Alina Bercu & Gabriel Sin: G. Fauré – Clair de Lune

@ the loft

"For me, art and especially music have the task of lifting us as far as possible above reality." - Gabriel Fauré

In search of lost time - this or something similar is often said in the context of Gabriel Fauré's music. If atmospheric melodies, subtle harmonies and a certain dreamy elegance always play a major role with him. Dreamlike - that is also his work "Clair de Lune" for voice and piano. The inspiration was the poem of the same name by Paul Verlaine, a dreamy, melancholy poem in the "quiet moonlight, sad and beautiful". If the title often makes one think directly of Debussy's well-known piano music, Fauré's song is no less important - after all, it is crucial to the genre of the art song and to French "mélodie" what Schubert's "Gretchen am Spinnrad" is to German art song.

Crucial in its meaning, Fauré's music seems rather unexciting at first glance. The piano accompaniment consists of continuous arpeggios in the left hand, the right hand accompanies the vocal melody - yet the piano is by no means "only" accompaniment. Voice and piano are a "pas de deux": each stands alone, but merge again in the next moment. This is also confirmed by both performers of this work, the tenor Gabriel Sin and the pianist Alina Bercu. For both of them, it is a multi-layered work that opens up new images and worlds of sound every time they play it. And it not only opens them up; it is precisely this music that carries us away from the din of everyday life – again: a piece of lost times.