Berlioz: Les nuits d'été (1841-56)

Les Nuits d'été (Summer Nights) is a captivating song cycle by Hector Berlioz. The composer was inspired by six poems from La comédie de la mort (The Comedy of Death) by his close friend Théophile Gautier (1811-72). The poems consider love from a variety of perspectives, but the loss of love pervades them all. Performed as a cycle, the songs convey this loss all the more powerfully, not only as individual compositions touched by melancholy, but as a coherent concept in which the longed-for "always" of the first song, "Villanelle," becomes unattainable in the last, "L'île inconnue."

Originally composed for soloist and piano accompaniment, Berlioz orchestrated one of the songs in 1843 and the other five in 1856. He originally composed Les nuits d'été for mezzo-soprano or tenor voice, but he seems to have intended the orchestrated version to be sung by other types of voices, including alto or baritone for some of the songs. In the end, however, the cycle is sung almost exclusively by mezzo-sopranos. This may seem odd, since the speaker of the poems is male, but it could be explained by the operatic tradition of casting sopranos and mezzosopranos as boys or adolescents, the higher voice being an indicator of youthfulness. The range of the songs in orchestral form also fits that of a gifted mezzo-soprano. Despite a period of neglect, the 20th century saw a resurgence of appreciation for this work, making it one of Berlioz's most cherished compositions. The orchestration is modest by Berlioz's standards. Berlioz's innovative creation of an orchestral song cycle had few successors until Mahler revived the genre in the late 19th century.

The songs form a narrative that leads from a springtime joie de vivre ("Villanelle") and the loss of innocence ("Le spectre de la rose") to the death of a beloved ("Sur les lagunes"), a lament ("Absence"), the erasure of her memory ("Au cimetière"), and the beginning of a new future ("L'île inconnue"). Throughout the composition, the overarching theme is love, from innocence to courtship to death and burial.

"Villanelle" Allegretto; A major. 

The first of the set is a celebration of spring and love. It tells of the joys of walking together in the woods to gather wild strawberries and returning home with hands entwined. The music features a simple, charming melody over a chirping accompaniment, but even in this cheerful song, shadows pass over the music and belie its innocent surface.

"Le spectre de la rose" (The Ghost of the Rose). Adagio un poco lento et dolce assai; B major.

The ghost of a rose remembers the night it spent pinned to the dress of a beautiful woman at a ball the day before. The rose has died, but to have died on the girl's bosom was a fate that kings might envy. The setting is through-composed. The song has been called one of the most perfect expressions of French Romanticism. This poignant tale inspired Fokine's 1911 ballet, in which Nijinsky embodied the role of the Rose.

"Sur les lagunes: Lamento" (On the Lagoons: Lament). Andantino; F minor.

A sailor mourns a dead beloved and the pain of sailing out to sea unloved. With its somber harmonies and orchestration, this song is imbued with melancholy; the undulating accompaniment suggests the movement of the waves. The sad song fades away poetically on an unresolved half-cadence. This is the second of the two through-composed songs in the cycle.

"Absence" Adagio; F♯ major. 

The rhetorical "Absence" pleads for the return of the beloved; a great distance separates the singer from the beloved. In context, the distance could refer metaphorically to the distance between this life and the next. The song is strophic, in the form A-B-A.

"Au cimetière: Clair de lune" (At the Cemetery: Moonlight). Andantino non troppo lento; D major.

A gothic scene in which the ghost of the beloved calls to the singer from beyond the grave (the apparition is evoked by ghostly violin and viola harmonics). In this song, the singer finally frees himself from grief and decides never to return to the cemetery. Also in A-B-A form.

"L'île inconnue" (The Unknown Island). Allegro spiritoso; F major.

This song hints at the unattainable - a place where love can be eternal. The singer steers an imaginary ship across the open ocean and asks a new lover: "Where would you like to go? She replies: "Take me to the shore, where one loves forever." "In the land of love, that shore is unknown" the singer replies, and the song has been described as "cheerfully ironic." This closing song is strophic, with the form A-B-A-C-A′-D-A″.

An amalgamation of disparate poems, Les Nuits d'été was not originally conceived as a cycle by Gautier, but was meticulously assembled by Berlioz. The thematic exploration of love, while departing from conventional romanticism after the first song, maintains a nuanced narrative. Berlioz's artistic expression transcends conventional norms, offering a portrayal of love intertwined with mortality, culminating in a poignant depiction of a departed soul yearning for an elusive eternal love. A beautiful, romantic song cycle.

Texts of Les nuits d'été.

Listen to: hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Véronique Gens ∙ Lionel Bringuier

Choral Masterworks