Apres un Reve

At my wedding party, some 34 years ago, I and my wife have played "Apres un Reve" by Gabriel Faure. We had practised it at the hall in the med school until an hour before the ceremony started. We rushed to the party place bringing cello etc on a taxi. How did we play it? Who remembers it? Some friends told me it was only chance for us to force them listen to us playing something together.

"Apres un Reve" is an arrangement from one of Faure's songs: Op 7-1 by Casals. So sweet and mellow melody. Cello could express even more than human voice. It is a song of lost love. What an ardent and romatic love! Don't ask me if it was an appropriate music for a wedding party. We loved this one so much. Wikipedia tells that it is an anonymous Italian poem adapted into French by Romain Bussiene. The translation into English is as follows:


After a dream

In a slumber enchanted by your image
I dreamt of happiness, passionate mirage,
Your eyes were softer, your voice pure and resonant,
You shone like a sky lit up by the dawn;
You called me and I left the earth
To run away with you towards the light,
The skies opened their clouds for us,
Unknown splendours, divine flashes glimpsed,
Alas! Alas! sad awakening from dreams
I call you, O night, give me back your lies,
Return, return radiant,
Return, O mysterious night!



Reaching the age of after a dream in life, I am still fascinated by this melody. Some day, I would play it with my wife again.

Here is one of the best performance of this piece by a young cellist.