How Composer Faure's and Pianist Long's Careers Worked Together
In the early 1900s, French virtuoso pianist Marguerite Long met the great French composer Gabriel Faure and a lifetime of musical collaboration began.
Gabriel Faure is a well known classical composer, most famous for the Faure Requiem. Less well known is the crucial role that certain performers played in his career, particularly the virtuoso pianist Marguertie Long.
In 1902, the young French pianist had already won a first prize at the Conservatory of Paris and had just begun her long concert career. That August, Long was a guest at a private concert. Although she was not on the program, she was asked to play.
After she played, a young man requested that she play something by composer Gabriel Faure. Long was embarrassed. She had heard Faure's music but had never played it. The young man seemed contemptuous of a young concert pianist that did not know Faure's works. (As awkward as this first meeting was, the young man and Long later married.)
After this embarrassment, Long became more aware of Faure's music and decided to learn the first of his Waltz-Caprices (Opus 30). She immediately fell in love with Faure's works.
Long Meets Faure
After Long had mastered the waltz-caprice, her piano teacher introduced her to Faure. Long played the piece for him, and he was so pleased that he gave her a copy of his Sixth Barcarolle. In 1903, she played the barcarolle for him. He was very pleased and helped her sharpen her performances.
During this meeting, the two became friends, and her love of Faure's music greatly increased. Long then dedicated much of her career energy to learning the difficult works of Faure and playing them in concert.
The Collaboration Between Faure and Long Begins
Faure's piano compositions quickly became the centerpieces of Long's burgeoning career. Her brilliant performances focused the attention of other pianists and the world's listening audiences on Faure's beautiful but, until then, nearly unknown piano works.
Long became a piano teacher at the Conservatory of Paris where Faure was director. She learned the difficult Ballade for piano and orchestra, which had only been performed once -- by Faure. After overcoming much resistance to a young woman playing an unknown work, she performed the Ballade at a concert of a conservative, snobbish but prestigious concert society, of which Faure was honorary president.
After the successful concert, Faure gratefully said to Long and the orchestra conductor, Georges Marty, "That is something realized for me." He had already written most of his piano works, but very few of them had been performed in concert.
A Break in the Friendship of Faure and Long
Some years after this, for reasons unknown to Long, Faure became estranged from her and her husband,. However, she continued to faithfully and lovingly play Faure's piano music whenever and wherever she could.
Faure's Late Attempt to Reconcile with Long
In 1924, Faure, on his deathbed, sent a friend to ask Long to visit him. The great composer said he wanted to die without "scratches." Long went the next day, but Faure had died early that morning. She later wrote of Faure's attempted reconciliation, "... I cannot say what it meant to me, because Faure's music was one of my reasons for living."
Sources
At the Piano with Faure, Marguerite Long, translated by Olive Senior-Ellis, Taplinger Publishing Company,
http://george-stephen-murray.suite101.com/gabriel-faure-and-marguerite-long-a52955
