Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 05/24/2005, uploaded on 01/15/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Jeux d'enfants (Children's Games)           Georges Bizet

Georges Bizet's Jeux d'enfants, composed in 1871, are a set of twelve constantly fascinating miniatures penciling in childhood scenes and games, like little holiday snapshots taken to recall those charming moments when children are still fighting off the solemn, anxious gravity of adulthood.  There is "the verdant paradise of childish affections," in which the children mimic their parents ("Little Husband, Little Wife").  There is the charm of swaying in dreamy arpeggios ("The Swing") or tenderly bringing a toy to life ("The Doll").  There are lively games showering delight like rain ("Merry-Go-Round"; "Leapfrog").  There in fact is Bizet casting a tender glance in these "Children's Games" over the lost world which vanishes as swiftly as the "Soap Bubbles" which children blow without realizing that they are the very image of our lives.

Alain Duault, Translated by Robert Jordan, 1985

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.