The first, Villanelle , describes two lovers venturing out of doors at the first sign of spring. It's a simple, radiant melody, with a light strumming accompaniment in which, from the second verse onward, fragments of the melody are echoed in the orchestra. When he orchestrated the second song, La specter de la rose , Berlioz added a long brooding introduction, and throughout the piece the orchestral writing dramatizes the soprano's flowing line in a way that elevates Gautier's tale of the lingering presence of a cut flower to something genuinely tragic. The next three songs reinforce the mood of longing for something lost. In Sur les lagunes a man mourns the death of his lover against music that suggests the movement of a boat on the water, each verse ending with a heartfelt and desperate cry.
Pan exist side by side.
There is also a tightness and economy to the music that reflects Britten's awareness of contemporaries like Stravinsky and Poulenc. He creates some glorious effects, and there is often an harmonic disjunction within songs which increases the poetry's sense of ambiguity. There are only a few satisfying recordings around, perhaps because it needs a dramatic singer who is capable of subtlety, elegance and restraint. If anything her voice is even better suited to the Britten, which receives a marvelously sparkling performance.