Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Masques et Bergamasques Suite, op. 112

Ouverture
Menuet
Gavotte

The French masters represented on tonight’s concert all had occasion to associate with each other through their musical connections in Paris–from the long-lived Saint-Saëns’ guiding the movement to establish French music as a serious endeavor and mentoring the others, Fauré’s teaching at the Paris Conservatory including Ravel, to Debussy’s pioneering and perfecting impressionism in music. Each in his own way made a lasting impression on French music throughout the latter part of the 19th century and into the 20th.

In 1918, Prince Albert of Monaco (at Saint-Saëns’ suggestion) commissioned the 73-year-old Gabriel Fauré to write a short dramatic work for the Monte Carlo theater. At this point in his life, having recently stepped down as director of the Paris Conservatory and dealing with increasing deafness, the composer wasn’t particularly interested in writing a new piece for just a few performances, so he came up with the idea of reworking and expanding his 1902 Fête galante (after Verlaine) by linking together various previously composed songs, instrumental and choral pieces. The program of the resulting Divertissement states: “The story of Masques is very simple. The characters Harlequin, Gilles and Colombine, whose task is usually to amuse the aristocratic audience, take their turn at being spectators at a ‘fête galante’ on the island of Cythera. The lords and ladies, who as a rule applaud their efforts, now unwittingly provide them with entertainment by their coquettish behavior.” The Monte Carlo set contained eight pieces while an orchestral suite of four movements was published as Masques et Bergamasques, Op. 112. This suite was premiered at a Paris Conservatory concert in November, 1919. Tonight we hear the first three movements of this suite: the effervescent Mozartian overture, a newly composed menuet, and the spritely gavotte originally composed in 1869 for piano solo.

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Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Cello Concerto, op. 33

Allegro non troppo
Allegretto con moto
Un peu moins vite

Brilliantly versatile, a fine craftsman, and extremely prolific, Camille Saint-Saëns was the only 19 th century French composer to successfully write in the traditional concerto form–producing ten concertos and some twenty additional pieces for solo instrument and orchestra. The first of two concertos for cello, the Cello Concerto in a minor, Op. 33, comes out of the 1870s when Saint-Saëns was at the height of his compositional powers. Other works of this period include the Piano Concerto No. 4, tone poems in the spirit of Liszt, and the opera Samson et Dalila. The cello concerto was premiered at a Paris Conservatory concert by the eminent cellist, Auguste Tolbecque, to whom it is dedicated. Of the number of pieces that Saint-Saëns composed for the cello, this concerto is the only one that has really taken a firm hold in the repertoire. While the piece falls in three main parts, the various themes are ingeniously combined into one continuous movement–an experiment in form that engages the ear, but refuses to be analyzed in the classical sense. The main theme, a descending triplet figure, is immediately introduced by the soloist, and later taken up by the orchestra. Following a plush presentation of a lyrical second theme, and ensuing development of those themes, the orchestra introduces the second main section with a dancing minuet on muted strings to accompany the cello melody. Following a solo cadenza, the oboe leads the main triplet theme back to center stage, where this theme and various others keep us guessing right up to the brilliant ending.

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Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Pavane pour une Infante Défunte

Coming from the pen of the young Maurice Ravel, one of the most original and erudite composers of the early 20 th century, Pavane for a Dead Princess, written for solo piano in 1899, was the piece that first established his reputation. Its overnight drawing room success inspired many fanciful interpretations, literary, pictorial, and dramatic, of the story it was supposed to be telling. For his part, Ravel always insisted that his title for this undeniably charming and atmospheric piece was chosen simply because he liked “the sound of the words”–Pavane pour une infante défunte. His appreciation of past masters and forms no doubt inspired the choice of pavane, a 16 th century court dance of a dignified processional character, to evoke a vision of the Spanish court. As the composer’s career progressed it became evident that Ravel was the supreme master of orchestration with an impeccable ear for balance of instrumental sonorities, tone colors, and originality in using instruments in unusual registers. He orchestrated a great many of his own piano works, as well as those of others, perhaps the most famous being Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Ravel produced the highly effective orchestration of the Pavane in 1910 with Alfredo Casella conducting the first performance of this version in Paris on Christmas, 1911. Listen for the underlying delicate pizzicato creating an illusion of a lute or vihuela, the upward arpeggios of the harp, and the colorful solo lines of horn, English horn, oboe, strings, flute–all elements carrying the piece with great dignity.

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Claude Debussy (1875-1937)
Petite Suite

En bateau
Cortège
Menuet
Ballet

Claude Debussy, known today as the greatest of the musical impressionists, spent the latter part of the 19 th century absorbing and assimilating literary (particularly work of symbolist poets such as Verlaine), visual (Japanese art and impressionist painters such as Monet), and musical (facilitated by his sojourn in Rome and visits to Bayreuth) experiences. As a result of these stimuli and his innate genius the composer developed a new musical language which is said to have opened the window to the growth of new musical ideas in the 20 th century. The young Debussy wrote the four movement Petite Suite in 1888-89 for piano-4 hands. The piece was first performed in a Parisian drawing room by the composer in collaboration with his publisher-to-be, Jacques Durand, and was soon made available in print. Debussy’s approach to color was first and foremost expressed through the timbres possible on the piano; even his orchestral works were worked out first at the piano. While the composer was fully capable of doing his own orchestration, the 1907 arrangement of the Petite Suite for small orchestra, harp and percussion was actually done by Debussy’s colleague Henri Büsser (1872-1973). The original four movement suite was clearly influenced by euphonious symbolist poetry. The titles of the first two movements are taken from Verlaine’s volume of poems Fêtes galantes. It is probable that En bateau depicts a small boat in the moonlight “gliding merrily over the dreaming water,” and Cortège “a monkey in a brocaded jacket trotting and leaping in front of his mistress, as she waves a handkerchief in her delicately gloved hand.” The magical Menuet is a transcription of an unpublished song, Fête Galante set to a text by Banville and the final festive Ballet is filled with all the fun and exuberance of a gala entertainment.

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