Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), Cinq Mélodies “de Venise” Op. 58” (1891), Poems by Paul Verlaine (1844-1896).
1. Mandoline 0:00
2. En sourdine 1:55
3. Green 5:24
4. À Clymène 7:08
5. C’est l’extase 10:16
Joyce DiDonato -mezzosoprano
Julius Drake -piano
Description by Adrian Corleonis (Allmusic.com)
“The fact of the matter is that I’m having an excellent holiday, feeling better than I have ever felt before, and filling my eyes with marvelous things and my mind with delightful memories! I certainly lack the peace and quiet I need for work, and the little something I’ve sketched out to some lines by Verlaine may possibly turn out well once I am back at my desk in Paris. … ” Fauré wrote this to his confidante, Marguerite Baugnies, from Venice in June 1891. In fact, Mandoline was finished and En Sourdine nearly complete; back in Paris, finishing touches were put to the latter, Green followed in July, A Clymène came over July and August, and C’est l’extase over August and September. The Cinq Mélodies “de Venise,” to poems by Verlaine, are dedicated to Mme la Princesse Edmond de Polignac, Fauré’s hostess during his Venetian stay between mid-May and mid-July — a time of renewal snatched from the grind of daily duties and career building.
The Princesse de Polignac (1865-1943), née Winnaretta Eugénie Singer, heiress to the sewing machine fortune, was not merely a wealthy woman who commissioned such central modern works as Ravel’s Pavane pour une Infante défunte, Satie’s Socrate, Stravinsky’s Renard, de Falla’s El Retablo de Maese Pedro, Weill’s Symphony No. 2, and Poulenc’s Organ Concerto; she was also an animatrice — one who moves and inspires others. Fauré’s junior by 20 years, in 1891 she was an attractive and astute woman in her mid-twenties, and Fauré was infatuated with her. His initial Verlaine settings — Clair de lune in 1887 and Spleen (“Il pleure dans mon coeur”) the year following — persuaded her that he was Verlaine’s ideal interpreter and, both before and after their Venetian excursion, she pressed for a collaboration.
Sadly, Verlaine had already become the absinthe-besotted débauché of legend and Fauré’s several visits to him in the hospital resulted only in the wily poet extracting 100 francs at a time from the composer. Fauré played the organ at Verlaine’s funeral in 1896. Meanwhile, the prospect of collaboration had sent Fauré back to the poems — with startling consequences.The Cinq Mélodies form a genuine cycle — Fauré’s first — in which themes from previous mélodies return subtly varied. The Watteau paysage evoked by the piano’s staccato in Mandoline becomes the scene for four very different expressions of love — a dreamlike incantation in En Sourdine, shyly effusive in Green (as the lover offers the beloved fruit and flowers), an apparition of the beloved presaged by “Mystiques barcarolles, / Romances sans paroles. … ” in A Clymène, before the passionate sensuality of C’est l’extase clinches all. In this “Venetian” music, Fauré’s art opens to a new opulence, a passionately crooning lyricism sublimated by musical cunning of a rare order, suffused with incandescent exhilaration.
Though no doubt heard in the salons well before, the Cinq Mélodies “de Venise” were given their premiere by Proust’s friend, the tenor Maurice Bagès, at a Société Nationale concert of April 2, 1892.
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Gabriel Urbain Fauré (French: [ɡabʁiɛl yʁbɛ̃ fɔʁe];12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, Sicilienne, 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 most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style.
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Paul-Marie Verlaine (/vɛərˈlɛn/;[1] French: [vɛʁlɛn(ə)]; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.
(Wikipedia)
Original audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJb33AwyJjw
Score: https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Faur%C3%A9,_Gabriel
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I DO NOT own the AUDIO neither the SCORE. I don’t earn anything by doing this video and it has been done only for didactical purposes. Copyrights go to all the artists.