JULES MASSENET (1842-1912): Mélodies - 10 Expressions lyriques, Le Printemps visite la terre, On dit*, La Lettre, Élégie*, Heure vécue, Soleil couchant, La Nuit, La Mort de la cigale, Amours bénis*, Poème d'Octobre.

Description: You won't find much of the perfumed salon music which most people associate with Massenet in this well-chosen collection of songs. The most unusual may be the Expressions lyriques (1909-1911) which alternate declamation and singing and which quote motifs from many of his best-known works as the ten-song cycle adumbrates his platonic love for the young mezzo for whom he wrote it. There are also several of those quintessentially French songs of lost love and despair which, unlike the bitterness of German Lied, bathes in a bittersweet acceptance; three of them have such lovely and lyrical cello accompaniment, that opening a vein might be the easiest thing to do. French-English texts. Sabine Revault d'Allonnes (soprano), Samuel Jean (piano), Matthieu Fontana (cello*).