Escapism in song

A formidable musical proving ground, French mélodie also offered Belle Époque composers a valuable refuge: the fashion it enjoyed in the great Parisian salons and the interest it aroused among publishers enabled its authors to make themselves known and bring in welcome additional income. To succeed in the genre of the mélodie, however, it was not enough to flatter the audience for whom it was intended by holding up a mirror to them, quite the contrary. They needed to be transported far away from the tumult of modern life, into the depths of an idealized nature or the heart of a legendary city. Cyrille Dubois and Tristan Raës, fine connoisseurs of this repertoire, carry us away into a land of mélodie.