Gabriel Fauré

by Jessica Duchen

"Gabriel Faure (1845-1924) is one of the best-loved French composers of his era: works such as his Requiem, Pavane, Dolly Suite and Cantique de Jean Racine are perennial favourites. At the Paris Conservatoire, Faure's composition teaching was vital to such figures as Maurice Ravel, Nadia Boulanger and Charles Koechlin; when he ultimately became the Conservatoire's director, his reforms were the most radical the institution had yet experienced." "Faure has often been thought of as a dreamy, somewhat unworldly individual; this book, however, clearly reveals his ambition and decisiveness. Born in southern France and educated at the Ecole Niedermeyer rather than the powerful Paris Conservatoire, he struggled for years to achieve recognition from France's musical establishment, which often considered him an outsider; in his personal life he also struggled - against bouts of depression, an unsatisfactory marriage and, later, devastating deafness." "Faure's life and works are explored in the