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Berlioz in 1845

Les nuits d'été (Summer Nights), Op. 7, is a song cycle by the French composer Hector Berlioz. It is a setting of six poems by Théophile Gautier. The cycle, completed in 1841, was originally for soloist and piano accompaniment. Berlioz orchestrated one of the songs in 1843, and did the same for the other five in 1856. The cycle was neglected for many years, but during the 20th century it became, and has remained, one of the composer's most popular works. The full orchestral version is more frequently performed in concert and on record than the piano original. The theme of the work is the progress of love, from youthful innocence to loss and finally renewal.

Background

Berlioz and the poet Théophile Gautier were neighbours and friends. Gautier wrote, "Berlioz represents the romantic musical idea … unexpected effects in sound, tumultuous and Shakespearean depth of passion." It is possible that Berlioz read Gauthier's collection La comédie de la mort (The Comedy of Death) before its publication in 1838. Gautier had no objection to his friend's setting six poems from that volume, and Berlioz began in March 1840. The title Nuits d'été was Berlioz's invention, and it is not clear why he chose it: the first song is specifically set in spring rather than summer. The writer Annagret Fauser suggests that Berlioz may have been influenced by the preface to a collection of short stories by his friend Joseph Méry, Les nuits de Londres in which the author writes of summer nights in which he and his friends sat outside until dawn telling stories. In a 1989 study of Berlioz, D Kern Holoman suggests that the title is an allusion to Shakespeare, whose works Berlioz loved.

Gautier in 1839

The cycle was complete in its original version for voice (mezzo-soprano or tenor) and piano by 1841. Berlioz later made arrangements for baritone, contralto, or soprano, and piano. The piano version is not as often performed in concert or on record as the orchestrated score, which Berlioz arranged between 1843 and 1856. David Cairns wrote in 1988 that the success of the piano version was impeded by the inferior quality of the piano part in the published score: it is not Berlioz's own, and Cairns described it as "a clumsy, inauthentic piece of work".

In 1843 Berlioz orchestrated the fourth song, "Absence" for his lover, Marie Recio, who premiered it in Leipzig on 23 February 1843; it was not until 1856, that he returned to Les nuits d'été, arranging an orchestral version of "La spectre de la rose" for the mezzo-soprano Anna Bockholtz-Falconi. The publisher Jakob Rieter-Biedermann was in the audience for the premiere, and, much impressed, prevailed on Berlioz to orchestrate the rest of the cycle. The orchestration left the existing melodic and harmonic writing generally unchanged, but for "La spectre de la rose" the composer added an introduction for muted solo cello, flute and clarinet; the orchestration of this song, unlike the other five, includes a harp.

The original piano version had a single dedicatee – Louise Bertin, whose father, Louis Bertin, was editor of the Journal des débats, for which Berlioz wrote musical criticism and other articles. Each of the six songs of the orchestral cycle was dedicated individually, to singers well known in Germany, some of whom had performed Berlioz's music there: Louise Wolf ("Villanelle"), Anna Bockholtz-Falconi ("La spectre de la rose"), Hans von Milde ("Sur les lagunes"), Madeleine Nottès ("Absence"), Friedrich Caspari ("Au cimetière") and Rosa von Milde ("L'île inconnue").

For the orchestral version, Berlioz transposed the second and third songs to lower keys. When this version was published, Berlioz specified different voices for the various songs: mezzo-soprano or tenor for "Villanelle", contralto for "Le spectre de la rose", baritone (or optionally contralto or mezzo) for "Sur les lagunes", mezzo or tenor for "Absence", tenor for "Au cimitière", and mezzo or tenor for "L'île inconnue". The cycle is nevertheless usually sung by a single soloist, most often a soprano or mezzo-soprano. When the cycle is sung by sopranos the second and third songs are usually transposed back to their original pitches; when lower voices sing the cycle some other songs are often transposed downwards, with, in Rushton's view, particularly deleterious effect in the first song, the lighthearted "Villanelle".

[The poems] form a narrative which leads from a spring-born joie de vivre (Villanelle) and a loss of innocence (Le spectre de la rose), to the death of a beloved (Sur les lagunes), a dirge (Absence), the obliteration of her memory (Au Cimetière), and the beginning of a new future (L'île inconnue).

Annagret Fauser

Although Berlioz wrote more than fifty songs, twenty of them with orchestral accompaniment, those in Les nuits d'été are the only ones published as a set. They are not a cycle on the German model of Schubert's Winterreise or Schumann's Dichterliebe, with narrative and thematic continuity, but form a unified whole by virtue of the single authorship of the words and the composer's use throughout of delicate, atmospheric musical shading. The structure of the cycle has four sombre songs framed by exuberant opening and closing ones. The critic A. E. F. Dickinson wrote in a 1969 study, "Their common theme is nominally love unrequited or lost, symbolizing, arguably, an ache for vanished or unattainable beauty. But their musical order is apparently fortuitous, and forms an acceptable, rather than a compulsive, association." Berlioz's innovative creation of an orchestral song cycle had few successors until Mahler took the genre up in the late 19th century.

