Composing over 150 works for piano and voice over a period of 44 years, the songs of Francis Poulenc remain consistently popular to concert audiences the world over. Varying in their individual style and character in a way that defies generalization, Poulenc set music to a wide range of different French poetry - both ancient and modern, and from the serious to the surreal. This second release in a new series charts the complete songs of Francis Oulenc, performed by some of the greatest singers of the day and accompanied by the exceptional Malcolm Martineau. Praise for the first album includes: "Lisa Milne performs wonderfully throughout this Poulenc disc. She really sings the French as to the Manoir born ... A nicely balanced and arranged recital for all of these voices, so a promising start to this new Poulenc series." - Hilary Finch and ANdrew McGregor - CD Review BBC Radio 3
"...So, generally these fine singers score pretty high in their projection and pronunciation of diverse texts, and their all-round musicianship. One’s regrets over the short allocation of time given to some of them surely speaks for itself. Nevertheless, I am tempted to say that Martineau is the most outstanding performer here. I should love to hear him in Poulenc’s solo piano music. As in Volume One, it is good to have texts included ...Overall this CD is guaranteed to bring hours of pleasure - a must-have for Poulenc fans." Philip Borg-Wheeler - musicweb-international.com - 5 May 2012
"...The singers are all very fine; Robert Murray’s rich palette of vocal color brings arresting drama to the surreal ballad ’Allons plus vite’, and Lorna Anderson’s Crystalline soprano is heartbreaking in the spare, lovely ’Ce doux petit visage’, to name just two stand outs among many. martineau’s accompaniments are clear, expressive and intelligent..."
Marcuse - American Record Guide - January-February 2012
"The second disc of this Poulenc project maintains the standards set in Vol 1"
Edward Greenfield - Gramophone magazine - October 2011
Performance **** Recording ****
"...More soon, please."
Robert Maycock - BBC Music magazine - September 2011
