ABSTRACT
Although one may say ‘All’s well that ends well’ with regard to l’affaire Viardot, it would be a long time before Fauré could look back on the Marianne episode with any kind of equanimity. As an unintended compensation for this debacle, the publication by Choudens of Lydia, Mai, Ici-bas!, Barcarolle and Au bord de l’eau in December 1877 must have given his song-writing confidence a welcome boost (the first and second of these songs had been taken over from the original Hartmann edition of 1871). In the same month he travelled to Weimar in Germany to see the first performance of Samson et Dalila by Saint-Saëns. One senses that this was an essential recuperative break for the suffering young composer. He met Liszt on this occasion in Weimar; it is not certain whether the great pianist tried out Fauré’s fiendishly difficult Ballade then (and found it too difficult to sight-read) or whether this celebrated incident occurred in 1882 when the two composers met again.
