Gabriel Fauré’s Pavane is one of his most popular compositions. What is less known, however, is that the premiere of this stylized dance in April 1888 was actually performed in this present version with a mixed choir rather than in the now more familiar orchestral version or instrumental arrangements. The text, in the style of Verlaine, sketches the carefree society of the Belle Époque, in particular the various flirtations and dalliances of the dancers.
Based on Fauré’s autograph score, this new Carus edition reflects the original (faster) tempo marking. Supplementing the edition of the orchestral version, Carus has published a contemporary arrangement for choir and piano four hands (Carus 10.402/10).
In the audio sample, the figure humaine kammerchor under the direction of Denis Rouger performs with Olga Wien at the piano - accompanied from the piano reduction of the orchestral version (Carus 10.402/03).
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Composer
Gabriel Fauré
| 1845-1924
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Editor
Denis Rouger
| 1961Denis Rouger grew up as the son of a family of musicians in Paris, where he learned trumpet, horn, piano and singing. He studied composition at the CNSM (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique), obtaining first prizes in harmony, fugue and counterpoint. He studied choral conducting in France and Holland at the Kurt Thomas Academy and received the Certificat d’Aptitude for vocal ensembles from the Ministry of Culture.
As “Professeur agrégé” at the University of Paris-Sorbonne he conducted the “Choeur de Paris-Sorbonne” and taught choral conducting for twenty years. From 1993 to 2003, he was choirmaster at Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral and from 2005 to 2006 at the Madeleine Church, where he received the title of “Honorary Music Director.”
He has conducted numerous professional and amateur ensembles, among others in Germany – where he was invited as a guest conductor by the Landesjugendchor Baden-Württemberg and the Balthasar Neumann Chor, as well as by radio choirs in Hamburg (NDR) and Stuttgart (SWR) –, Italy, Holland, Canada, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland (Lucerne Festival). He has also collaborated in several world premieres of contemporary works by Klaus Huber, N’guyen Thien Dao, Philippe Mazé and Yves Castagnet, among others. Denis Rouger gives master classes in choral conducting in Sweden, Bulgaria, France, Germany and Switzerland.
In April 2011, Denis Rouger was appointed Professor of Choral Conducting at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart. The Chamber Choir of the Musikhochschule, which he founded in autumn 2011, won first prize at the International Choir Competition in Mosbach (Germany) in 2014. In collaboration with Carus the choral book French Choral Music has been published as well as the debut CD of the figure humaine kammerchor, founded in 2016 by Denis Rouger.
Personal details
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Songwriter / Librettist
Robert de Montesquiou-Fezenzac
| 1855-1921
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Vocal score arranger
Kathrin Schweizer