An Early Evening Stroll

This is the second and final part of the series about French composer Emmanuel Chabrier.

Chabrier was born in the Auvergne in 1841, and he died at the young age of 53 due to advanced-stage syphilis. Chabrier had been a lawyer at the French Ministry of Interior for 19 years before fully dedicating his life to composing.

Chabrier is now known for his orchestral pieces, especially his rhapsody ‘España’, which we will hear in this episode. He also wrote a few operas, some piano music and songs. Oddly enough, he didn’t write any symphonies, solo concertos, string quartets, or religious music.

Thanks to his limited academic knowledge about music, he was able to create his own style, independent from existing rules. Later, French composers saw him as an important innovator and someone who paved the way towards French modernism.

In this episode, we’ll mainly listen to Chabrier’s orchestral pieces, but we’ll also listen to a composition for piano four-hand.

Playlist:

1. Emmanuel Chabrier: Souvenirs de Munich, quadrille sur les themes favoris de Tristan et Isolde de Richard Wagner. Alexandre Tharaud & Aleksandar Madzar, piano
2. Emmanuel Chabrier: Overture ‘Gwendoline’. Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by John Eliot Gardiner
3. Emmanuel Chabrier: Bourrée fantasque. Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Paray
4. Emmanuel Chabrier: Fête polonaise from ‘Le roi malgré lui’. Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Paray
5. Emmanuel Chabrier: Lamento. Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Neeme Järvi
6. Emmanuel Chabrier: Overture, Entr’acte 2 and Entr’acte 3 from ‘L’étoile’. Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Neeme Järvi
7. Emmanuel Chabrier: España. Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Neeme Järvi
8. Emmanuel Chabrier: Petite valse. Alexandre Tharaud, piano