As far as is known, the orchestral cycle was not performed in its entirety during the composer's lifetime. The work was neglected for many years, but during the twentieth century it was rediscovered and has become one of Berlioz's best-loved works.

Music

By Berlioz's standards the orchestration is on a modest scale. There is no percussion, and the forces stipulated are the normal string section of violins, violas, cellos and double-basses; woodwind: two flutes, two clarinets, two bassoons, one oboe; brass: three horns; harp.

Villanelle

"Villanelle": text and translation

Quand viendra la saison nouvelle, Quand auront disparu les froids, Tous les deux nous irons, ma belle, Pour cueillir le muguet aux bois; Sous nos pieds égrenant les perles Que l'on voit au matin trembler, Nous irons écouter les merles Siffler. Le printemps est venu, ma belle, C'est le mois des amants béni, Et l'oiseau, satinant son aile, Dit des vers au rebord du nid. Oh! viens donc, sur le banc de mousse Pour parler de nos beaux amours, Et dis-moi de ta voix si douce: Toujours! Loin, bien loin, égarant nos courses, Faisant fuir le lapin caché, Et le daim au miroir des sources Admirant son grand bois penché; Puis chez nous, tout heureux, tout aises, En panier enlaçant nos doigts, Revenons, rapportant des fraises Des bois. When the new season comes, When the cold has vanished, We will both go, my lovely, To gather lily of the valley. Gathering the pearls underfoot, That one sees shimmering in the morning, We will hear the blackbirds Whistle. Spring has come, my lovely, It is the month blessed by lovers; And the bird, preening his wing, Speaks verse from the edge of his nest. Oh! come now to this mossy bank To talk of our beautiful love, And say to me in your sweet voice: "Always!" Far, far away, straying from our path, Causing the hidden rabbit to flee And the deer, in the mirror of the spring Bending to admire his great antlers, Then home, completely happy and at ease, Our hands entwined round the basket, Returning carrying strawberries From the wood.

Allegretto

Key: A major; orchestration: 2 flutes, 1 oboe, 2 clarinets in A, 1 bassoon, strings.

The first of the set, "Villanelle" is a celebration of spring and love. It tells of the pleasures of wandering together in the woods to gather wild strawberries, returning home with hands entwined. The setting is strophic; Berlioz maintains the villanelle rhythm of the original poem, while varying the orchestra accompaniment with string counterpoints, and, at the end of each verse, a bassoon solo , pitched higher at each iteration. Rushton comments that these variations "add to the sense of the natural variety and freshness of spring".

Le spectre de la rose

"Le spectre de la rose": text and translation

Soulève ta paupière close Qu'effleure un songe virginal; Je suis le spectre d'une rose Que tu portais hier au bal. Tu me pris, encore emperlée Des pleurs d'argent, de l'arrosoir, Et parmi la fête étoilée Tu me promenas tout le soir. O toi qui de ma mort fus cause, Sans que tu puisses le chasser, Toutes les nuits mon spectre rose A ton chevet viendra danser. Mais ne crains rein, je ne réclame Ni messe ni De profundis: Ce léger parfum est mon âme, Et j'arrive du paradis. Mon destin fut digne d'envie: Et pour avoir un sort si beau, Plus d'un aurait donné sa vie, Car sur ton sein j'ai mon tombeau, Et sur l'albâtre où je repose Un poëte avec un baiser Écrivit: Ci-git une rose, Que tous les rois vont jalouser. Open your closed eyelids Touched by a virginal dream! I am the ghost of a rose That you wore yesterday at the ball. You took me, still pearly With silver tears, from the watering can, And in the starlit party, You carried me all evening. O you who caused my death Without being able to chase it away Every night my rose-coloured spectre Will dance by your bedside. But fear not, I claim neither Mass nor De Profundis. This light scent is my soul And I come from Paradise My destiny is enviable And to have a fate so beautiful More than one would have given his life; For on your breast I have my tomb, And on the alabaster on which I repose A poet with a kiss Wrote, "Here lies a rose Of which all kings will be jealous."

Adagio un poco lento et dolce assai.

Key: B major; orchestration: 2 flutes, 1 oboe, 2 clarinets in A, 2 horns in E, 1 harp, strings.

"Le spectre de la rose" tells of a girl's dreams of the ghost of the rose she had worn to a ball the previous day. Although the rose has died, it has ascended to paradise; to have died on the girl's breast was a fate that kings might envy. The setting is through-composed. In a 1989 study of Berlioz, D Kern Holoman describes the song as "among the most perfect expressions of French Romanticism".

