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Track(s) taken from CDA67336

Soir, Op 83 No 2

First line:
Voici que les jardins de la Nuit vont fleurir
composer
17 December 1894, published as Op 83 No 2, E flat major (original key D flat major), Andante molto moderato
author of text
Élégie

Jean-Paul Fouchécourt (tenor), Graham Johnson (piano)
Recording details: August 2004
All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: November 2005
Total duration: 2 minutes 16 seconds

Cover artwork: 'Les Roses d'Ispahan' after Gabriel Fauré (c1907). Lucien Levy-Dhurmer (1865-1953)
Sotheby’s Picture Library
 

Other recordings available for download

Lorna Anderson (soprano), Malcolm Martineau (piano)

Reviews

‘There are songs of a fragrance, ambiguity and vision unique to Fauré and all the singers involved in this glorious project, while not always in their first radiance and purity of voice, never lose their sense of poetic engagement and commitment. Graham Johnson, whether writing or playing, is magically attuned to every nuance of Fauré's universe; and Hyperion's sound and presentation are impeccable’ (Gramophone)

‘This completes Hyperion's recording of all Fauré's songs master-minded by Graham Johnson with a quintet of specialist singers: Jennifer Smith, Felicity Lott, Geraldine McGreevy, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt and Stephen Varcoe, all in top form here … suffice it to say that this superb enterprise is a jewel in Hyperion's crown’ (The Sunday Telegraph)

‘The sound is warm and initimate and Johnson's comprehensive notes are packed with information on each song and its cultural surround. In all this series has proved an impressive achievement, demonstrating that even the least known of Fauré's songs is well worth hearing’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘These four CDs deserve an honoured place in the collection of anyone who cares about one of the finest of all mélodistes’ (International Record Review)

‘There's an ineffable, nostalgia-filled sadness about Jennifer Smith's rapt delivery of the final two songs of La chanson d'Ève, the mood intensified as so often in this series by Graham Johnson's accompaniments. An outstanding disc’ (Classic FM Magazine)

‘Graham Johnson, whose sterling pianism distinguishes every track … his accompanimens are models of Fauréan discretion and care … Gabriel Fauré: The Complete Songs offers a vital contribution to the ongoing re-imagination of Fauré, as well as a splendid opportunity to become acquainted with his allusive art’ (Nineteenth-Century Music Review)
Albert Samain’s collection Au jardin de l’Infante (1893) was given to the composer by his mistress Emma Bardac, the singer who had been the dedicatee of La bonne chanson earlier in 1894. Following on from the poem Larmes (which Fauré set as the duet Pleurs d’or), Élégie has nine strophes of which the composer selected the last three. The form is ABA broadly speaking, but like the great modified strophic songs at the end of Schubert’s life nothing is taken for granted – the music is continually rethought and newly invented. The accompaniment for this nocturne begins modestly in simple semiquavers (like Verlaine’s En sourdine), flowers into almost dizzying complexity in the second strophe, and deftly returns to a single stave at the beginning of the third (the ardent harmonic subtleties leading to this last transition are simply miraculous). In another Verlaine setting, C’est l’extase (1891), we have heard ‘le frêle et frais murmure’ of nature; musical imagery for almost inaudible sound returns in Soir, set off by the words ‘entends-tu pas quelque chose mourir?’. In both cases a delicate descant to the vocal line is traced in the little finger of the right hand; this is supported by off-beat mezzo staccato harmonies that change constantly, glinting and palpitating. This is a kind of musical pointillism, prickly in close-up, but blurring into a marvellously glowing picture from a distance. The final bars (‘si tristes et si doux’ followed by the postlude) encapsulate both the depth and economy of Fauréan expressiveness.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 2005

Fauré se vit offrir Au jardin de l’Infante (1893), le recueil d’Albert Samain, par sa maîtresse Emma Bardac, dédicataire de La bonne chanson (1894). Élégie, qui fait suite au poème Larmes (dont Fauré fit le duo Pleurs d’or), compte neuf strophes, dont seules les trois dernières seront mises en musique. La forme est grosso modo ABA mais, à l’instar de ce qui se passe avec les grands lieder strophiques modifiés créés par Schubert à la fin de sa vie, rien n’est acquis : la musique est constamment repensée, réinventée. L’accompagnement de ce nocturne débute modestement par de simples doubles croches (comme En sourdine, sur un poème de Verlaine), pour s’épanouir en une complexité presque étourdissante dans la deuxième strophe et revenir habilement à une seule portée au début de la troisième (les ardentes subtilités harmoniques menant à cette ultime transition sont tout simplement miraculeuses). C’est l’extase (1891, sur un poème de Verlaine) nous a donné à entendre le « frêle et frais murmure » de la nature ; cette même image musicale d’un son presque inaudible revient dans Soir, déclenchée par les mots « entends-tu pas quelque chose mourir ? ». Dans les deux cas, un délicat déchant de la ligne vocale est dessiné par l’auriculaire droit, soutenu par des harmonies mezzo staccato sur les temps faibles, constamment changeantes, étincelantes et palpitantes. C’est une sorte de pointillisme musical, hérissé de piquants vu de près, mais qui se fond en un tableau merveilleusement éclatant vu de loin. Les mesures finales (« si triste et si doux » suivi du postlude) résument et la profondeur, et l’économie de l’expressivité fauréenne.

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

Other albums featuring this work

Fauré: The Complete Songs, Vol. 3
Studio Master: SIGCD483Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
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