The French singer, Emma Bardac (1862-1934), was the love interest, first of Gabriel Fauré, and later Claude Debussy.
Between 1893 and 1896, Fauré composed a set of six whimsically titled piano duets to mark birthdays and other events in the life of Bardac’s young daughter, Régina-Hélène, who was know as “Dolly.” In 1906, conductor Henri Rabaud orchestrated the “Dolly” Suite, and used it to accompany “an ingenious ballet” at Paris’ Théâtre des Arts.
The Suite begins with a dreamy lullaby (Berceuse) which Fauré composed years earlier, and which he presented as a gift to mark Dolly’s first birthday. The second piece (Mi-a-ou) is a delightfully irregular dance. Its title references the two-year-old child’s attempts to pronounce the name of her brother. Containing a quote from Fauré’s First Violin Sonata, Le jardin de Dolly opens the door to a delightfully adventurous wandering melody, evocative of a serene garden. The gracefully bounding Kitty-valse does not refer to a cat, but rather to the playful family dog, Ketty. The introspective, chromatic Tendresse was dedicated originally to the wife of Fauré’s music publisher. Its middle section contains a beautiful flowing melody which unfolds in canon between high and low voices. The Suite concludes with a bright, sunny Spanish dance (Le pas espagnol). It is music which overflows with bubbly rhythms, and an infectious sense of cheerful exuberance.
This performance, recorded in April of 2021 for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, features pianists Wu Han and Gilles Vonsattel:
Featured Image: Fauré performing the “Dolly” Suite with Mlle Lombard in 1913