Sur les lagunes: Lamento

"Sur les lagunes": text and translation

Ma belle amie est morte: Je pleurerai toujours Sous la tombe elle emporte Mon âme et mes amours. Dans le ciel, sans m'attendre, Elle se retourna; L'ange qui l'emmena Ne voulut pas me prendre. Que mon sort est amer! Ah! sans amour s'en aller sur la mer! La blanche créature Est couchée au cercueil. Comme dans la nature Tout me paraît en deuil! La colombe oubliée Pleure et songe à l'absent; Mon âme pleure et sent Qu'elle est dépareillée! Que mon sort est amer! Ah! sans amour s'en aller sur la mer! Sur moi la nuit immense S'étend comme un linceul; Je chante ma romance Que le ciel entend seul. Ah! comme elle était belle Et comme je l'aimais! Je n'aimerai jamais Une femme autant qu'elle. Que mon sort est amer! Ah! Sans amour s'en aller sur la mer! My beautiful friend is dead, I shall weep always; Under the tomb she has taken My soul and my love. To Heaven, without waiting for me, She has returned; The angel who took her Did not want to take me. How bitter is my fate! Ah! Without love to sail on the sea! The white creature Lies in a coffin; How in nature Everything seems to me in mourning! The forgotten dove Weeps and dreams of the absent one. My soul weeps and feels That it is deserted! How bitter is my fate! Ah! Without love to sail on the sea! Over me the vast night Spreads like a shroud. I sing my song That only Heaven hears: Ah! How beautiful she was And how I loved her! I shall never love A woman as much as her… How bitter is my fate! Ah! Without love to sail on the sea!

Andantino

Key: F minor; orchestration: 2 flutes, 2 clarinets in B, 2 bassoons, 1 horn in C , 1 horn in F, strings.

"Sur les lagunes: Lamento" (On the Lagoons: Lament), with its sombre harmonies and orchestration is imbued with melancholy; the undulating accompaniment suggests the movement of the waves. The poem is the lament of a Venetian boatman at the loss of his beloved, and the pain of sailing out to sea unloved. This is the second of the two through-composed songs in the cycle.

Absence

"Absence": text and translation

Reviens, reviens, ma bien-aimée! Comme une fleur loin du soleil, La fleur de ma vie est fermée Loin de ton sourire vermeil. Entre nos cœurs quelle distance! Tant d'espace entre nos baisers! O sort amer! ô dure absence! O grands désirs inapaisés! Reviens, reviens, ma belle aimée! Comme une fleur loin du soleil, La fleur de ma vie est fermée Loin de ton sourire vermeil! D'ici là-bas que de campagnes, Que de villes et de hameaux, Que de vallons et de montagnes, A lasser le pied des chevaux! Reviens, reviens, ma belle aimée! Comme une fleur loin du soleil, La fleur de ma vie est fermée Loin de ton sourire vermeil! Come back, come back, my beloved! Like a flower far from the sun, The flower of my life is closed Far from your bright red smile! Between our hearts what a distance! So much of space between our kisses! O bitter fate! O harsh absence! O great desires unappeased! Come back, come back, my beautiful beloved! Like a flower far from the sun, The flower of my life is closed Far from your bright red smile! Between here and there what fields, What towns and hamlets, What valleys and mountains, To tire the hoofs of the horses. Come back, come back, my beautiful beloved! Like a flower far from the sun, The flower of my life is closed Far from your bright red smile!

Adagio

Key: F sharp minor; orchestration: 2 flutes, 1 oboe, 2 clarinets in A, 1 horn in A, 1 horn in D, strings.

The rhetorical Absence pleads for the return of the beloved. The Berlioz scholar Julian Rushton suggests that unlike the other five songs, this one makes use of existing music, written for an abandoned cantata, Erigone. Rushton comments that if this is so, it may explain why in this song alone Berlioz cut and rearranged Gautier's verses. This song, and Au cimitière, which follows, are strophic, with the form ABA.

