Elgar’s Salut d’amour is a literal love-note. He wrote the piece in 1888 for his fiancée Caroline Alice Roberts, in response to a love poem she’d sent him, titled “Love’s Grace.” Elgar dedicated Salut d’amour “To Carice” – his nickname for Caroline Alice, a contraction of her first and middle names. The Elgars must have loved this sweet invented name: they named their daughter Carice when she was born in 1890.

Program notes by Emma Riggle.

This ethereal duet is from Delibes’ most successful opera: Lakmé. It premiered in Paris in 1883, and audiences were immediately entranced by the story, about the forbidden love between Lakmé, the daughter of a Hindu priest, and Gérald, a British officer, in colonial India. In this duet, Lakmé (soprano) and her servant Mallika (mezzo soprano) sing as they gather jasmine and roses by a river.

Program notes by Emma Riggle.

Released as the single for his 2018 album, Evolution, Alexis Ffrench’s “Bluebird” is a dreamy and nostalgic voyage via solo piano. The piece has been a listener favorite since its publication and offers a welcoming sense of hope. Inspired by Satie and Debussy, Ffrench said about the work: “I wanted to write something that expressed a certain innocence and purity. There’s so much trauma around us right now, and I wanted to share a moment of calm, beauty, and consolation.”

Program notes by Rebecca Richardson, All Classical Portland’s Music Researcher & Archivist.

Bach likely composed the six keyboard suites known as the French Suites between 1722-1725. At the time, he was employed by the court of Anhalt-Köthen, where he had access to a wonderful staff of instrumental musicians and was expected to compose secular music for court entertainment. The French Suites are collections of stylized dances for harpsichord, including this stately Sarabande, a triple-meter dance style that originated in the Spanish colonies.

Program notes by Emma Riggle.

Le Pont Mirabeau (The Bridge Mirabeau) is a work for unaccompanied chorus by the 20th-century French Canadian composer Lionel Daunais. Daunais was a baritone and director who specialized in operetta and enjoyed a long, influential career based in Montreal. Le Pont Mirabeau is Daunais’s impressionistic setting of a poem by 20th- century French poet Guillaume Apollinaire. It tells of a love separated physically by the bridge Mirabeau, which crosses the Seine, and separated spiritually, by fate and the passage of
time.

Program notes by Emma Riggle.

The immense popularity of Mascagni’s one-act opera, Cavalleria Rusticana (Rustic Chivalry), helped launch the career of the Italian composer and continues to be regularly programmed by opera houses around the world. The story, set in Sicily circa 1900, involves a tragic love triangle between a seduced peasant girl, a dashing soldier, and a married woman. Over time, the “Intermezzo” emerged as a beloved instrumental work for audiences, offering a moment of lush serenity amid the plot’s dramatic storyline. The tune comes from a hymn heard earlier in the opera during Easter Sunday Mass. 

Program notes by Rebecca Richardson.

Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1894) was inspired by the epic poem by Stéphane Mallarmé and represents Debussy’s foray into the “modern era” of classical music. The tone poem marked a significant shift away from 19^th-century Romanticism and galvanized a new generation of composers to create outside the norms of the time. In the musical portrayal of Mallarmé’s poetry, a mythical half-man, half-goat creature awakes from a nap in the forest and recalls his sensual dream involving a group of nymphs. But was the encounter actually a dream?

Program notes by Rebecca Richardson.

Alma Mahler has only a modest number of works published, including her set of five songs, Fünf Lieder. Following her marriage to Gustav Mahler in 1902, Alma was discouraged from composing, so her compositional output is likely exclusively made up of works written in her late teens and early twenties. Nonetheless, her music is incredibly sensual, evocative, and intensely romantic despite the young age at which it was written. “Laue Sommernacht” (Mild Summer Night) is the third song from Fünf Lieder and uses poetry by Otto Julius Bierbaum, a contemporary of Alma. You can find an English translation of the amorous poetry here – “We sought each other in the dark / And found one another.”

Program notes by Rebecca Richardson.

While written earlier in the composer’s career, Serenade for Strings already exemplifies Dvořák’s quintessential Bohemian musical voice. The piece was written in 1875, just as the composer was on the cusp of fame, and is often regarded as Dvořák’s breakout work. The minor harmonic quality heard in the lilting waltz of the second movement offers a bittersweet flavor to an otherwise warm and cheerful piece, leaving the listener with a desire to linger a bit longer at the close and savor the moment.

Program notes by Rebecca Richardson.

This passionate aria comes from Gianni Schicchi, the light and comedic finale of Puccini’s Il trittico (The Tryptich). This set of three one-act operas premiered in 1918 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Gianni Schicchi concerns the uproar caused when a family patriarch wills his money to the church instead of to his family. Rinuccio, a young relative, was counting on an inheritance in order to marry his love Lauretta, daughter of the wily Gianni Schicchi.

In “O mio babbino caro” (Oh dear father), Lauretta begs Schicchi to find a solution for this predicament so that she can marry her lover.

Program notes by Emma Riggle.

John Williams’s score for Richard Donner’s Superman (1978) was written as the composer became firmly integrated into film scoring superstardom. In all his scores, including Superman, Williams transposes his Western Romantic traditionalism into music that amplifies the heroic, legendary tales they accompany. In the Love Theme from Superman, Williams writes bright strings and an uplifting melodic line to reveal the emotional intimacy between the title character and Lois Lane. 

Program notes by Rebecca Richardson.