Lili Boulanger: D'un soir triste (1918)

Lili Boulanger (1893-1918): D'un soir triste (1918).
BBC Philharmonic diretta da Yan Pascal Tortelier.
Cover image: paintining by Edouard Vuillard.
***
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[@Tyrell_Corp2019]

To me her music is straddled right between Debussy and Stravinsky. It’s just perfect.

[@DrMontague]

Agree

[@chainuser1774]

Yeah to me it's like Debussy lived the life of Edgar Allan Poe and wrote music to match his pain. Lili Boulanger was remarkable!

[@adolfdyversiti6517]

​@@chainuser1774I can add it to the list- Dmitri Shostakovich,Béla Bartók and Mikhail Bulgakov?

[@purrrpurr9365]

Yes, but in the end its Lili and noone else. She is as original as other composers you mentioned

[@Mkhonto]

Spot on

[@ymousanon4615]

Very profound piece of music. Lili Boulanger only lived to 25 years of age. Nadia Boulager, her sister, went on to live a long life and taught everyone from Aaron Copeland, Leonard Bernstein, to Burt Bacharach and Quincy Jones....Story has it that when Nadia read her sister Lili's composition, Nadia gave up composing. She thought so highly of Lili's abilities.

[@ymousanon4615]

thank you Nicholas Cooper. you are a fellow fine art music lover. although my tastes in music are eclectic. appreciate even the "low brow" musics of the world.... nay more, how presumptuous of me. you are probably a composer or musician also. i am not sadly

[@Phonojoy]

Hello, Thank you for your kind words, Yes I am a musician but only of amateur status . I used to play Trombone but still play the piano mainly for my own ears !!! I love the music of Lili Boulanger. Very best wishes to you.

[@muiscman807]

Nadia was a wonderful teacher. There are so many great composers that have her to thank for guidance. However she gave up composing because she knew she was a mediocre composer. She said this herself. And if you listen to her compositions they are ordinary and boring. Kind of odd that such a great teacher of composition did not have the talent in herself.

[@marcabel7909]

There is some myth to this story: Nadia actually composed in secret and left us a great treasure to have after her death in 1979. I'd encourage anyone interested to check out her work.

[@papwithanhatchet902]

Lili was 24 when she died.

[@urlocalqueercryptid]

This piece was composed the year she died. I'd give a lot to know what thoughts and emotions were going through Lili when she wrote it. It's incredibly deep and sad, full of raw feeling. Her music in the beginning was always very light and happy but the closer she came to 1918 the darker her music became. Think of what more she had left to offer to the music world.

[@TRISCORE]

That Very Sad :(

[@jordanesewals]

Thank you for the story behind this emotional piece of music.

[@darrylschultz9311]

I've got some information-but first of all,how much is "a lot"?

[@karenbaumgartel6077]

I read she had a very serious broncial pneumonia when she was 2 which left her immune system very weak for the rest of her life. Also her father who was 77 when she was born, died when she was 6, which as she was very close with him, left a big impression on her. Apparently at a young age, she was already thinking about and concerned about death.

[@SuperArkleo]

Maddie Wick...Exacly these emotions, thoughts and feelings were with her. Remember also that it was the hardest of times of the 1st world war and I can hear this in her music. Recall how many French composers were affected by this war and how many were killed, burnt, perished...

[@pjmarkowski]

If only she had lived longer... just imagine the wonderful music she would have given us.

[@en0by]

+Paul Markowski I think about this so often. She was so young, and yet her work was so sophisticated and her style so polished. Luckily, her later works give us a good look at how her style might have developed if she had reached her golden years. So sad.

[@soundtreks]

agreed but I'm also glad we have what music she did compose in her short time on this earth.

[@darrylschultz9311]

Others gave us music after she died that's as good as anything she would've been able to come up with had she lived to a ripe old age.I can guarantee it.

[@helenamarie4337]

she has such a unique style ❤️

[@djlivus]

​@@darrylschultz9311, yes that is true, but the fact is that every great composer has his own personal style. For instance, Schubert had also a very short life, when he died at a tender age he made greater symphonies than Beethoven's at the same age: most of scholars deem Schubert Great Symphony better than Beethoven first and second. Of course, we had Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler- who made remarcably good symphonies. But they are not Schubert s symphonies, but something else, a different style. So the loss remains. The same with Lili

[@paulprocopolis]

This is so much more than just a depiction of a sad evening. Here there is power, intensity and profound tragedy - what many must have felt at the end of World War 1. Posterity's tragedy is that Mlle Boulanger died so young.

