Göteborgs Konserthus The vibrant soprano saxophone

D’un soir triste was the last piece of music that Lili Boulanger was able to score by hand. In fact, the writing on the manuscript becomes ever weaker and more indistinct, until it’s difficult to make out the notes. It was left to her sister Nadia to add articulations and dynamics, using the chamber versions as a guide. But now the curtain was closing. Lili dictated one last work to Nadia, the Pie Jesu, as Paris was being bombarded by German artillery. She put every last bit of self into it, her harmonic ambiguity, her intense lyricism, and her sense of the transcendent. Then, after receiving her last rites, she died peacefully in her sleep. It was March 15, 1918. Lili Boulanger was 24.