Les Djinns op. 12 N 43b / La Naissance de Vénus op. 29 N 72b / Madrigal op. 35 N 78b / Pavane op. 50 N 100a

This volume of “Œuvres complètes de Gabriel Fauré” contains Fauré’s four secular choral works in their orchestral arrangements, namely “Les Djinns”, “La Naissance de Vénus”, “Madrigal”, and “Pavane”. These works were composed between 1876 and 1887; thereafter Fauré wrote choral compositions based only on sacred texts. The first three works are presented here for the first time in a full score edition, previously having been published only in their versions with piano accompaniment. This edition is therefore the first to present the works with an authoritative musical text based on the careful study of the sources.

“Les Djinns” (1876-76) for mixed choir and orchestra is based on the famous poem by Victor Hugo first published in the collection “Les Orientales”, while “La Naissance de Vénus” (1882) for soloists, choir and orchestra is based on a text by Paul Collin. “Madrigal”, the orchestral version of which cannot be dated with certainty (around 1891, for a quartet of soloists or choir) has been composed after a poem by Armand Silvestre, and the famous “Pavane”, originally composed for orchestra and only later supplemented with a text by Symbolist poet Robert de Montesquiou, is presented here in an elegant, graceful version with mixed choir.