Nuits

As the symbiosis between the art of the poet and that of the composer, the French mélodie became the jewel in the crown of the music of the ‘Belle Époque’ in all the Parisian salons between 1870 and 1914. Moreover, the genre also turned, little by little, towards the concert hall, and decked itself in the hues of the orchestra thanks to the skill of Duparc, Saint-Saëns and Debussy. But curiously enough, in the space between simple piano accompaniment and the vast symphony orchestra, only a few works availed themselves of the richness and variety offered by chamber forces. Three such pieces, Chausson’s Chanson perpétuelle, Lekeu’s Nocturne and Fauré’s cycle La Bonne Chanson, by placing a string quartet and a piano around the singer, combine the characteristics of the mélodie with those of the piano quintet, forming a whole whose tone colours fluctuate between intimacy and orchestral ambition. An isolated case in the history of music, these pioneering compositions have acquired a fame still undimmed today. The programme proposed by the Palazzetto Bru Zane, in close collaboration with Véronique Gens, experiments with the idea of applying the principle of transcription to her favourite repertoire. Alongside the three works mentioned above, music by celebrated composers mingles with unknown pieces to retrace a succession of emotional states within a nocturnal ambience: recollection, tranquillity, dreams, terror.