This Sérénade, is the first of 7 pieces, collectively called 'Fancies', originally written for piano in 1915. Gabriel Marie Grovlez (1879-1944) was born in Lille, Northern France, in 1879 and died in war-torn Paris in 1944. From among his teachers, who include Gédalge and Lavignac, Fauré must surely rank as his strongest influence, and this is readily heard in his small but significant oeuvre of solo piano pieces as well as his music for stage and chamber ensembles. Interestingly, most of the piano music was published over a period of around a dozen years (1907-1919), and in the lull between these works and his Impressions (two pieces) of 1934 Grovlez was compositionallypreoccupied with songs and chamber pieces, many of which languish patiently on the shelf awaiting a wholehearted appraisal. There is, as well as his notable penchant for elegance and poetical lyricism, a considerable wit to enjoy, too (take Les nes ? The Donkeys ? from L'Almanach aux images, for example), and indeed the fact that Grovlez's middle years were spent fulfilling the duties of assistant conductor and choir leader of the Opéra-Comique seems especially revealing of the man's musical personality and capacity for successfully intertwining serious and less serious genres. Grovlez was quite a cosmopolitan character
