Emile Gueorguiev Naoumoff, Piano Solo

Centenial Celebration of the international Legacy of Gabriel Fauré (1845 – 1924)

Bulgarian-born pianist, composer and former child prodigy Emile Naoumoff is also the last student of Nadia Boulanger, one of the most prominent and influential musical figures of the twentieth century. “Mademoiselle” [Nadia Boulanger] was a student of Gabriel Fauré, she became a close friend to Stravinsky and Poulenc, and taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century.

This program reflects on her incredible relationships with her professor Gabriel Fauré, her classmate and colleague Maurice Ravel, and her last student Emile Naoumoff. It also celebrates the 100th anniversary of Fauré’s death, by proposing Naoumoff’s solo piano transcription of the composer’s Requiem.

Matthieu Cognet

Artistic Director for the French American Piano Society

“At the tender age of seven, destiny smiled upon me as Mademoiselle Boulanger chose me to be her final disciple. Entering her eighth decade of an illustrious pedagogical journey that had profoundly influenced the foremost composers of the twentieth century, starting with Copland, my early life became a jubilant and inspirational odyssey—a journey not without its daily challenges and demanding trials.

As a disciple of Fauré in her own youth, Mademoiselle Boulanger became the conduit through which the true aesthetics of his musical language flowed to me directly from the source. Remarkably, she went on to make history by becoming the first woman to conduct the New York Philharmonic in Fauré’s Requiem. Among her esteemed peers from Fauré’s composition class at the Paris Conservatory was none other than the renowned Maurice Ravel.

In shaping my own musical identity, I carry forward this exclusive French music lineage, a legacy entrusted to me and one that I, in turn, impart to my own students.

In honor of the centennial year marking Fauré’s passing, I am excited to present his Requiem in my own piano transcription, alongside Ravel’s Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, my mentor’s Vers la Vie Nouvelle (Towards the New Life), and my own creation, Valse pour Nadia.

Fauré remains my musical homeland, and in celebrating his legacy, I echo his timeless melodies with heartfelt reverence—Fauré est mon pays!”

Émile Naoumoff

Gabriel Urbain Fauré (1845 – 1924)

Requiem Opus 48 (1887)

Introït and Kyrie

Offertorium

Sanctus

Pie Jesu

Agnus Dei

Libera me

In Paradisum

Piano transcription by Emile Naoumoff

Valses Nobles et Sentimentales

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Valses Nobles et Sentimentales

Modéré – très franc

Assez lent

Modéré

Assez animé

Presque lent

Vif

Moins vif

Épilogue : lent

Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979)

Vers la vie nouvelle (1918)

Emile Naoumoff (1962)

Valse pour Nadia (1996)