From listening to different orchestras play this piece, I've always had the impression that this Pavane was loaded, solemn, and beautiful in a haunting way. This version gives me a different feeling, however -- the rhythm lilts and the phrase sounds more uplifting. The music just sweeps, rather than moving in a heavy, tearful way.... if you know what I mean. It shows a charming side of Faure, and I love it. Simply beautiful!
That is a great comment, and I've found this to be generally the case for compositions that are loaded and heavy in feeling, the posterity tends to overfocus and the interprets overdo the melodramatic aspect when the composer original recording is much lighter hearted. Examples of this are Ravel Pavane pour une infante defunte, Ravel le Gibet. Others like Chopin we obviously do not have Chopin's playing but many written accounts that he found interpretation of his pieces by others to deviate to much from a more reserved style that he favored. This is written down. Also he once stopped a student's playing that was too indulging in the melancholy by saying "Please sit down [your emotions] !". Also Liszt was a great witness of Chopin's playing, he used the word "poetic" which is an expressive word not a emotional word. I am quite sure Chopin would be scandalized and probably uncomfortable with how his pieces are played with full blown dramatic effects these days with the ton of volume modern piano are capable of. I'm sure his playing must have made them sound more poetic and expressive than tragic and having played a 1845 Pleyel myself, i have an idea how it would have sounded. Generally speaking composers would play the piano in much more poetic and expressive way that has been lost. While today's interprets play without reserve and do not dare to shade to much lest they feel they would be accused of underplaying the musical content. Only the composer has no worry for that and will play the piece as intended.
@@ericastier1646 Chopin and Rachmaninov are lucky that the sentimental playing style of today "works" for their music. There's many great composers - Grieg, Scriabin, Mendelssohn, Ravel, etc. - where the modern, sentimental style of playing simply doesn't work for their pieces at all. What's worse, is that many write them off as 'bad composers' after hearing such attempts. I think modern pianists need to sit down their emotions, study the 19th century performance practice, so we can get to the true sentiment of classical music.
@@TheLifeisgood72 great comment ! society has changed (i first wrote evolved) and not for the better in the loss of morality, good manners, courtesy and the loss of appreciation for virtue, instead replaced by self righteousness and self entitlement much of it caused by a degenerated media class of people and a fraudulent currency economy system that made people give up on meritocracy. Upside down meaning of words and so on. All of this does not give young performer the expressive and poetic background for art. Instead contemporary art punishes today's society. Each era gets the art it deserves. The good pianists come from preserved family sometimes poor who were less exposed to commercialism, consumerism and degenerated media ideas. It's why the interpretation of fine romantic composers such as the one you listed like Scriabin notably is perturbated and makes no sense.
The conductor Sir Adrian Boult had more to say about this piece's mood and tempo. When he was young he heard Fauré play the piece several times, and reported that it was 'never slower than quarter-note = 100' (the Welte roll supports that), with no slowing at all at the end. Boult also noted what the words were about (something of a spoof) and that the piece is a dance. You'll find more detail in various Peters editions of the Pavane, and in a book of mine, 'The Art of French piano music: Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, Chabrier' (Yale UP, 2009).
The picture of G. Faure in this video is him seated at likely his Erard French grand piano. Erard pianos are some of the greatest pianos ever built in history. In some cases exceeding the quality and craftsmanship of Steinway, Bosendorfer, Bechstein, and Bluthner. Each Erard grand piano was painstakingly made by hand, expertly crafted.
How heartbreaking and yet dreamy is this , what is it about France in early 1900 ? Debussy, Faure... All going against the tide and giving us beautiful music that escalates so much above just an auditory experience... I can see this music, I can feel it on me and I can breathe it in as well ❤️❤️❤️ also, this version is a little faster and chaotic and so much more passionate !!
And it's not only France at that time. German and Austrian music from the same time is also great. I love Schoenberg, and I find his music equally as beautiful and passionate as French Impressionism.
If any of you are interested - fun fact: that is G. Faure seated at his very own Erard concert grand piano, which is the piano this was composed on. Arguably the greatest influencer and builder of fine pianos 🎹.
it impresses me every time I hear this kind of thing. The master interpreting his own work. I can't help but imagine how wonderful it would have been to meet these musicians, handshake, hug, thank: / Sublime;;
Plato, reading the Republic, soon on RU-vid. (see Playlist, which includes Moses receiving the 10 Commandments directly from God, Krishna speaking to Arjuna, and Jesus giving the Sermon on the Mount!
