DCCCXL. BERLIOZ, Hector: Les nuits d'été

DCCCXL. BERLIOZ, Hector (1803-1869)

Les nuits d'été (1843-56)
1. Villanelle
2. Le spectre de la rose
3. Sur les lagunes: Lamento
4. Absence
5. Au cimetière: Clair du lune
6. L'île inconnue
Véronique Gens, soprano
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
Lionel Bringuier, cond.
(31:08)

• His father was a physician. He home-schooled Hector when he was ten, teaching him geography, Latin, philosophy, rhetoric, and -- because his father had his career all planned out -- anatomy;
• There was little music in the household;
• 1821. With papa's insistence, Berlioz became a medical student at the University of Paris -- disgusted by having to dissect bodies, he kept going fearing his allowance would be cut off;
• And that allowance enabled him to go the opera -- which was considered much more worthy than plain old symphonic music;
• 1824. Graduates from medical school. Immediately decides to pursue a career in music;
• Dad suggests law, but Hector is committed to his dream. Dad cuts his allowance, and Berlioz suffered some poverty;
• Admitted to the Paris Conservatory two years later where he got his first serious education;
• 1832. Symphonie Fantastique is heard by an audience that included Liszt, Chopin, Paganini, Alexandre Dumas, Théophile Gautier, Heinrich Heine, Hugo and George Sand;
• Berlioz wrote SF for one Harriet Smithson -- an opera singer who didn't return his passionate love. She was also in the audience;
• They marry. He has an affair. They divorce;
• 1834. Paganini commissioned Berlioz to write a concerto -- Harold in Italy -- for his new Stradivarius viola; He bowed out, saying the solo part was too skimpy.
• 1839. Paganini attends a performance of Harold and realizes how wrong he was. He kisses Berlioz's hand, and writes him a check for 20,000 francs.

Berlioz finished this song cycle based on Gautier's poems in 1841 -- for voice and piano. Somehow, the publisher mutilated the piano part, and the work didn't attract much notice.

In 1843, he orchestrated Absence for Marie Recio (his lover from the abovementioned affair). The other movements were orchestrated in 1856.

1. Villanelle

Of course, Berlioz starts off his "Songs of Summer" with a song about spring! The middle four songs about death are bookended by sunnier poems.

Berlioz maintains the poem's rhythm in this strophic setting. A bassoon solo accompanies the end of each verse.

En paniers enlaçant nos doigts,
Revenons, rapportant des fraises
Des bois.

2. Le spectre de la rose

Heavy romanticism. The rose that died on her chest was a fate that kings might envy.

Et sur l'albâtre où je repose
Un poète avec un baiser
Écrivit: Ci-gît une rose,
Que tous les rois vont jalouser.

3. Sur les lagunes: Lamento

Now more than a rose has died. A Venetian boatman is pained at his lover's death.

Ah! sans amour s'en aller sur la mer!

4. Absence

F-Sharp Major. Splendid A-B-A-C-A setting.

Reviens, reviens, ma belle aimée!
Comme une fleur loin du soleil,
La fleur de ma vie est fermée
Loin de ton sourire vermeil!

5. Au cimetière: Clair du lune

The bereaved lover now just has distant memories and is seeing a ghostly vision of her.

Sur les ailes de la musique
On sent lentement revenir
Un souvenir;
Une ombre une forme angélique
Passe dans un rayon tremblant,
En voile blanc.

6. L'île inconnue

Eternal love. Gautier proposes it, then shoots it down:

Menez-moi, dit la belle,
À la rive fidèle
Où l'on aime toujours!
Cette rive, ma chère,
On ne la connaît guère
Au pays des amours.