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- Lennox Berkeley
Ronsard Sonnets, Set 1 (1952)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Commissioned by Peter Pears
Marie levez vous; Comme un void sur la branché; Otez vostre beauté, Adieu, cruelle, adieu
Programme Note
Four Ronsard Sonnets, Set 1 Op 40
This setting of four Ronsard Sonnets was originally written in response to a commission from Peter Pears who first performed it with Hugues Cuénod in 1952. It remained unpublished until Sir Peter told me that he would like to perform it again at the 1977 Aldeburgh Festival and I seized the opportunity of re-writing it. There is no change in the thematic material; in fact most revised passages affect only the piano part.
The poems were chosen to provide as much contrast of mood as possible, thus the first is all brightness and gaiety, while the second is quietly voluptuous. Similarly, the third poem is angry - the poet is furious with his mistress for her coldness and disdain - but in the last, more in sorrow than in anger, he accepts a necessary and inevitable separation.
Lennox Berkeley
This setting of four Ronsard Sonnets was originally written in response to a commission from Peter Pears who first performed it with Hugues Cuénod in 1952. It remained unpublished until Sir Peter told me that he would like to perform it again at the 1977 Aldeburgh Festival and I seized the opportunity of re-writing it. There is no change in the thematic material; in fact most revised passages affect only the piano part.
The poems were chosen to provide as much contrast of mood as possible, thus the first is all brightness and gaiety, while the second is quietly voluptuous. Similarly, the third poem is angry - the poet is furious with his mistress for her coldness and disdain - but in the last, more in sorrow than in anger, he accepts a necessary and inevitable separation.
Lennox Berkeley