Deux sonnets de Jean Cassou


Deux sonnets de Jean Cassou is a song-cycle for baritone and piano written by the French composer Henri Dutilleux in 1954. He later transcribed or allowed transcriptions of the work for various ensembles.
It is based on poems written by Jean Cassou when he was a prisoner of war. It has been championed by major singers like Gérard Souzay, :fr:Gilles Cachemaille|Gilles Cachemaille and more recently Renée Fleming.

Background

Jean Cassou was the first Chief Conservator of the Musée National d'Art Moderne. He was dismissed from his post by the Vichy government in 1940 and subsequently joined the Résistance. As a result, he was arrested and, while in prison, he conceived Trente-trois sonnets composés au secret which he had to memorize since he was denied pen and paper. They were clandestinely published in 1944.

Overview

Dutilleux first encountered Cassou's poems in 1944, shortly after they were published. Ten years later, he reread them and decided to set to music two of them, for baritone and piano: Il n'y avait que des troncs déchirés and J'ai rêvé que je vous portais entre mes bras. The songs are markedly contrasted. The first one is violent and depicts a ruined castle, the second one is calm and dream-like, a remembrance of past love.

Songs

In the mid-1990s, Dutilleux orchestrated the song-cycle. Chandos Records released the premier recording of the orchestrated version in 1996.
In 2011, Pascal Gallois transcribed it for bassoon and piano with the composer's approval. The transcription was played at the Hôtel de Lauzun in presence of the composer.
Dutilleux transcribed it for soprano and orchestra for Renée Fleming who recorded it in 2012.

Other Cassou Sonnets set to music by Dutilleux

Dutilleux discovered Cassou's poems in 1944 and immediately wrote La Geôle for voice and orchestra based on one of them.
In 1954, he set Eloignez-vous to music, along with Il n'y avait que des troncs déchirés and J'ai rêvé que je vous portais entre mes bras. Although the three poems were premièred together, Eloignez-vous was not included in the cycle and only resurfaced in April 2011.
Dutilleux had this to say about his work on Cassou's poems: