Mélodies de Venise

Of the five Venetian songs, the first two and the fourth come from troubled genius Paul Verlaine’s second published collection, Fêtes galantes (1869), while the remaining two are from his Romances sans paroles (1874). The first song and part of the second were composed in Venice in May 1891 when the composer was staying as a guest at the Grand Canal palazzo of the sewing-machine heiress Winnaretta Singer—later to become the Princesse de Polignac—a perceptive patron of music. Following his return to Paris, Fauré completed the set, which was premiered the following year. Dedicated to his hostess, “Mandoline” (“Mandolin”) is a description of one of Verlaine’s masked 18th-century parties, the revellers—sad or happy (or both)—accompanied in their pursuits by the sound of the mandolin suggested in Fauré’s accompaniment. “En sourdine” (“Muted”) is sung by one lover to another, whispering sweet nothings, in a gentle and sensuous setting. “Green” is—according to the composer in a letter to the Princess—“a vivid, melancholy country scene…the harmony must try and underline the deeper meaning which the words do no more than hint at.” “À Clymène” (“To Clymène”) is a tender paean addressed to another of Verlaine’s unattainable 18th-century beauties. The final song, “C’est l’extase” (“It is ecstasy”), once again depicts an amorous situation: complex, ambiguous, but above all refined in the precise passion of Fauré’s setting.