"Without hesitation," Poulenc wrote, "I declare that the Pièces pittoresques are as important for French music as Debussy's Préludes." Only seven of the ten were given by Marie Poitevin at their Société Nationale premiere, August 9, 1881—according to Cortot—though among them were the four numbers Chabrier would later orchestrate as his Suite pastorale, and for which he seems to have had an especial fondness. But to speak of them merely as piano music, or of the Suite pastorale as a pianist's music orchestrated, as is sometimes done, is to miss Chabrier's distinctive compact richness and his exquisite awareness of style.

Ostensibly polite drawing room fare evoking pleasant country scenes, the first number of the Suite pastorale, "Idylle," on the keyboard, demands, sans pedal, a Lisztian legato for its fetching melody, simultaneously accompanied by two motoric parts in Alkanesque staccato. Though the pianistic allusions are lost, the superb and constantly varied resourcefulness with which their effects are transferred to the orchestra demonstrates the implicitness of Chabrier's orchestral imagination in one of his most pianistic pieces. After the quietly percolating animation of the Idylle, the "Danse villageoise" has all the rumbustious vigor of a rustic clog dance. Turning raucous in its orchestral guise, it is set off by a fleet trio whose additions of instrumental color shade its spirited frolic with winsome grace. As in the first two pieces, the undulating charm of the gently ecstatic "Sous-bois" provides a foil for high-kicking gaiety in the concluding scherzo-valse. In their alternations of boisterousness and tendresse, we have the essential Chabrier.

Too often, such distinguished composers as Berlioz, Fauré, and Chabrier—quintessential Parisians all—were forced to seek recognition in the provinces or abroad. Chabrier orchestrated the Suite pastorale for a Chabrier festival offered by the Association Artistique of Angers, which he conducted November 4, 1888, with his Habañera, the Joyeuse marche, Prélude pastoral, and España. During rehearsals under his direction, the orchestra caught on immediately to his rollicking style and were convulsed with laughter, while the critics, though generally approving, felt obliged to comment on Chabrier's "Wagnerism"—an astounding charge as nothing could be further from the heavy metal solemnities of Wagner's scores than these scintillant, often coruscating, dialogues between subtlety and éclat.

© All Music Guide