Métamorphoses is one of the shortest cycles in the repertoire. I wouldn’t dare say it is the very shortest, but there can’t be many that consist of three songs and last less than four or five minutes. Francis Poulenc composed it in 1942, based on poems by Louise de Vilmorin –a few years earlier he had written another cycle on her poetry, Fiançailles pour rire.
Since two of the three poems in Métamorphoses were not published until 1945 –in the collection Le sable du sablier [The Sand of the Hourglass]– and we know that the baritone Pierre Bernac was a close friend of Vilmorin, everything suggests that Poulenc had access to the unpublished poems firsthand and wrote these songs for the singer.
The sopranos, however, quickly made the cycle their own, and today we will listen to the beautiful C’est ainsi que tu es [This Is How You Are], the second song of the cycle, performed by the great Felicity Lott, who passed away a few months ago; she is accompanied by Graham Johnson. The song bears the indication Très calme, très à l’aise (very calm, very at ease), and it has that languid, very French air (when we speak of songs) that Poulenc combined so well with a touch of tension; and in the couple of minutes it lasts, he still finds time to frame the poem with a prelude and a postlude that are utterly charming.
In Vilabertran we will also listen to C’est ainsi que tu es sung by a soprano, Mireia Tarragó, accompanied by Wolfram Rieger. After the song, as we have been doing these past weeks, you will find an overview of this recital and the two that follow. Shall we meet there.
Chevelure emmêlée,
Ton pied courant le temps,
Ton ombre qui s’étend
Et murmure à ma tempe.
Voilà, c’est ton portrait,
C’est ainsi que tu es
Et je veux te l’écrire
Pour que la nuit venue
Tu puisses croire et dire
Que je t’ai bien connue.
Friday 20 August: Mireia Tarragó & Wolfram Rieger
From this concert, in addition to the Poulenc song I am presenting to you this week, we have also presented here the two major Catalan cycles, by Mompou and Toldrà, respectively:
This concert will be a true Brahmsian celebration! To set the mood, you can revisit the Liebeslieder‑Walzer and listen to these three other lieder.
Sunday 23 August: Ruzan Mantashian & Margarit Sargsyan
We haven’t listened to any of the Komitas songs this duo will perform at Liederabend, but if Komitas is new to you, here’s a good place to start. And you can also revisit two Tchaikovsky songs and four by Strauss:
