Composer: Fauré

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How indulgent: Naughtily indulgent

How: The French composer and organist would stay up drinking all night whilst working as a church organist in Rennes in the 1860s. In the morning, he was known to appear at the church wearing the evening tails he had worn the night before!

Did you know: Fauré would leave the organ loft for a cigarette during the sermon. Unsurprisingly, he was fired as the organist at Rennes in 1870 for lack of piety and absence at nightly mass.

Now indulge yourself with….. Piano Quintet No. 2

Aaron Copland described this work as ‘…a pure well of spirituality’. What could be more fitting at Christmas?

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Authors

Freya ParrDigital Editor and Staff Writer, BBC Music Magazine

Freya Parr is BBC Music Magazine's Digital Editor and Staff Writer. She has also written for titles including the Guardian, Circus Journal, Frankie and Suitcase Magazine, and runs The Noiseletter, a fortnightly arts and culture publication. Freya's main areas of interest and research lie in 20th-century and contemporary music.

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