French tenor Cyrille Dubois has collected some of the better known Britten works “en français” for this recording. One normally hears these works performed by English singers in what is pretty much an “official” Britten style so I was intrigued to hear them interpreted by a native French speaker, albeit one with a track record of performing Britten’s operas, song cycles and choral works!

The first piece is the early Quatre chansons françaises, performed with orchestra in this case the Orchestre national de Metz Grand Est with David Reiland conducting. The singing here is quite stylish and distinctly French; perhaps a little more emphatic than one is accustomed too but it works. The orchestra copes admirably with the dense and colourful orchestral writing. It includes Paul Verlaine’s “Chanson d’automne” with the famous opening “Les sanglots longs des violins” though in 1928 the composer could not have known the significance that line would assume later.

Next there are eight of the French folksong arrangements; a couple of which I don’t think I’d heard before. Here Dubois is accompanied by Tristan Raës on piano. These are very different from Britten and Pears’ recordings. They have more contrast of mood and tempo and sound much more French. One really gets it in “Le roi s’en va-t’en chasse”: where Dubois adopts distinctly different voices for the narrator, the king and the shepherdess. It’s interesting ad rather effective.

The most substantial piece on the record is Les Illuminations. I’ve struggled with this piece in the past, finding it not only obscure but often strident. That wasn’t my impression here at all! Dubois seems under no strain at all and sounds almost conversational in “Royauté” and quite witty in “Parade”. The orchestra is well able to follow the singer’s changing moods as well as sounding very grand where it needs to. I don’t think I’ve ever listened to this piece with more pleasure.

But there’s more… they are not listed on the cover or in the booklet but there are piano accompanied versions of four English language songs; “Sally Gardens”, “Last Rose of Summer”, “O Can Ye Sew Cushions” and “O Waly, Waly”. It’s interesting because while in the previous pieces Dubois sounds frencher than anyone I’ve heard sing them here he sounds like a very English tenor. He even manages a restrained Scots inflection in “O Can Ye Sew Cushions”. They are really rather good.

The recording was made in April 2026 at l’Arsenal Jean-Marie Rausch – Cité musicale-Metz. It’s clear and detailed even in the CD resolution files I had access to. It’s also available as lossless 96kHz/24bit and MP3. There’s no physical release. The booklet is definitely worth a read to get an idea of how deep in this repertoire Dubois is. It also contains the French texts with English translations.

All in all this is a really interesting and enjoyable recording that has some really interesting insights into some well known pieces.

Catalogue information: Aparte music AP438