Gabriel Fauré, Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80 (1898)

Performed by Boston Sinfonia, Seigi Ozawa conductor

00:00 - No. 1 Prélude - Quasi adagio
06:24 - No. 2 Fileuse (Hilandera) - Andantino quasi allegretto
08:58 - No. 3 Sicilienne - Allegretto molto moderato
13:02 - No. 4 La Mort de Mélisande - Molto adagio

Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80 is a suite derived from incidental music by Gabriel Fauré for Maurice Maeterlinck's play of the same name. He was the first of four leading composers to write music inspired by Maeterlinck's drama. Debussy, Schoenberg and Sibelius followed in the first decade of the 20th century. Fauré's music was written for the London production of Maeterlinck's play in 1898. To meet the tight deadline of the production, Fauré reused some earlier music from incomplete works and enlisted the help of his pupil Charles Koechlin, who orchestrated the music. Fauré later constructed a four-movement suite from the original theatre music, orchestrating the concert version himself.

The suite at first consisted of the Prélude, Fileuse (entr'acte to Act 3) and La mort de Mélisande (entr'acte to Act 4). In this form it was premiered at the Concerts Lamoureux in February 1901. Fauré was not happy with the performance, telling his wife that the conductor, Camille Chevillard did not really understand the music. Fauré later added the Sicilienne. This version of the suite was published in 1909. The suite is sometimes performed with the addition of Mélisande's song "The King's three blind daughters", in Koechlin's orchestration.

The Prélude is based on two themes; the first is tightly restricted, with no large melodic intervals between successive notes. The critic Gerald Larner suggests that this theme reflects Mélisande's introverted personality. The second theme is introduced by a romantic solo cello with woodwind, and may, in Larner's view represent Mélisande as first seen by her future husband, Golaud. The horn calls near the end of this movement may suggest Golaud's discovery of Mélisande in the forest.

La Fileuse is an orchestral representation of a spinning song. The Fauré scholar Jean-Michel Nectoux notes that although Debussy omits it in his operatic version, Mélisande is shown at her spinning wheel in Maeterlinck's play. A gentle oboe melody is accompanied by the strings, who maintain a theme imitative of spinning.

The last movement, in D minor, is inescapably tragic, with a theme of lamentation for clarinets and flutes. There are echoes of Mélisande's song throughout the movement. The opening theme returns fortissimo on the strings "before a last echo of the song and a sadly modal approach on solo flute to the final chord" (Larner). This movement was played at Fauré's own funeral.

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