Songs with orchestra

"Recording of the month: In this outstanding Massenet album, Bru Zane presents a collection of twenty-two mélodies avec orchestra performed by six acclaimed singers of the French repertoire ... Bru Zane often use a single soloist its albums of mélodies by individual composers, but here the label has chosen six solo singers, all of whom have recorded previously for Bru Zane and the twenty-two mélodies avec orchestre have been shared pretty much evenly amongst them. Sopranos Véronique Gens, Jodie Devos and Chantal Santon-Jeffery, tenor Cyrille Dubois and baritone Étienne Dupuis are highly experienced performers of French opera and mélodies with impressive reputations ... In my view, Hervé Niquet has become the go-to conductor in French Romantic/Late Romantic repertoire and the results here don't disappoint. The Orchestre de Chambre de Paris plays with plenty of spirit and a thoughtful degree of sensitivity without any suggestions of mawkishness ... A credit to the Bru Zane label, this is a beautifully performed, recorded and presented release of unfamiliar orchestral mélodies from Massenet. I have nothing but praise for this outstanding album which must surely count as one of my Records of the Year".

Læs anmeldelse

"Editor's choice: Massenet wrote over 300 songs during the course of his career, mostly with piano accompaniment, though he also orchestrated nearly 40 of them ... Of the 25 pieces included in Bru Zane's beautiful new album, only four of them have been recorded before ... Six singers share the songs between them ... The song's café-concert scoring is nicely brought out here by the Paris Chamber Orchestra under Hervé Niquet. He is wonderfully alert to the mood and tone of each song, and the playing is delectable throughout. It's a lovely album, and I look forward to the second volume".