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Track(s) taken from CDA66320

Après un rêve, Op 7 No 1

First line:
Dans un sommeil que charmait ton image
composer
1877, Op 7 No 1, ‘À Mme Marguerite Baugnies’, Hamelle: First Collection p67, C minor (original key) 3/4 Andantino
author of text
after an anonymous Tuscan poet

Dame Janet Baker (mezzo-soprano), Geoffrey Parsons (piano)
Recording details: August 1988
Seldon Hall, Haberdashers' Aske's School, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Produced by Martin Compton
Engineered by Antony Howell
Release date: November 1989
Total duration: 1 minutes 59 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Graham Johnson (piano)
Dame Ann Murray (mezzo-soprano), Malcolm Martineau (piano)

Reviews

‘This varied and generous selection of 28 songs is perhaps the best general introduction to this important side of Fauré's output and is also one of Geoffrey Parsons's finest recordings: voice and piano seem always to be at one. A magical disc’ (BBC Music Magazine Top 1000 CDs Guide)

‘Deeply considered and deeply moving performances’ (BBC Record Review)

‘A performance to treasure’ (Opera Now)
The inspiration for this song, and for Sérénade toscane, probably came from Pauline Viardot’s settings of Tuscan folk poetry. One wonders whether Fauré composed the Italian original of this song before Romain Bussine, a baritone friend of the composer, later a singing teacher at the Conservatoire, appended French words which are scarcely a translation of the original. The poetic source is Niccolo Tommaseo’s Canti popolari (Venice, 1841): No 11 of the section entitled ‘Fine della Serenata’ begins thus:

Levati, sol che la luna è levata;
Leva degli occhi miei tanto dormire.
Il traditor del sonno m’ha ingannata;
Il meglio [bello] amante m’ha fatto sparire.

Fauré’s ascending phrase at the beginning of the vocal line is a more logical fit for the rising sun of ‘Levati, sol’ than for ‘Dans un sommeil’. Neither Italian nor French version is convincing in terms of prosody, probably as a result of the compromises involved in making a bilingual edition of the song. If Bussine made the French version before Fauré began to compose, and the composer conceived his music for the French text, it is a miracle that the Italian, included in the song’s first edition, also fitted the music. (In preparing the French lyric Bussine seems to have relied more on Tommaseo’s footnote to ‘Levati, sol’ than on the Italian poem itself.) Fauré’s cantilena is a cornucopia of melodic plenty: the music unfolds organically from beginning to end, each phrase leading ineluctably to the next, an endless flowering. This in turn is supported by seemingly inevitable harmonies, but Fauré’s popular touch masks the greatest subtlety. Pau Casals’ instantly famous version of the piece for cello and piano (1910) proved how easily a tune like this can become a song without words.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 2005

Comme Sérénade toscane, cette mélodie fut probablement inspirée par Pauline Viardot et ses mises en musique de la poésie populaire toscane. On se demande si Fauré composa l’original italien de cette mélodie avant que Romain Bussine (baryton et ami du compositeur, futur professeur de chant au Conservatoire) n’eût apposé une traduction française plus qu’approximative. La source poétique de cette composition est Canti popolari (Venise, 1841) de Niccolo Tommaseo – le no11 de la section intitulée «Fine della Serenata» s’ouvre ainsi:

Levati, sol che la luna è levata;
Leva degli occhi miei tanto dormire.
Il traditor del sonno m’ha ingannata;
Il meglio [bello] amante m’ha fatto sparire.

La phrase ascendante de Fauré, en début de ligne vocale, convient logiquement mieux au soleil levant de «Levati, sol» qu’à «Dans un sommeil». Ni la version italienne ni la version française ne sont convaincantes en termes de prosodie, ce qui tient aux compromis inhérents à l’élaboration d’une édition bilingue de la mélodie. Si la mouture française de Bussine est vraiment antérieure à la composition de Fauré, si ce dernier a bel et bien conçu sa musique pour le texte français, alors c’est un miracle que l’italien, inclus dans l’édition princeps de la mélodie, convînt lui aussi à cette musique. (Lorsqu’il rédigea les paroles françaises, Bussine semble s’être davantage attaché à la note en bas de page de Tommaseo sur «Levati, sol» qu’au texte italien même). La cantilène fauréenne est une corne d’abondance mélodique: la musique se déploie organiquement de bout en bout, chaque phrase en appelant inéluctablement une autre – une floraison ininterrompue, elle-même soutenue par des harmonies apparemment inévitables; mais la touche populaire de Fauré masque la plus grande des subtilités. Pau Casals fit de cette pièce une version pour violoncelle et piano (1910), qui connut une célébrité immédiate, démontrant la facilité avec laquelle ce genre d’air peut devenir une romance sans paroles.

extrait des notes rédigées par Graham Johnson © 2005
Français: Hypérion

Other albums featuring this work

Fauré: The Complete Songs, Vol. 1
Studio Master: SIGCD427Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
Fauré: The Complete Songs, Vol. 2 - Un paysage choisi
CDA67334
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