Fauré: The Early Salon Years
Thursday, July 18, 2:30 PM PDT
$15 – $40
Susan Waterfall will accompany mezzo-soprano Silvie Jensen in a selection of songs. She will be joined by Julian Waterfall Pollack for “The Dolly Suite.” Susan will play two of Fauré’s most famous works for piano: the Barcarolle No 12 in E-flat Major and the Nocturne No. 6 in D-flat Major. The Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 in A Major will close the concert, with Sam Weiser, violin, and Carolyn Steinbuck, piano.
- Silvie Jensen, mezzo-soprano
- Susan Waterfall, piano
- Julian Pollack, piano
- Sam Weiser, violin
- Carolyn Steinbuck, piano
2024 Featured Composer: Gabriel Fauré
For 2024, Susan Waterfall’s composer series will feature the innovative and influential Gabriel Fauré. Immerse yourself in his world and his music, and understand how his music evolved over his lifetime with narrated chamber recitals featuring exciting guest artists, and various other settings of Fauré’s work across the Festival.
Waterfall’s productions always present exciting, absorbing playing of great music, but are also rare, distinctive examples of what can be called music education, though they’re more conversational, truly a sharing of perspective, interest, anecdote. There’s a sense of immediacy to her delivery, weaving in and out of the playing, an intimately conceived present awareness of this heritage. It’s something unique that needs to be experienced.” -Ken Bullock, Berkeley Daily Planet
Music critic Alex Ross describes the music of Fauré, Proust’s favorite composer, as “a bittersweet, complicated happiness.” Gabriel Fauré’s songs and chamber music conjure the essence of Belle Epoque Paris with its unmatched assemblage of Symbolist and Impressionist artists. His music is the counterpart of gorgeous pre-Raphaelite imagery and the shapely lines of Art Nouveau. Throughout a life enriched by the salons, and by the beautiful and talented women of his era, Fauré created an intimate and subtle art, a welcome antidote to today’s world. The sensuality and elan of Fauré’s music are balanced by its purity and ineffable beauty.
Fauré wrote some of his most astonishing music in his late seventies, music strangely untouched by the Great War and its aftermath. This introspective and deeply expressive music evolved, like late Beethoven, from the isolation brought on by Fauré’s increasing deafness.
With a biographical film and three programs displaying his long and productive life you will learn all about this fascinating composer and feast in his sumptuous world. Susan Waterfall completes her exploration of the great triumvirate of composers who created the glorious efflorescence of late 19th and early 20th century French music.
Public ticket sales begin May 6, 2024.
See how you can get early access