“This is a unique corpus of recordings, issued for the first time, made by the man who placed Quebec on the cultural map of the French-speaking world. The avowed paragon of Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel. Indeed Felix Leclerc overturned song in an incredible manner. Apart from his poetic elegance, he is the exemplifying trustee of the chansonnier, the song-writer who plays his own music. In 1950, only Charles Trenet and the Roche-Aznavour duo could boast as such.” Claude Colombini-Fremeaux
This set presents songs written between 1950 and 1962 by two of the most eminent figures in the Oulipo movement, Raymond Queneau and Paul Braffort. Queneau was one of the greatest poets and playwrights in 20th century France, the author of Exercices de style and Zazie dans le metro; he cofounded the movement called Oulipo in 1960, writing numerous songs for Juliette Greco, the Freres Jacques, Roland Petit and Zizi Jeanmaire. Paul Braffort, an author, composer, engineer, mathematician and researcher, joined the Oulipo in 1961, writing and composing for Barbara, Les Quatre Barbus, Catherine Sauvage and Mouloudji. This anthology was compiled by Olivier Julien, and contains some 40 unpublished songs which appear here for the first time on CD. Filled with an impish wry humour and often great tenderness, these titles, written mainly before the birth of the movement, are the precursors of the “Oulipian” wordplay in the French language. Patrick FReMEAUX
Chansons 1957-1962 - Scoubidou, Personnalites, Mon beau chap
Frémeaux
CD
$32.99Jan 23, 2026
Apres ses debuts remarques dans le jazz, Alexandre Sacha Distel, neveu du celebre chef d'orchestre Ray Ventura, s'oriente vers la chanson. Son charme et sa voix seduisent rapidement le public. en 1958, son tube Scoubidou le propulse au sommet des charts. de 1959 a 1962, Distel enchaine les succes. Il remporte le Grand Prix de l'Academie Charles-Cros en 1959, chante avec Maurice Chevalier, compose pour le grand ecran et devient une icône de la chanson francaise, alliant talent musical et elegance naturelle. Patrick FReMEAUX After a stunning debut as a jazz guitarist, Alexandre "Sacha" Distel, the nephew of famous French bandleader Ray Ventura, turned to the world of songs, where his voice and good looks quickly attracted a large audience. In 1958 he had an enormous hit with the song "Scoubidou" that catapulted him to the top of the charts. In 1959 he won the "Grand Prix de l'Academie Charles-Cros", and for the next three years he enjoyed one hit after another. He would sing with Maurice Chevalier and compose songs for films before becoming an icon in popular music with a unique combination of musical talent and natural elegance. Patrick FReMEAUX CD1 (1957-1959) : Sacha Distel CHANTE : TOUT BAS (SPEAK LOW) - CHEVEUX DANS LE VENT - QUAND J'Y PENSE - LA FIN D'UN ROMAN D'AMOUR - MA CHeRIE SI JOLIE (TAMMY) - MALADIE D'AMOUR - INSENSIBLEMENT - FASCINATION - ROSE D'OR - LE TOUR DU MONDE (AROUND THE WORLD) - QUAND TU VIENS CHEZ MOI... MON COEUR - QUELQUE CHOSE EN TOI - L'eTANG - TIENS ! TIENS ! TIENS ! - UN AMOUR COMME LE NÔTRE - QUE RESTE-T-IL DE NOS AMOURS ? - PARLEZ-MOI D'AMOUR - SI PETITE O MON AMOUR - GARDE cA POUR TOI (CATCH A FALLING STAR) - LE MUR - La, PReS DE LA FENeTRE (IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS) - DORS MON AMOUR - BRIGITTE - a JAMAIS - BONJOUR CHeRIE. BANDE ORIGINALE