ORR232_ Book.qxd

Pauline Viardot
Fable by Jean De La Fontaine
‘Le chêne et le roseau’ (The oak and the reed) [CD 1 Track 12]
(pub. 1843, possibly 1841)
ANNA CATERINA ANTONACCI
MANY COMPOSERS have been drawn to the Fables of La Fontaine, notably
Offenbach, Lecoq and Caplet, but Viardot was one of the first. ‘Le chêne et le
roseau’ was first sung by Viardot at a concert in 1842, in which she was
accompanied by Chopin. It has been suggested that she made the piano part
more elaborate in this song in order to give the virtuoso composer something
more interesting to play. It was one of the songs that Viardot chose to include
in her album of eight songs, published the following year, with illustrations by
Ary Scheffer, the painter she referred to as ‘a spiritual counsellor and guide’.
Le Chêne, un jour, dit au Roseau: The oak one day addressed the reed:
« Vous avez bien sujet d’accuser ‘You have every reason to accuse
la nature, nature:
Un roitelet pour vous est un a wren for you is a heavy
pesant fardeau; burden;
Le moindre vent, qui the slightest wind which
d’aventure happens
Fait rider la face de l’eau, to ripple the water’s surface
Vous oblige à baisser la tête, forces you to lower your head;
Cependant que mon front, au while my brow, like the
Caucase pareil, Caucasus,
–64–