Episode 117 — June 1, 2021
Claude Debussy (arr. Gretchaninoff/Piatigorsky): “Beau Soir” for cello and piano
Performed by Sam DeCaprio

Cellist Sam DeCaprio performs Claude Debussy’s sultry and evocative art song, Beau Soir (Beautiful Evening), for his House Music series video. The piece, which was originally written for piano and vocalist, sets a vivid poem by Paul Bourget to music. He originally learned this piece in March 2021, when he was preparing music for an Easter ceremony at a church. When he found the piece, he fell in love with its fluidity and wanted to bring this sound world to the House Music series. Much of the sweeping music takes its inspiration from the text of Bourget’s poem, which reads as follows (translated from French to English by Richard Stokes):

When at sunset the rivers are pink
And a warm breeze ripples the fields of wheat,
All things seem to advise content -
And rise toward the troubled heart;

Advise us to savour the gift of life,
While we are young and the evening fair,
For our life slips by, as that river does:
It to the sea - we to the tomb.

DeCaprio first performed with Metropolis Ensemble in 2019 during a concert featuring jazz star pianist Aaron Diehl. At this concert, he performed Cem Güven’s Motiflerin Dansi (Dance of Motives), and met Metropolis’s Artistic Director Andrew Cyr. From there, he hoped to do more work with Metropolis. His House Music series video marks his second collaboration with the group.

Here, DeCaprio plays an arrangement of Beau Soir by Alexandre Gretchaninoff and Gregor Piatigorsky for cello and piano. While he’s primarily a cellist these days, he grew up playing both instruments. So for his rendition of Beau Soir, he decided to play both parts and to layer them together into one recording. He picked up his video editing and recording skills during the COVID-19 pandemic to accommodate the changing landscape for live music, which now encompasses in-person and digital performances. He recorded his video from his home in Lebanon, CT.

Notes by Vanessa Ague

 
House Music: Bite-sized concerts recorded at homes around the world

In 2020-21, we created a weekly video series featuring short-form concerts of newly-commissioned works, supporting 208 artists around the world during the pandemic.