DU FILM GIGI : C'EST LA BARBE (AVEC MAURICE CHEVALIER) - TOUT cA N'EST PAS POUR MOI - CEUX QUI INVENTeRENT LE CHAMPAGNE (AVEC MARIE FRANCE GIGI ET JANE MARKEN) - GIGI. CD2 (1959-1961) : Sacha Distel EN PERSONNE : SCOUBIDOU - POMMES ET POIRES - OH ! QUELLE NUIT (LONESOME ME) - QUAND ON S'EST CONNU - CE SERAIT DOMMAGE... (IMPATIENT LOVER) - OUI, OUI, OUI, OUI (GRAND PRIX DE LA CHANSON R.T.F. 1959) - DIS ! O DIS ! (EVERYBODY LOVES A LOVER) - ET QUE cA DURE - JE N'AVAIS PAS COMPRIS. COQ D'OR DE LA CHANSON 1959 : SOPHIE. Sacha Distel N°2 : MON BEAU CHAPEAU - La, PReS DE LA FENeTRE (IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS) - LES CeLIBATAIRES - OUAH ! OUAH ! OUAH ! OUAH ! - PERSONNALITeS - ELLE A LE... ELLE A LA... ELLE A LES... - DITES a L'ORCHESTRE (LA... LA... LA...) - MONSIEUR L'BARON - TOUT cA DEVAIT ARRIVER (EVERYTHING HAPPENS TO ME) - DRÔLE DE ReVE (THE PREACHER) - ALLEZ ! VA ! (MY HEART IS AN OPEN BOOK). Sacha Distel N°3 : 20 MADAM' MADAM' - CALIN CALINETTE - LES CARIOCAS, ELLES SONT SI BELLES LES CARIOCAS - OUI, DEVANT DIEU (LA NOVIA) - LE BOOGIE DU BeBe (BABY SITTIN' BOOGIE) - ON DIT, ON DIT, ON DIT - cA C'EST DU POULET - a CAUSE DE TOI (I DON't KNOW WHY) - BYE BYE BABY (BYE BYE BLACKBIRD) - TROIS FOIS LA FRANCE. CD3 (1961-1962) : OUI ET NON - C'EST TOUT, C'EST TOUT (THAT'S ALL) - CATERINA - C'eTAIT PLUS FORT QUE TOUT (I CAN't STOP LOVING YOU) - J'AI UN RENDEZ-VOUS (I WANNA THANK YOU) - SANS TOI - QUE C'EST BON (WELCOME HOME TO MY HEART) - CHANSON SUR UNE SEULE NOTE (SAMBA DE UMA NOTA SO) - GUITARE ET COPAINS (A STEEL GUITAR AND A GLASS OF WINE) - DIS-MOI BARMAN - LES FILLES... MOI J'AIME cA - BON VENT MA JOLIE - PAILLASSE - RIEN DANS LA NUIT. SACHA BOSSA NOVA : ESO BESO - DESAFINADO - VIENS DANSER LA BOSSA NOVA (TING TOUNG) - LOIN DE TOI (RECADO). EVERYBODY LOVES THE LOVER : LET ME LOVE YOU - WHY DON't WE DO THIS MORE OFTEN - MY HEART STOOD STILL - ONCE IN EVERY LIFETIME - I'm IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE - SPEAK TO ME OF LOVE - THE LOVER - IT'S BEEN A LONG, LONG TIME - EVERYBODY LOVES A LOVER - YOU DO SOMETHING TO ME - I CAN't GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE - ALMOST LIKE BEING IN LOVE. DIRECTION ARTISTIQUE : OLIVIER JULIEN
Sacred Songs of France, Vol. 1: 1198-1609 / Gloriae Dei Cantores
Gloriae Dei Cantores
SACD
$20.99Dec 11, 2012
On their recording Sacred Songs of France, the first disc in a three-volume French choral pilgrimage, the acclaimed American choir Gloriae Dei Cantores takes listeners on a journey from the earliest days of organum in the Middle Ages to the delights of seventeenth century polyphony. This fascinating collection samples the musical genius and spiritual art of celebrated composers such as Josquin des Prez, and their lesser-known compatriots including Dulot, Goudimel and Mouton. Scholars will appreciate this disc for the generous survey it provides, while choral fans will love the grace, beauty and remarkable clarity of this glorious music.
(2-CD set) For the first time ever, Amberola and Fremeaux & Associes present an anthology of the Quebecois song portraying a century of popular tradition. Martin Duchesnes and Robert Therien offer a panorama of this aspect of French culture of the XIX century, showing how its develops during the XX century and finds a new identity in Quebec. Includes a 48 page booklet with both French and English notes.
