This is a really interesting and unusual album.  French mezzo-soprano Stéphanie d’Oustrac teams up with a small baroque ensemble, Le Poème Harmonique (accordion, theorbo, strings, bassoon/flute) led by Vincent Dumestre to present a selection of music that ranges from traditional songs through 17th century opera/oratorio arias to cabaret music and modern chansons.

The music is grouped into Three “life stages”; Jeunesse, Les vieux airs and Les amours passée; a sort of lifetime of music.  I was really excited after the first four numbers because they were touching a whole bunch of things I really love; jazzy cabaret on played freely on baroque instruments, traditional music sounding a bit like a band like Malicorne, a freedom of vocal expression etc.  It did quieten down a bit after that with arias by Cavalli and Monteverdi sung in a properly period appropriate way but also other music freely interpreted by all the musicians.  It finishes up in a fun way too.  There’s a very silly song; Les canards Tyroliens, which features yodelling and coloratura ducks. Then there’s a tango and a plangent rendering of the title track.

The recording was made in 2022 at Tandem – Scène nationale-Théâtre d’Arras.  It’s quite bright and lively and fits the music nicely.  There’s an excellent booklet with lots of information about the evolution of the Paris music scene in the 20th century plus full texts and translations.  It’s available as a physical CD, MP3 and standard and hi-res (96kHz/24bit) FLAC.  I listened to the CD quality digital version.

Katherine Cooper described the album as “weird but distinctly wonderful” and I reckon that’s about right.

Catalogue number: Alpha records ALPHA988