Harmonies Du Soir. A festival of French chamber music. A beautiful way to bring the year together.
Could the Adagio of Gabriel Fauré’s first piano quartet have inspired the Vinteuil’s fictional sonata, the “little phrase” of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time? In the novel, the sonata marks the deepening love between Swann and Odette before twisting into a motif for the heartache of their separation.
Fauré himself was grieving after the end of his engagement to Marianne Viardot, and pianist Marguerite Long later recalled being unable to hide her tears when performing the quartet while Fauré quietly turned pages for her.
Around this emotional core are a triptych of late nineteenth century works by Fauré’s lesser-known contemporaries. Louise Farrenc’s Nonet brings together a wind quintet and a string quartet in a four-movement design that follows classical forms while giving each instrument an equal role. Mel Bonis’s Scènes de la forêt offers a sequence of short, nature-themed pieces that evoke quiet woodland scenes. Pauline Garcia -Viardot, singer, pianist, composer and sister of Fauré’s former fiancée, adds a different intimacy with the salon elegance of her Romance and the lively Tarantella from Six Morceaux.
Louise FARRENC Nonet
Mel BONIS Scènes de la forêt
Pauline GARCIA-VIARDOT Romance and Tarantella from Six Morceaux
Gabriel FAURÉ Piano Quartet No. 1 in C Minor
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Image: Édouard Manet, Méry Laurent au Chapeau Noir, 1882. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Méry Laurent was a celebrated Parisian courtesan and salon host who inspired several of Marcel Proust’s characters in In Search of Lost Time, including aspects of Odette de Crécy.