luke Whitlock for BBC Wales