The intimacy, the proximity of the song stems from this special dialogue between voice and piano in which poetry can be found as much in the text as in its musical transcription, with a refinement of elocution and musical form. The French art of the song (‘la mélodie’), born in the early years of the nineteenth century, comes as a response to a triumphant Wagnerianism in Europe as well as to the Italian vocal style much in vogue at this time. The greatest composers excelled in it, from Gabriel Fauré to Claude Debussy, not forgetting Reynaldo Hahn and others less celebrated but no less fascinating, such as Déodat de Séverac.

The programme of this disc revisits songs originally conceived for voice and piano, here transcribed for guitar. Far from risking heretical blasphemy, the principle of transposition is inherent in this miniature form and these ‘manipulations’ enable the conservation of all the characteristics of this musical form. Better still: the delicacy of the plucked strings reinforces this proximity between the two languages, poetic and musical, as if the spider-like touch of the guitar was better suited than the paradoxically heavier finesse of the piano.

This project, however, is above all the outcome of long years of work from the Duo Varnerin, a knowledgeable blend of a beautiful family story and a delicatemusical encounter. Stéphanie (soprano) and Mathieu (guitarist and author ofmost of the transcriptions) both followed an individual pathwith their own musical experiences before, as sister and brother, they joined forces to unite their knowledge, their techniques and their musical affinities in the service of an uncommonly rare programme, with all the tenderness and refinement that these gems of French song deserve.