Poème de l'amour et de la mer

If you wanted to define symbolism in music, this unusual work by Ernest Chausson for soprano and orchestra has it in a nutshell. The hinted narrative unfurls through imagery: first, love burgeons amid the richesse of lilacs, roses and the all-embracing sea; later, in “La mort de l’amour”, the time of lilacs is over. Chausson captures these atmospheres through refined vocal writing, velvety orchestration and ecstatically malleable and perfumed harmonies, showing the Wagnerian influence he felt he could never escape. It took him 10 years to complete, between 1882 and 1892. A disciple of Franck, yet afraid of being considered a dilettante, Chausson moved in the finest Parisian artistic circles, his friends including the poet Maurice Bouchor (1855-1929), the artists Odilon Redon and Auguste Renoir, and the composers Gabriel Fauré and Henri Duparc, to whom Poème de l’amour et de la mer is dedicated. Its text consists of two of Bouchor’s poems, with an orchestral interlude between. Throughout, words and music mesh ideally, sharing mystical, inward-looking emotion expressed with great refinement and precision.