[@pilouetmissiou]

Yes, i agree with you..

[@starmezzo]

What an incredible composer this woman was. The richness of the harmonies is astonishing. Her orchestrations are brilliant, thought provoking and mysterious. I can’t help but wonder what she would have written if she had lived another 50 years… I think that about Purcell, Schubert, Mozart, Bellini… so many incredible talents whose music was written within a short lifespan. Grateful for their brilliance, no matter how short lived.

[@cxmxg]

I don’t like all this “had she lived longer” comments. She lived a short life and made the most out of it, the shortness of it takes part in the beauty of her compositions. Just enjoy

[@pilouetmissiou]

Yes...

[@SseregonN]

Dont agree, I wish she coule have lived longer, it's just natural to feel this way

[@KrisKringle14]

Everybody that knows her story feels sorry for Lili Boulanger, because 1) she WANTED to live longer (which is the most natural thing at age 25), and 2) she had just started developing her very special musical language. I believe that, had she lived longer, her musical voice would have had a great impact on 20th century classical music. I enjoy her music, yet, always with a feeling of sadness (which is also inherent in her music), but I really DO NOT enjoy your heartless comment.

[@MrLenoir99]

"The shortness of it" has nothing to do with the beauty of her compositions, unless you mean that your aesthetic judgment is affected by what you know about her biography. Which it should not be.

[@lemurianchick]

@@SseregonNYeah, it's natural that there are boneheads in this world...

[@mohammadtorikh]

Lili Boulanger is just a one of her kind. She is a special among us

[@craigkeller]

Her music makes me think of what life must be like at the edge of our universe.

[@KrisKringle14]

Back to this piece, again. It is so mindblowing to see (hear) Boulanger go far beyond Debussy and Ravel, and many other composers. At least, at that time, she was absolutely eye-to-eye with, e.g., Strawinsky

[@user-fu7mn5te3d]

Eine der berührendsten Kompositionen des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts. Wer war Lili Boulanger und welche tiefe Empfindungen schlummerten wohl in dieser jungen Frauenseele ?

[@Phonojoy]

I have listend to D'un soir triste many times and I am always in awe of the gigantic scoring and invention by Lili BOulanger, This is not happy music but it contains passion and sadness and written in the last year of her life. Thank you Lili .

[@veraevans6387]

Very dramatic and beautiful, and I don't normally like such purely modern music. The ending is magnificent. 10:05.

[@simonmoore7454]

I agree and the ending really pulls at the heartstrings!

[@lyndaslens]

Certainly her music reflects the times in which she lived. WW1 was tearing Europe apart. Young men were being slaughtered in battle. This young woman's music is heartbreakingly sorrowful. Could be that a young soldier had stolen her heart? Fearful nights were probably so common for many.

[@pianiste1000]

She helped fellow soldier musicians together with her sister by writing letters, sending objects, and even creating a caritative association trough a special publication for the Conservatory music students during wartime. Her heart was clearly deeply moved by the war, and she helped a lot of people. Many people consider her to be an Angel, and so do I. She was only 6 when her father died at the age of 83, so this must have been a particularly severe traumatic experience.

[@KrisKringle14]

It is so amazing how Lili Boulanger embraced the contemporary musical language of her time, and with what kind of mastery she quickly found her own musical voice. Her works belong, to my opinion, to the most important compositions of the 20th century.

[@DragosDomnara]

Lili Boulanger is one of the greatest "what if's" in music, what music she could've made if only she lived longer, let alone a few more years... That poor girl, my heart aches for the life she had to live. Thankfully she had her sister to comfort her

[@robertmarcus9653]

What amazing music. Vuillard's painting is greatly matching. Thought provoking, with the heart.

[@tomestubbs]

This music speaks to me. I love it.

[@gerardbegni2806]

A very moving evocation of a sad evening. The 'maestria' in harmoinic and orchestral writing is worth to be noted.

