Visions illuminées

“I recorded a disc, Voyages, with Joseph Middleton in 2017, for Signum, of songs set to poems by Baudelaire and Goethe, and I was keen to sing more French repertoire. This new disc, Visions illuminées, is ensemble-led, there’s no conductor, and it comprises new arrangements of songs by Debussy, Ravel, Duparc, Chausson and others. The music is very luscious and Romantic. The central focus is Britten’s Les Illuminations, alongside which there are orchestral arrangements of well-known songs such as Duparc’s ‘Chanson triste’ and Fauré’s ‘Clair de lune’, as well as new arrangements of Debussy and Ravel by Robin Holloway. There’s also a song by Chabrier that has never been heard before: the music was almost destroyed when the composer’s publishing house closed, and it’s been rescued by French scholars. This is the first recording.” - Mary Bevan