Prière has a text by Sully Prudhomme, a poet associated in the public mind with Duparc and the earlier Fauré. Like
Envoi de fleurs there is here the somewhat old-fashioned device of having a piano introduction and interlude in a faster tempo than that of the vocal line. The familiar Gounod hallmarks are all there, including melting sequences that in less cultivated hands would totter into the realms of bathos. The familiar unfailing touch in effective and touching word-setting has not deserted the composer.
from notes by Graham Johnson © 1993
