Poème de l'amour et de la mer

This is a song cycle for voice and orchestra that Chausson worked on for a full decade, setting poems by his friend Maurice Bouchor that trace love's arrival and its slow death. The structure is unusual: two vocal sections bookend a purely orchestral interlude, so the orchestra does not just accompany but carries part of the emotional weight on its own. The text weaves together imagery of a sea-wind, water flowers, and a recurring lilac-time melody that reappears in the closing section, tying the two halves of the work together.

What to listen for

The orchestral interlude in the middle is the structural pivot of the whole piece: the voice drops out entirely, and the orchestra builds and then releases tension before the second vocal section begins. In the closing pages of 'La Mort de l'amour', the melody known from 'Le Temps des lilas' returns in the voice, which gives the ending the quality of something remembered rather than newly stated. Notice also how the harmonic language keeps resolving just slightly later than expected, a technique Chausson shares with Wagner's Tristan that keeps the music in a state of unresolved longing.

Recommended recording

Janet Baker with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by André Previn is often cited for Baker's combination of power and expressive control across the long vocal lines.

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