[@user-ey7xq1lw3v]

just discovered this composer the other day and wow am I blown away. such intensity yet delicate beauty. I am in awe. Every composer has a distinct theme or voice they give off but hers. there's really no one similar.

[@smkh2890]

I just learned about her and keep coming back to this piece. it is quite moving.

[@Zephaniah3verse17]

Wow! Debussy meets Stravinsky, Delius and Gershwin (and the gong at 4:02 reminds me of Tchaikovsky 6). There is definitely something of "October's bellowing anger" in this piece. Oh what madness is war...

[@KrisKringle14]

I really understand your comparisons with other composers, yet her music has an extraordinary uniqueness. I was absolutely blown away when I heard her works and her life story for the 1st time.

[@remixuereb]

J'aime énormément cette empathie sublime propre à Lili Boulanger , ce style nouveau révolutionnaire dans un sens propre , prêt à nous délivrer des messages d'espoir au beau milieu de la douleur , car avant l'élévation , l'être en quête de vérité et de beauté passe immanquablement dans des moments de difficultés , " vallée de larmes " ou vallée de bacca , car pour épurer le métal précieux , l'on fait chauffer les particules de métal . Il en est de même pour nous , pauvres et parfois misérables humains que nous sommes . Message à ne pas délivrer en dehors du temps opportun et sans discernement ni patience à des néophytes ( immatures ) dont des vérités délivrées trop tôt sur leur chemin de vie seraient un danger pour eux mêmes , car elles seraient rejetées dès lors et souvent pour toujours .... §§§§§§§§ Pour en revenir aux moyens étonnants dons disposait Lili Boulanger dans l'expression du pathétique , nous avons quelques musiques à écouter dans les difficultés pour des âmes réceptives à un affranchissement du moi haïssable et freinées par la douleur du corps ou/et de l'âme.

[@remixuereb]

Merci pour votre réponse , et je ressens que nous sommes quelques personnes à ressentir cet extraordinaire pouvoir de la musique mis vraiment au service de l'esprit divin , chose rare qu'il serait dommage de ne pas souligner ...

[@ilkinond]

You can almost hear Dutilleux in this music.

[@janchor]

Duttilleux was 2 years old when Boulanger composed this, so I'd phrase it the other way around.

[@pilouetmissiou]

it is the contrary....

[@philzmusic8098]

You are a poet.

[@lastfoursongs]

Don't you just hate that, "if only", enjoy Lili Boulanger, for sure she is still with us, quality over quantity.

[@soundtreks]

I definitely agree.

[@darrylschultz9311]

Yes,but a large quantity of quality over a small quantity of quality any day of the week!

[@sebastiendamarey6673]

Magnifique oeuvre, qui devrait être nettement plus souvent interprétée !

[@jackarcher7495]

I had never heard this, and am greatly moved by it. Thank you for posting. I will need to learn more about this composer. I join others here in regretting she was not with us longer.

[@MegaCirse]

Biblique, dramatique et immense. Je voudrais m'identifier à cette musique. Une ancienne légende sacrée visitée par un génie contemporain. Mélangez avec le souffle de la plus majestueuse & sournoise Apocalypse. La désolation épique des anciens Dieux!

[@secretname8587]

Masterpiece.

[@faonfaon]

Quelle écriture et quelles orchestrations ! Que de belles couleurs ! Merci Lili !

[@pilouetmissiou]

oui c beau comme couleurs

[@pilouetmissiou]

Lili, c'est toujours très beau....ça a de l'ame ! une voix forte, a strong voice....

[@chiayinwu]

This is a formidable piece.

[@Emiliasooo]

6:53 ¡Esa harmonía y orquestación es una locura! A nadie más se le hubiera ocurrido algo así.

[@craigkeller]

Listen to Leonard Bernsteins Chichester Psalms.

[@Emiliasooo]

@@craigkeller Well, that's way ahead in the future. Anyway, that music is good too. Plus, Bernstein was also a student of Nadia Boulanger, Lili's sister.

[@mahler58]

So inceedibly besutiful! Strange how this orchestral version differs in colour from the version for stringtrio. I read that the original handwriting of Lili was so difficult to read by then( because she was so feeble from her illness), that there is a lot of discussion on what are the right notes.