Cette selection de Jean-Baptiste Mersiol et livret de Stephanie Acquette reunit les enregistrements historiques des scenes marquantes du drame romantique Ruy Blas et de quelques poemes du prolifique Victor Hugo, declames par certains des plus grands comediens francais du XXe siecle entre 1958 et 1962. Les interpretations de Paul-emile Deiber, dans son premier grand role dramatique, Pierre Dux ou Jean Meyer, offrent une fenêtre sur l'ame du theatre francais de cette epoque. Temoignage unique sur l'art de la declamation propre au lyrisme de cette periode, ce coffret consacre celui qui selon Andre Gide etait « helas ! » le plus grand poete francais qu'il n'a, encore aujourd'hui, jamais cesse d'être. This selection by Jean-Baptiste Mersiol and booklet by Stephanie Acquette brings together historic recordings of key scenes from the from the Romantic drama Ruy Blas and a selection of poems by the prolific Victor Hugo, recited by some of France's by some of the greatest French actors of the 20th century between 1958 and 1962. Performances by Paul-emile Deiber, in his first major in his first major dramatic role, Pierre Dux and Jean Meyer, offer a window into the soul of French theater at the time. Period. A unique testimony to the art of declamation specific to the lyricism of this period, this boxed set celebrates the man who, according to Andre Gide, was "alas!" the greatest French poet he still is today. RUY BLAS : DON SALLUSTE - LA REINE D'ESPAGNE - RUY BLAS - DON CeSAR - LE TIGRE ET LE LION. PAR LES COMeDIENS DE LA COMeDIE FRANcAISE. POeSIES : JEAN DESCHAMPS : OCEANO NOX - LE MENDIANT - DEMAIN DeS L'AUBE - L'EXPIATION - SOLEILS COUCHANTS - TRISTESSE D'OLYMPIO • ANDRe FALCON : CE SIeCLE AVAIT DEUX ANS... - T'EN SOUVIENS-TU MON FReRE ? • MAURICE TEYNAC : VIEILLE CHANSON DU JEUNE TEMPS - LE SACRE DE LA FEMME - CHANT DU BOL DE PUNCH - a L'HOMME - PUISQUE MAI TOUT EN FLEUR - AVE, DEA, MORITURUS TE • GEORGES WILSON : APReS LA BATAILLE - JEANNE AU PAIN SEC • PAUL-eMILE DEIBER : LA ROSE DE L'INFANTE • GEORGES DESCRIeRES : VIENS, UNE FLÛTE INVISIBLE - LA VACHE • JEAN DAVY : LA MORT D'UN CHIEN - SAISON DES SEMAILLES • GeRARD PHILIPE : BOOZ ENDORMI.
For the first time in his career, Roberto Alagna is devoting an entire album to the great and beautiful French chanson. Alagna is passionate about music from all over the world and this time he is offering us a veritable declaration of his love for his French musical heritage: “Le Chanteur” introduces listeners to this legacy in a different way through the whole wealth of the various genres and diverse foreign influences that have helped to shape this medium’s identity.
The album features swing, jazz, gypsy jazz, the lamento, the waltz and the tango and through its highly personal approach to these songs, it conveys the tenor’s tremendous passion for music which, full of character, is instinct with vitality and feeling. The result is a formidable tribute to the unforgettable melodies that we all know and that we have all hummed to ourselves. It is also an homage to their illustrious interpreters and composers.
The album includes, among others, “La Chanson des vieux amants”, “Padam, padam”, “Les feuilles mortes”, “C’est un mauvais garçon”, “Mon pot’ le gitan”, “Nuages”, “Adieu mon pays” and “Domino”.
“This is the first time that I have made a recording devoted entirely to the French chanson […]. Reading between the lines of this repertoire, I wanted to throw light on the whole range of different genres and on the more or less remote musical influences that are now an integral part of the identity and legacy of French music. […] This foray into a world unlike that of my normal lyrical and classical repertoire, in a genre where listeners may not necessarily expect to find me, has a particular appeal for me. […] Be that as it may, this is a recording in which I hope that listeners will sense the infinite pleasure that I myself have felt in exploring these different styles and – thanks to the instrument that is my voice – allowing audiences to discover my passion and love of this music and to share those feelings with the greatest possible number of listeners.” Roberto Alagna
After a Bach album, the tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen and his ensemble A Nocte Temporis present a programme of French music devoted to Nicolas Clérambault (1676–1749), a precociously gifted composer who published four volumes comprising a total of twenty-one cantatas. Reinoud van Mechelen offers us an anthology of these Cantates Françoises – Le Jaloux with its final air ‘Dieu des Amants’, Apollon, L’Amour guéri par l’amour and Pirasme et Thisbé (based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses) – set as a succession of recitatives, airs and simphonies, as in a tragédie lyrique. The young Flemish tenor, now aged thirty, pursues an intensive solo career with the leading Baroque conductors (Christie, Pichon, Niquet) but is also keen to develop his personal projects and his ensemble: ‘I’m a purist but without elitism. Music has to appeal to people. Perhaps that requires them to make an effort and depends on different criteria from the somewhat sensationalist criteria of society, politics and money. But music must be more than a simple distraction, and many people actually want it that way’, he told the Belgian newspaper Le Soir in 2017, when the Prix Caecilia named him ‘Artist of the Year’.
