Faure Fantasie

This connects nicely with my Taffanel et Gaubert post of a couple of weeks ago, as this was dedicated to Paul Taffanel, and was the piece I played in competition in High school. There are many versions of this on YouTube, but I chose the Claudio Barile version not only because of his beautiful interpretation, but for his opening remarks on the origin of the composition. The modern flute had just come into its final form in 1847, and the Fantasie in E shows off capabilities of the new instrument; It is a show piece. The Fantasie was written in close association with Taffanel as a required performance piece for his flute students, and is still a standard part of the flute repertoire today; played in competitions and recitals by amateurs and professionals alike. Mr. Barile is from Argentina, and has been Principal Flute and Soloist of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic since 1984, and a member of the Orchestra since 1974. He has held orchestral positions with the Buenos Aires Musical Ensemble, Mexico’s Orchestra of the Americas, The National Symphony of Argentina, and the Berlin Philharmonic, where he participated in the recording of the Brahms Serenata 1, Op. 11, in D Major, conducted by Claudio Abbado. His international solo performances as a member of Camerata Bariloche have included concerts in Europe and The United States, and an historic performance during the 100th anniversary celebration of New York's Carnegie Hall. Gabriel Faure was French composer born in 1845. In the rigid official musical establishment of Paris in the second half of the 19th century Gabriel Fauré won acceptance with difficulty. He was a pupil of Camille Saint-Saëns at the Ecole Niedermeyer. He became principal organist the Madeleine,among other Paris churches, but he had no teaching position at the Paris Conservatoire until 1897. There his pupils included Ravel and Enescu. He became director of the Conservatoire in 1905, after the scandal surrounding the refusal to award the Prix de Rome to Ravel, and introduced a number of necessary reforms. He retired in 1920, after which he was able to devote himself more fully again to composition, notably, a piano trio and a string quartet. He died in Paris in 1924. His position as head of the Paris Conservatoire meant he was regarded as being among the foremost musical educators of his time. Paul Taffanel died in 1908, not long after Faure became director.