[@charlesbrown1934]

What a mysteriously moving piece of music. Lili Boulanger is one of music's best known "early death" composers. Had she lived awhile longer, imagine what music she might have left us.

[@albertoeduardovalleslujan148]

Si realmente UN ÁNGEL VIVIÓ ENTRE NOSOTROS. Así Jacques Sagot (pianista y escritor costarricense tituló un reciente artículo. Coincido con él, pues solo un ángel podría haber compuesto "D°un soir triste.

[@guidokorbach]

Just 25 years old and so mature

[@rojoingram]

A beautiful and powerful depiction of sadness.

[@bearsrider]

I have a new favorite musician now!

[@darrylschultz9311]

Who dat?

[@Anonymous-re9fd]

Darryl Schultz cardi b obviously

[@karinkochanek8632]

4

[@eremitaorgao]

@@Anonymous-re9fd lol

[@welekid]

C'est la toute première fois que j'entends sa musique.Je viens de la découvrir ce matin avec sa sœur. Impressionnantes toutes les 2. Oh et j'oubliais ,je suis né un 21 août aussi.

[@didiergaugain7795]

la musique de lili boulanger que des supers musiques dans toutes ses compositions.

[@jx7500]

So deep, from someone so young.

[@kavalkid1]

When pain is unrelenting.

[@perrystone879]

Excellent piece.

[@Gusrikh1]

...absolutely .. beautiful ..

[@pilouetmissiou]

i love i love i love.....

[@darrylschultz9311]

Well come on,don't leave us in suspense-what exactly is it you love?

[@pilouetmissiou]

@@darrylschultz9311 mon pauvre anglais ne me permet pas grand-chose....tjrs beaucoup aimé cette pièce pour son intensité, c'est comme si je sentais ce qu'elle devait ressentir...la luminosité cherche sa voie pour s'affirmer mais l'obscurité gagne la partie.... c'est prodigieusement exprimé je trouve.... Excuse me ..would be completely unable to express this with my poor english...

[@Ziad3195]

@@pilouetmissiou I agree wholeheartedly!

[@JohnMassari]

Wonderful and deep.

[@henrichimkovitch9609]

Quel extraordinaire testament musical que cette oeuvre d'une compositrice encore trop méconnue.

[@peoplepleaser6916]

I can hear a story without any words

[@Singto60]

My friend passed away. And this legitally suits my feeling right now.

[@sophierobic2583]

Merci Lili !

[@phila3884]

I am unfamiliar with her work, but I can't help but hear the suffering of World War I throughout this recording.

[@deloreswilson1798]

Its something to think about that she wrote these pieces when she didn't really feel well.She was dying yet she strung notes of wonder and life.She is now hung in my Gallery.🤔

[@MedievalRichard]

Splendid stuff.

[@Protonixum]

Excellent !

[@PETETHEGERMAN]

Dearest Lili, I wish I could have spent just one evening with you, even a sad one. Or walk with you hand in hand in that vieux jardin, or sous bois. But first I would have to learn how to say "I love you" in French. Can one fall in love with someone just through her music? Yes. Dear God, yes!

[@galas062]

danke!!!

[@johnstag1391]

Sublime

[@AvetissovGeorge]

elle est brillante, génie !!!!!!

[@IamPriyankaSoni]

Is it only me who feels like this piece gives the Mahler symphony 5 vibes?

[@giovannismartini479]

Très intense

[@samdorsalis878]

Awesome!!!😊

[@Titi-v8g]

Namasté

[@miriamodonovan7895]

Very beautiful.

[@cygnebleu]

magnificent work!

[@jacobmurphy4965]

This is magnificent!

[@alessd4556]

Wow suena muy dramático. Me encanta.

[@Dedalusalley]

Stunning.

[@FranciscoFerrerGaliana1930]

Excelente

[@culturalivrosetc5259]

INCROYABLE

[@lucasninec]

A very talented general!

[@notaire2]

Tiefempfundene Interpretation dieses traurigen Meisterwerks mit gut harmonisierten doch ein bisschen bedrohlichen Tönen aller Instrumente. Der Einfluss vom ersten Weltkrieg ist klar. Der geniale Maestro dirigiert das ausgezeichnete Orchester im gut phrasierten Tempo und mit perfekt kontrollierter Dynamik. Schade, dass die unvergleichliche Komponistin so jung gegangen war!

