This album takes us on a journey through several different eras of Romanticism, from its origins to its twilight, from Schumann to Poulenc by way of Brahms and Berg. It is also the story of a long friendship and artistic collaboration …

A declared enemy of anything that smacks of routine, the clarinettist Michel Portal looks after his unpredictability the way an astronaut looks after his oxygen supply. His almost organic curiosity, his need for exchange, reacts here to an exciting encounter with the pianist Michel Dalberto.

The clarinet sonatas by Brahms and Poulenc, Schumann’s Phantasiestücke and Berg’s Four Pieces are all seen in a new perspective at La Dolce Volta. Every Michel Portal recording is a passport to wisdom, a term that for him goes hand in hand with speed, joy and exultation. Eternal youth!