Francoise Hardy 2023

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.

Mark Knopfler's fine soundtrack to the film Metroland nicely evokes the picture's wistful, nostalgic atmosphere. Rounding out the collection are late-'70s classics from Dire Straits ("Sultans of Swing"), Elvis Costello ("Alison") and the Stranglers ("Peaches"), in addition to left-field inclusions like Françoise Hardy's "Tous Les Garcons et Les Filles" and Django Reinhardt's "Blues Clair."