[@joao-geraldodamasceno1581]

Magique!!!

[@oscarrocabert6268]

Quina música més bona.

[@klagrohzt5846]

Magnifique ! Merci !

[@danielamariarodriguezflore2075]

Que lindo

[@Leibo07]

Lili did not pass away too late.

[@Griffinmc]

Miklos Rosza should thank Lili for his score to “Double Indemnity.”

[@reijokinnunen5480]

There's a whole story in this "sad evening"; this is not just an impression of something.

[@jcoolverine3483]

well sometimes doing your best it's now enough like with this piece, it's missing the soul. But if i would choose between this and nowadays crappy music, i would choose this without even second thought

[@AngeloSpadaforaViolinista]

.......e se campava 80 anni cosa avrebbe scritto sto genio!!!! Peccato!!!

[@pilouetmissiou]

Non è detto....

[@version191]

cool

[@matiasperezramirez5303]

when i hear things like this i do not fckin understand how that sound can be inside the head of a 20,s years old lady.

[@MichaelConwayBaker]

I can only agree with Mr. Markowski!

[@billionhappy]

❤️

[@harryandruschak2843]

"On a sad night."

[@benjamincuevaseninde]

-- Sombre & déchirante plainte. --

[@deloreswilson1798]

She had an old soul.Way beyond her years.A comet...here then in a trail of effort,gone.🤔

[@MFLB1]

creo que murio joven para no humillar la posteridad...

[@Ziad3195]

?

[@MichaelConwayBaker]

This music reflects the disaster of WW1.

[@stephenjablonsky1941]

So mature a work for one so young! Rarely has a woman composed a work that compares favorable with her male counterparts, but this certainly does the trick. This is first rate, full of passion and moodiness. Its syntax makes perfect sense from beginning to end. The more you hear it, the more you love it.

[@philzmusic8098]

Several women have; they're just unknown. I recommend that you listen to some Julia Perry. Also Germaine Tailleferre.

[@stompinknowledge3968]

​@@philzmusic8098 I'll listen. Care to add more suggestions?

[@philzmusic8098]

@@stompinknowledge3968 This is all I have.

[@jemiller226]

@@stompinknowledge3968 Amy Beach, Ethel Smyth, Morfydd Llwyn Owen (ESPECIALLY her, also died very young but was much more prolific than Boulanger), Cécile Chaminade, Augusta Holmès, and I could go on.

[@stompinknowledge3968]

@@jemiller226 thankyou! Sure you don't wanna go on?

[@Blueroom97777]

Can someone tell me the name of this style of music? or a similar composer?

[@wohololao]

Lili was quite an unique composer, and somewhat ahead of her time. Not sure about the style, but search for early XX century composers like Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Faure.

[@pilouetmissiou]

at the beginning we can speak of Fauré i think...for example if you hear le cycle of melody "Clairière" but really Lili becomes Lili very quickly and her style is really only her style. Someone said ahead of her time yes, but she didn't have time to develop her potential... when you hear her music, it has always soul.. she had really a lot of talent..

[@devindevon]

Lili was one of a kind, but maybe give Vincent D'indy's Op. 61, "Jour d'été à la montagne" a try. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eoqToIqsec9jq9U

[@darrylschultz9311]

Sorry,wouldn't have a clue.

[@Tomek.adagietto]

It reminds me a bit of Szymanowski.

[@franckcoinchelin9862]

une bulle musicale colorée et chatoyante

[@fabriziogarzi9892]

Forse come musica da film...un minestrone di suoni non sempre gradevoli.

[@mahler58]

I meant incredibly....

[@didiergaugain7795]

pour orchestre seulement

[@phila3884]

Did she die of Spanish Flu? (1918)

[@mule-ou5ii]

Chronic bronchial pneumonia and Crohn's disease.

[@Blueroom97777]

Sounds like Joe Hisaishi, beautiful!

[@pilouetmissiou]

?? Sounds like someone else ??? Perhaps in the others sense ...

[@tomascostero9962]

7:13._8:33

[@candide1065]

This sounds so bland and vacuous, but wait, she's a woman, so I can't just not like this.

[@Ziad3195]

Are you stupid?