Lea Desandre - Idylle (CD)

Details: French love songs from three centuries, interspersed with reflective lute solos, constitute an Idylle for mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre and lutenist Thomas Dunford. As they explain: "The emotions of love are explored in different forms - languor, desire, fascination, happiness." The word 'idyll', evoking a blissful, tranquil experience, derives from Ancient Greece and poetry on a pastoral theme. Desandre and Dunford spin a thematic and musical thread between eras and styles, starting with a sequence of 10 airs de cour from the 17th century. Spanning the era from the 1860s to the 1920s are arias and songs by Offenbach, Debussy, Hahn and Messager, and the album then fast-forwards to the 1960s and two iconic French chanteuses, Barbara and Françoise Hardy. Dunford supplies instrumental interludes in the form of two dances by Robert de Visée, a court musician for both Louis XIV and Louis XV, and Erik Satie's Gymnopédie No 1 and Gnossienne No 1.

Tracklist:

1. Le Doux Silence de Nos Bois
2. Études Latines-Néère
3. Le Temps de L'amour
4. Gnossienne No. 1
5. Celle Qui Fait Tout Mon Tourment
6. Auprès Du Feu L'on Fait L'amour
7. Tristes Déserts Sombre Retraite
8. L' Amour Masqué-Act I: J'ai Deux Amants
9. Gymnopédie No. 1
10. Ma Bergère Est Tendre Et Fidèle
11. À Chloris
12. Sans Frayeur Dans Ce Bois
13. Suite No. 7 in D minor-Sarabande
14. Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour
15. On N'entend Rien Dans Ce Bocage
16. Pelléas Et Mélisande-Act III: Mes Longs Cheveux Descendent
17. Ombre de Mon Amant
18. Vos Mépris Chaque Jour
19. Suite No. 7 in D minor-Chaconne
20. Dis Quand Reviendras-Tu?
21. Laissez Durer la Nuit
22. La Belle Héléne-Act I: Amours Divins!