On 12 November the Giorgio Cini Foundation Institute of Music will host a concert to mark the eightieth birthday of Michel Faure, the celebrated French musicologist.
The concert will feature piano music performed by Nathalie Lanoë and Jean-Michel Kim. The programme consists of works by Chopin, Liszt, Bartók, the world premiere of “Three Dances” from Ottorino Respighi’s Inno omerico ad Atena, Ondulation by Eisuke Tshucidai, and Nino Rota’s Due valzer sul nome di Bach and Toccata per arpa in the composer’s own transcription for piano. Lastly, some of Faure’s pianist and violinist friends will play ad lib for the musicologist with pieces chosen from works by Schubert, Rota, Prokofiev, Pergolesi and others. A leading expert in historical and sociological studies of 20th-century French music, Michel Faure has published a number of major essays including Histoire et poétique de la mélodie française (2000); José Serebrier: un chef d’orchestre et compositeur à l’aube du XXIème siècle: propos et textes recueillis, traduits et annotés, discographie complète (2001); Influence de la société sur la musique: analyse d’æuvres musicales à la lumière des sensibilités collectives (2008); Du néoclassicisme musical dans la France du premier XXe siècle (1997); and Musique et société, du Second Empire aux années vingt: autour de Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Debussy et Ravel (1985).