There is actually a "recording" of a Haydn. It's a programmed organ clock, but witnesses say Haydn was in the room while it was programmed, and made sure the tempo and everything was the way he wanted. So, a little time machine
Ciao David Hardy , I agree with you 100% on what you've said about this beautiful piece , but as an Italian I'd like to correct you on a small detail " Bravo " Is for men " Brava " Is for women So you should say : " Bravo Maestro " and in case Faure was a woman, (which I highly doubt 😝) : " Brava Maestra " Keep listening to wonderful music and have a nice day 😉
It is, isn't it? And just think, David, if not for the agency of The Welte-Mignon - NO experiential per se Faure!!! Just common silence as say with Joseffy, who committed tangibly NOTHING of his own to preservation for posterity, save for his tantalizing image and old written/witnessed accounts of what his Art is proposed to have been like. Not good enough! Just with this present case of Faure's, hearing is at least semi-believing/experiencing; mere words obviously failing as insufficient, in the important regard. . : .
we are so fortunate there is such a thing as the invention as the Piano rolls, Percy Grainger often recored his compositions as well as arrangements on piano rolls - luckily we have them today to here how the composers interpreted them best
Thanks much for stating that opinion, timothyj1966. Sadly and still, some take PRIDE in Reproducing Record-Roll prejudice (essentially a prideful bigotry) but, their numbers are thankfully receding into 'correct' silence, as these note-roll records' inimitable value and capacity to - "... bring 'em back ALIVE!" - become more self-evident such as here, with this lovely Fauré item now before us. As musically-fine and communicative at it is tho, there are yet LAYERS of subtlety not-yet-realized within this interpretation of the master Faurés. (Best believe it.) . : .
What the composer thought, what the composer wrote, offered to artists for interpretation then the composer renders is a trip through the meaning of existence. T.M. Shorewick
Oh, wow! It's so beautiful when it's coming from his hands. I usually hear slowed down, more lilting versions of it (something I often prefer) but I really like it better at this pace.
Dear Rebecca, not "hands" but rather, felt-tipped wooden fingers as set to the service of recrystallized Art. I ask: who could have thought that intellect might produce ('reproduce' rigorously) Living Art from otherwise dead materials??? Your musical observations are both perceptive and useful. Thank you. . : .
Faure died in 1924, and the fidelity of this recording is far above anything that could have been recorded in 1913. This video is not an actual audio recording of Faure himself playing live. Rather, Faure made a few piano rolls for the Welte Mignon reproducing piano (aka player piano); what we are hearing here is a relatively recent modern recording of the reproducing piano.
Yo llevo con ella un año y aun no la domino, pero sigo con mucha moral 😜, me parece una pieza maravillosa y aunque tarde mil años la tocaré 🤯🤓. Gracias Faure.
While I hear that, to me it sounds more like a 1980s new age or "new romantic" piece with a rock influence. I am not putting it down at all because I think those genres have also brought us some great music. I just think it's absolutely wild that it sounds 100 years ahead of its time!
Il faut vraiment observer la manière d'articuler et de "rouler" les accords : aujourd'hui on "tape" directement, alors on arpégeait et de cette façon on pouvait avoir un accent personnel. Aujourd'hui c'est la technique et la seule vitesse qui compte. Une autre pianiste de la même époque, élève de Liszt, Théresa Carrègno a laissé des enregistrements de Liszt qui laissent pantois…
@@jrk9357 Le RESPECT ... là est tout le problème! le génie et l'art n'existeraient pas s'il n'y avait que le respect : dans sa 1ère fugue du 1er livre du clavier bien tempéré, alors QU'IL SAVAIT QUE L'ON RÉSERVE LES STRETTES POUR LA FIN DE LA FUGUE, se met, dès la fin de l'exposition, à ne faire QUE des strettes .... on aurait du certainement le faire quitter les cours de contrepoint pour cette incartade!
Esta pieza me conmueve hasta las lágrimas. Es tan expresiva, tan extasiante. Y escucharla con su autor es otra experiencia. El tempo en grabaciones de piano y orquesta es mucho más lento. Aquí suena más vivaz, aunque no pierde su carácter melancólico.
