Hyperion Records

Another youthful song (1851) with a touch of real inspiration about it. It has a delicacy and a feeling which suggest that Saint-Saëns knew some of the Schumann songs at this early stage of his life. Indeed many of his early mélodies seem to have been influenced by Lieder. At the same time there is a family resemblance to those songs of Gounod where an exquisite melodic line unfolds on a background of gently throbbing quavers, seemingly anonymous but in reality gently steering the song in whatever harmonic direction the composer chooses. There is a certain stiffness here as well as faults in prosody which betray the hand of a youngster, but otherwise this is a distinguished effort.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 1997