Au cimetière: Clair de lune

"Au cimetière": text and translation

Connaissez-vous la blanche tombe Où flotte avec un son plaintif L'ombre d'un if? Sur l'if une pâle colombe Triste et seule au soleil couchant, Chante son chant; Un air maladivement tendre, A la fois charmant et fatal, Qui vous fait mal, E qu'on voudrait toujours entendre; Un air comme en soupire aux cieux L'ange amoureux. On dirait que l'âme éveillée Pleure sous terre à l'unisson De la chanson, Et du malheur d'être oubliée Se plaint dans un roucoulement Bien doucement. 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. Les belles de nuit, demi-closes, Jettent leur parfum faible et doux Autour de vous, Et la fantôme aux molles poses Murmure en vous tendant les bras: Tu reviendras? Oh! Jamais plus, près de la tombe Je n'irai, quand descend le soir Au manteau noir, Écouter la pâle colombe Chanter sur la pointe de l'if Son chant plaintif! Do you know the white tomb, Where there floats with a plaintive sound The shadow of a yew tree? On the yew a pale dove Sad and alone at sunset, Sings its song: An air morbidly tender At once charming and deadly, That hurts you And that one would like to hear for ever; An air like the sigh in Heaven Of a loving angel. One might say that an awakened soul Weeps under the ground in unison With the song, And for the misfortune of being forgotten Complains, cooing Very softly. On the wings of the music One feels slowly returning A memory. A shadow, an angelic form Passes in a shimmering ray In a white veil. The belle de nuit flowers, half closed, Cast their weak and sweet scent Around you, And the ghost in a gentle pose Murmurs, stretching its arms to you: Will you return? Oh! Never again by the grave Will I go, when evening falls In a black cloak, To hear the pale dove Singing at the top of the yew Its plaintive song.

Andantino non troppo lento

Key: D major; Orchestration: 2 flutes, 2 clarinets in A; strings.

"Au cimetière: Clair de lune" (At the Cemetery: Moonlight), is a further lament, with the bereaved lover now more distant from the memory of his beloved, and perturbed by a ghostly vision of her.

L'île inconnue

L'île inconnue: text and English translation

Dites, la jeune belle, Où voulez-vous aller? La voile enfle son aile, La brise va souffler. L'aviron est d'ivoire, Le pavillon de moire, Le gouvernail d'or fin; J'ai pour lest une orange, Pour voile une aile d'ange, Pour mousse un séraphin. Dites, la jeune belle, Où voulez-vous aller? La voile enfle son aile, La brise va souffler. Est-ce dans la Baltique? Dans la mer Pacifique? Dans l'île de Java? Ou bien est-ce en Norvège, Cueillir la fleur de neige, Ou la fleur a'Angsoka? Dites, dites, la jeune belle, dites, où voulez-vous aller? Menez moi, dit la belle, A la rive fidèle Où l'on aime toujours! Cette rive, ma chère, On ne la connaît guère Au pays des amours. Où voulez-vous aller? La brise va souffler. Tell me, young beauty, Where do you want to go? The sail swells its wing, The breeze begins to blow. The oar is of ivory, The flag is of moire, The rudder of fine gold; I have for ballast an orange, For sail an angel's wing For cabin boy a seraph Tell me, young beauty, Where do you want to go? The sail swells its wing, The breeze begins to blow. Is it to the Baltic? To the Pacific Ocean? The isle of Java? Or perhaps to Norway, To pick the snow-flower Or the flower of Angsoka? Tell, me, tell me, young beauty, tell me, where do you want to go? Take me, says the beautiful one, To the faithful shore Where one loves for ever! That shore, my dear, Is almost unknown In the land of love. Where do you want to go? The breeze begins to blow.

Allegro spiritoso

Key: F major; orchestration: 2 flutes, 1 oboe, 2 clarinets in B, 2 bassoons, 1 horn in F, 1 horn in C, 1 horn in B, strings.

"L'île inconnue" (The Unknown Island) hints at the unattainable – a place where love can be eternal. Rushton describes the song as "cheerfully ironic", set by Berlioz "with a Venetian swing". This closing song is strophic with the form ABACA'DA".

Recordings

Main article: Le nuits d'été discography

The growing popularity of the work was reflected in the number of complete recordings issued in the LP era. Among those are versions sung by Eleanor Steber, Suzanne Danco and Victoria de los Ángeles in mono recordings and Régine Crespin, Leontyne Price and Janet Baker in stereo. More recent recordings have featured Véronique Gens, Anne Sofie von Otter, Bernarda Fink and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Recordings by male singers include those by Nicolai Gedda and José Van Dam. The piano version has been recorded from time to time, and there have been two studio recordings of the orchestral version with multiple singers, as stipulated in the orchestral score; these were conducted by Sir Colin Davis and Pierre Boulez. Conductors of other versions have included Ernest Ansermet, John Barbirolli, James Levine, Charles Munch and Fritz Reiner.

Notes, references and sources

Sources

• Anderson, Keith (2005). Notes to Naxos CD 8. 557274. Naxos Records. OCLC 232300936.
• Berlioz, Hector; Théophile Gautier (1904) [1856]. Les nuits d'été. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel. OCLC 611290556.
• Blakeman, Edward (1989). Notes to Chandos CD Chan 8735. Chandos Records. OCLC 22246622.
• Cairns, David (1986). "Berlioz". In Alan Blyth (ed.). Song on Record. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-36173-6.
• Fauser, Annagret (2000). "The songs". In Peter Bloom (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Berlioz. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-59638-1.
• Holoman, D Kern (1989). Berlioz. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-06778-3.
• Rushton, Julian (2001). The Music of Berlioz. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-816690-0.