It's not "fake", it's a relatively recent recording of a reproducing piano equipped with the Welte system, playing back his piano roll. Welte did offer the system to the general public, and in the early 20th century, a reproducing piano was considered the ultimate "hi fi" way of hearing piano music, since the dynamics are encoded in the rolls, and reproduced by the player system automatically... it doesn't just "grind it out". Also, Welte rolls had some of the finest "granularity" in the industry. This is a music roll-arranging term referring to the possible number of different perforator punch rows or "steps" per inch (or foot) of paper. A coarse granularity (relatively few steps per foot) means that either only crude and very simplified rhythms can be reproduced at normal paper speeds, or that the paper has to be played at a fast speed (wasting lots of paper) to get reasonably-realistic sounding rhythms. But a fine granularity means many steps / punch rows are crammed in per foot of paper, and thus slower paper speeds / less wasted paper are needed to still get realistic-sounding rhythms. It's sort of an old-school equivalent to "clock rate", to do with quantizing musical rhythms. Welte was so good for their day... listen to the way Faure hangs back and "sings" the melody with his right hand, like a singer, slightly out-of-tempo, against the steady left hand. That was the romantic way!
他で聞いていたものの方が平板で、こちらの方がややテンポが速く、変化に富んでいて弾いている人の感情が見えるように思える。こちらの方が生きている感じがして、他の方がまるでロボット演奏のように思えてくる。I think this playing is a little faster, and richer in variety than other playings. I feel the composer-player's emotion more vividly, while other playings seem as if played by a robot.
Some of that has to do with how well-restored and well-regulated the reproducing piano system is. If the expression system is either not functioning, is functioning poorly, ir somehow the roll is at the wrong paper speed, the expression will not sound realistic and sound "off". The Welte-Mignon system, introduced in 1904, uses a very simple expression system with a suction regulator for each half of the piano (bass and treble), so each half can be separately subdued to ideally separate accompaniment and melody as much as possible. The level of each regulator is set by going up or down in fixed speed fast or slow crescendos or decrescendos. There is also a device called a "mezzo-forte hook" which can be engaged to restrict the regulator to either the softer or louder end of the dynamics, as desired. The roll arrangers (musicians) who translated the artists' captured dynamics into coding for the system, quickly discovered "tricks" in coding like turning on a slow crescendo or decrescendo, and pulsing the fast crescendo or decrescendo in controlled/timed bursts to correspond with the intended result, until the right general dynamic levels are heard at the right time in the music. I can only imagine the trial and error they had to use to arrive at these various styles of coding. Since each crescendo/descrescendo (slow and fast) has a fixed rate at which it occurs, the roll paper speed must be perfect, and the technician has to make sure these speeds are correct by timing them with a test roll and a stopwatch. If the roll is played at the wrong paper speed, not only will the tempo not be what the artist originally played, but also the expression will be wrong too! (since the fixed speed crescendos etc will be starting and ending at the wrong places in the music). So the original Welte-Mignon system, the German version and also the earlier American version (installed only in Steinway, Mason & Hamlin, and Krakuer pianos here, I think until around 1916) have a FIXED roll paper speed, to ensure no monkey business about tempo or expression! However when a USA version called the "Welte-Licensee" was introduced later, it plays a roll compatible with the standard 88-note format, so they had to include a tempo lever etc to set proper tempos when playing regular 88-note piano rolls on them. But when playing a Welte roll, one always must set it at the tempo indicated on the roll for best results!
is there anyone who owns some copy of the original piano solo sheet music composed by Fauré himself? I don't mean any transcriptions that are available
I am also curious exactly whose piano was recorded for this, what year, who were the piano technicians, what record label is it on, etc. It sounds like they got everything exactly right in this recording.
con tutta la valanga di versioni che ne son venute dopo questa fa capire finalmente cosa voleva comunicare! (cioè questa è top le altre sono un passo indietro, non è banale questa cosa, soprattutto nella musica moderna , visto l'ignoranza musicale, ci sono molti pezzi in seguito migliorati di molto nelle versioni seguenti)
I will pretend to be one of the 13 people who thumb downed this video. "Who wants to hear a man born in 1845, playing one of his own compositions on the piano? NOT ME!"
@@LOBonnevie I was being facetious. . .I said I was going to PRETEND to be someone who gave this video a thumbs down, because UN facetiously, I can't imagine ANY REASON to give Gabriel Faure a thumbs down, so I had to imagine myself inside the twisted mind of a person who would. .
How often does it happen nowadays that you go to a classical music recital to hear a composer play his own music? A performer performing his or her own compositions? Doesn’t Hamelin compose his own music himself? Because I think most people don’t give much of a shit and just expect him to play Liszt or Alkan or whatever else.
It's a technically challenging piece and despite moving his fingers fast enough, his makes it sound like he was playing with his feet on a saloon piano. Fantastic composition though.
