This arrangement for violin and piano of the famous Méditation from Massenet's opera Thaïs from
Edition Peters contains separate violin and piano parts and has been arranged and edited by
Roger Nichols. One of the world's foremost authorities on the music of France Roger Nichols
has published and broadcast extensively on the music of composers such as Ravel Satie Debussy
Chabrier and Berlioz. In 2006 he was appointed chevalier de la Légion d'honneur for his
services to French music.Thaïs Massenet's tenth completed opera had its première at the Paris
Opéra on 16 March 1894 with the American soprano Sibyl Sanderson in the title role. The
libretto by Louis Gallet was based on Anatole France's novel of the same name serialized in
the Revue des deux mondes in 1889 and published in book form the following year.The story tells
of the conversion to Christianity of the courtesan Thaïs by the holy man Athanael and his
parallel but opposite conversion to a life dominated by lust for her. The "Méditation" for solo
violin and orchestra joining the two scenes of Act II describes the beginning of Thaïs's
conversion. The work was not received well initially by 1897 when Sanderson retired it had
reached only its fourteenth performance. But the "Méditation" was an instant success with
violinists and its religious association also encouraged church organists to play it at Mass
during the Communion. Even Pope Pius X's motu proprio of 1903 specifically demanding that the
music heard in church should "not include reminiscences of those employed in the opera house"
could not prevail against it. Méditation aus Thaïs (Bearbeitung für Violine und Klavier)
Das bei weitem berühmteste Stück des französischen Komponisten Jules Massenet Méditation
stammt aus der Oper Thaïs führte durch dessen Beliebtheit die Oper und auch Massenet zu großem
Erfolg. In der Geschichte symbolisiert diese Melodie die Bekehrung der Hauptfigur Thaïs zum
Christentum doch ihre Melodramatik wirkt auch abseits der Bühne. Oft wird das Stück als Zugabe
genutzt oder im Gottesdienst mit Verweis auf den Bezug zum Christentum in Thaïs. Die
Meditation gibt dem Spieler eine relativ simple Basis um in der Interpretation höchste Gefühle
auszudrücken.
