Wikipedia:Today's featured article/November 4, 2012

Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. His music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. He trained as an organist and choirmaster in Paris, where his teachers included Camille Saint-Saëns, who became a lifelong friend. In later life, when he was organist of the Église de la Madeleine and director of the Paris Conservatoire, he retreated to the countryside in his summer holidays to concentrate on composing. By his last years, Fauré was recognised in France as the leading French composer of his day. Outside France, his music took decades to become widely accepted, except in Britain, where he had many admirers during his lifetime. His best-known works include Pavane, Requiem, nocturnes for piano, and the songs "Après un rêve" and "Clair de lune". Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his greatest works in his later years, in a harmonically and melodically much more complex style. (Full article...)

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