Fauré, Gabriel

Fauré, Gabriel – Pavane in F-sharp minor Op. 50 for orchestra with choir ad libitum

Gabriel Faure’s Pavane, together with the Sicilienne from Pelleas et Melisande, the Elegie ( op. 24), and the Requiem ( op. 48), are the most popular works that ever flowed from bis pen. By the time he wrote it in 1887 he bad emerged as one ofFrance’s leading composers. His magnificent Second Piano Quartel in G minor (op. 45), dedicated to Hans von Bülow, bad already originated in 1885-86, received its premiere in Paris on 22 January 1887 (with Faure himself at the piano), and appeared in print that same year, published by Harnelle. The Pavane was composed in Le Vesinet during the summer of 1887 for the concerts headed by the conductor of the Opera-Comique, Jules Danbe (1840-1905). In the same year Faure started work on the first version of the Requiem, completing the Introi’l et Kyrie, Pie Jesu, and In Paradisum. The Pavane bears a dedication to Countess Greffulhe (nee Elisabeth de Caraman Chinay, 1860-1952), who, as we learn from Jean-Michel Nectoux’s definitive biography Gabriel Faure: A Musical Life (Cambridge University Press, 1991), bad promised to

Full preface / Ganzes Vorwort > HERE