Commissioned by Marc Collet and Ensemble21, Onze Folksongs d'ici et d'ailleurs by Jean-Marie Rens is a complete rearrangement of his Sept chansons traditionnelles flamandes, francaises et wallonnes composed over twenty years ago. This new version calls for a larger instrumental ensemble, since it was rewritten for the lineup of Luciano Berio's famous Folk Songs, to which it offers an original and unprecedented mirror. The challenge here was to preserve the specific character of these Sept chansons while carrying out a massive task of orchestration-arrangement as well as composition. Luciano Berio is arguably the most prominent figure in contemporary Italian music. He composed the cycle of Folk Songs in 1964 for his wife, the American soprano Cathy Berberian. A remarkable fusion of popular and classical music, they represent a kind of anthology made up of eleven folk songs of various origins that the composer had found on old records, in printed collections or heard directly from friends. Albane Carrere and the Ensemble21 conducted by Marc Collet approach these two collections with infinite tenderness and a subtle art of evocation. Albane Carrere's mezzo voice weaves the link and travels imperceptibly between these two worlds.
Chant dans la nuis: Flute Music in the Belle Epoque / Dang, Mazzoli
Dynamic
CD
$12.99May 15, 2020
This release features a collection of works for flute and piano written by a group of contrasting French composers during the exciting Belle Époque period, which occurred between the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. ‘Chant dans la nuit’ is the outcome of a ten-year project which has involved flautist Filippo Mazzoli and pianist Nathalie Dang in intense, pioneering research conducted within the music section of the Paris Bibliothéque Nationale. Quite a number of these works are recorded here for the first time, including Fontbonne’s Chasse aux papillons Op. 30, Louis Masson’s Trois pièces, Xavier Leroux’s Le Nil, Moret’s Nuit de langueur, nuit de mensonge, Coedès-Mongin’s Suite Op. 5, Lefort’s Sur l’Eau, and Guilmant’s Romance sans paroles Op. 85. To quote Filippo Mazzoli, these are ‘evocative titles, like the music they feature. They are positive sensations that precisely reflect the years in which they were composed [and they express] the desire for wellbeing, and the desire to always be proactive and positive.’ Several musical associations flourished in the French capital between 1871 and 1939. They enthusiastically supported the dissemination of new works and promoted the presentation of original, unpublished ones, encouraged by musicians such as Saint-Saëns, Bussine, Duparc and Castillon. The works on this programme are dedicated to the great French flautists who were active in these music societies, not least in the Société de Musique de Chambre pour Instruments à Vent and the Société moderne pour Instruments à Vent. The entire programme is in the Belle Époque style and comprises a variety of the period's main genres: the morceau de salon, the fantasia on operatic themes, the song without words, and the melodies or album pages.
Rossini: Complete Piano Music - Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age) / Marangoni
Naxos
CD
$32.48$64.99Save 50%Nov 26, 2021
Rossini drew a line under his hugely successful operatic career at the age of 37 and wrote little until his final years in Paris, where he became renowned for his musical salons. For these he wrote numerous short piano pieces which he jokingly called Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age): sometimes experimental miniatures that can raise a smile or touch the heart, blurring boundaries between the irreverent and the serious. Rossini’s publisher Antonio Pacini considered the composer’s late works as his most illustrious period: ‘what he composes daily is a series of masterpieces that seems as though it will never end.’ Including songs and fascinating novelties, this acclaimed complete edition contains a myriad of rarities and numerous world premiere recordings.
Un Siecle de Musique Francaise: Camille Saint-Saens
Sony Masterworks
CD
$4.99$9.98Save 50%May 13, 2016
Features Philippe Entremont (piano), L'orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Berj Zamkochian (organ), Bernard Zighera (piano), Leo Litwin (piano), The Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, Samuel Lipman (piano), Martin Hoherman (cello)
Orchestre Nationale du Capitole de Toulouse, Michel Plasson, Charles Munch, Eugene Ormandy, Arthur Fiedler.
This complete recording of the a cappella choral works of Francis Poulenc marks the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Ensemble Aedes and brings to a close a cycle initiated in 2009. Francis Poulenc's a cappella choral compositions form a unique ensemble, revealing a fragile interiority suffused with profound humanity. For him there was no sense of division between the secular and the sacred in his choral works: he appears to have considered them as a single entity, stemming from the same inspiration. From the Chanson a boire (1922) to the Laudes de saint Antoine de Padoue (1957), all of his compositions show the same fervor, clarity, and depth of feeling.
