Henriette Faure (L) – Pierre Wissmer (R)
Another rarity from the archives of Swiss Radio this weekend.
The music of Pierre Wissmer – his piano concerto Number 2 with Henriette Faure, piano and the Radio Orchestra of Beromunster, conducted by Clemens Dahinden – the work was recorded in the studios of Radio Zurich on February 14, 1960.
Pierre Wissmer (30 October 1915 – 4 November 1992) was a 20th-century French composer of Swiss origin. Studied at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, he received the advice of Robert Casadesus before perfecting his mastery of counterpoint at the Schola Cantorum de Paris with Daniel-Lesur. He also followed the course of conducting of Charles Münch at the École normale de musique de Paris.
His first piano concerto was created on the radio by Jacqueline Blancard 10 October 1937 under the direction of Henri Tomasi. In 1938, his first symphony was directed in Winterthur by Hermann Scherchen.
In 1939, Pierre Wissmer composed Le beau dimanche, one-act ballet on an argument by Pierre Guérin who put him in touch with Stravinski, Poulenc, Sauguet, and Cocteau. In 1944, he was appointed professor of composition at Conservatoire de Genève and head of the Department of chamber music at Radio Geneva.
In 1948, he married the pianist Laure-Anne Étienne, a student of Marguerite Long at Conservatoire de Paris. From 1952 to 1957, he was deputy director of programs at Radio Luxembourg and, from 1957, director of the Schola Cantorum. In 1958 he adopted French citizenship and later was appointed director of the École normale de musique of Le Mans (1969–1981).
In 1967, he was awarded the Grand Prix musical of the city of Paris.
In 1992, he died in Valcros, at age 77 shortly after his wife.
Henriette Faure (1907-1985) made the music of Maurice Ravel sing on the performing stage. One of the first to play his music in public, she made recordings of his works from the 1930s to 1950, but died before she was able to complete her projected recordings of the complete piano music of Ravel.
The first piano recital consisting solely of Ravel’s music was given by Faure in 1923 at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. She had spent much of 1922 working with Ravel and her recordings are considered closest in spirit to what the composer had intended.
How obscure is Henriette Fauré? Do a web search and virtually nothing comes up. You’ll find that her greatest claim to fame is that she studied with Maurice Ravel and was one of the first artists to extol the virtues his music and play them in public.
She also studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Louis Diémer, one of the leading exponents and most accomplished pianists of the French school at the turn of the 20th century.
Enjoy the broadcast.
