Beau soir seems to have inspired musicians to make their own arrangements – for violin, cello, saxophone quartet, or even for five-part chamber choir and piano, as in this version by Denis Rouger. Unlike the instrumental versions, this one retains Paul Bourget’s text: the poetic depiction of a sunset on a mild summer evening, on which light and shade merge into one another like the rhythm and harmony in Debussy’s setting. It is not an unclouded depiction, but the recognition of our own finiten...