Marie-Laure Garnier, Célia Oneto Bensaid and the Hanson Quartet have imagined a program based on the theme of nostalgic love. Starting with Ernest Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer arranged for voice, string quartet and piano, they draw the thread of passion both joyful and melancholic in Gabriel Fauré’s La Bonne Chanson and Charlotte Sohy’s Les Chants nostalgiques, recorded for the first time in this formation. They give their name to this new b•records album placed under the sign of symbolism, grace and emotion.
In 1958 Poulenc composed La voix humaine, a one-act opera for soprano and orchestra, based on the monodrama of the same name, written for the Comedie-Francaise by his friend Jean Cocteau. In this staging of the end of an amorous relationship, we hear only the woman's side of a final telephone conversation with the man who has abandoned her. The orchestra in this innovative work is used not only to unify the composition, but also to reveal what the voice, laid bare by a moving parle-chante style, does not say. Fiancailles pour rire and Chemins de l'amour, usually for voice and piano, but presented here in an orchestrated version by one of our finest conductors, Frederic Chaslin, completes this eloquent rendition of works of a bittersweetness that Poulenc transcends like no other.
This is the first volume of Fremeaux's new collection, about the History of French Litteracy. Directed by Alain Viala, an esteemed historian and College Professor, in coedition with famed editor "Presses Universitaires de France" (PUF), this collection proposes to stress the history of French literacy starting with this 5 CD set dealing with the Medieval.
Au douz tens nouvel - Chansons de trouvères / Ensemble Céladon
Ricercar
CD
$20.99Jul 05, 2024
The trouveres followed in the footsteps of the troubadours, spreading their songs of love from court to court and thus made their own contribution to the idea of mediaeval courtly love. Written in the langue d'oïl, the ancestor of modern French, the songs presented here evoke not only the inaccessible Lady who is worthy of praise but also the little peasant girl who is courted with far less delicacy. An entire world, courtly, colourful and festive, is portrayed in songs to the Virgin, weaving songs, songs evoking spring and chansons a refrain by Guiot de Dijon, Moniot d'Arras, Gautier de Coincy, Thibaut de Champagne and even the trouveresse Maroie de Diergnau.
Frank Martin was arguably Switzerland’s greatest composer. His shimmering Mass for Double Choir, completed in 1926 as ‘an affair between God and himself’, is one of the finest settings of the 20th century, yet it had to wait forty-one years to be shared with others in its first performance. This collection of his choral music also includes his cantata for Switzerland’s National Day and the Ode to Music, along with some charming part-songs. Eclectic and technically superb these pieces display a style that is serenely individual.
Guillaume Apollinaire: Alcools - La Chanson du mal aime - Le
Frémeaux
CD
$20.99Jul 17, 2026
This CD, produced by Jean-Baptiste Mersiol, offers a thoughtful journey through the poetic works of Guillaume Apollinaire, a founding figure of 20th-century literary modernity. Through historical recordings, it highlights the oral reception of his texts by great interpreters of theatrical heritage: Jean Negroni, Jacques Duby, Maurice Escande, and Jean Topart. From La Chanson du mal-aimé to the poems of Alcools, from Bestiaire to texts from the war period, this anthology captures the diversity of a body of work that combines lyricism, experimentation, and memory. In addition, there is an exceptional archival document: Guillaume Apollinaire reciting Le Pont Mirabeau on cylinder in 1913, a rare testimony to the poet's voice and the history of recorded works. Patrick Frémeaux
Ronsard et la musique - Cueillez, cueillez votre jeunesse!
Alpha
CD
$29.99Sep 06, 2024
2024 marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of Ronsard, known as the Prince des Poetes, whose poems have been set to music more than four hundred times over the centuries. This programme has been curated by Denis Raisin Dadre and compares several settings of the same sonnet by 16th-century musicians (Gardane, Lassus, Castro, Bertrand, Costeley) and by such later composers as Charles Gounod, Camille Saint-Saens, Paul Dukas, Maurice Ravel, Theodore Gouvy, Pauline Viardot and Arthur Honegger, all of whom were clearly seduced by the same Bonjour mon cœur and the famous Mignonne, allon voir si la rose some three centuries later. A truly fascinating playlist of songs inspired by a genius whose beau style bas, populaire et plaisant has stood the test of time. The musicians of Doulce Memoire re-create the Renaissance settings here, whilst singer Marc Mauillon and pianist Anne Le Bozec perform the songs of the 19th and 20th centuries.
