Last year marked the centenary of the first collaboration between Les Six – the group of six composers who gathered around Eric Satie. Five of the six composers were French – Auric, Durey, Milhaud, Poulenc and Tailleferre; the exception was Honegger who was Swiss. That first collaboration was a selectin of solo piano pieces under the title L’Album des Six. The following they collaborated on a ballet, Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel.

Les Six

In their first recorded disc together, Swiss soprano Franziska Heinzen (a recent Britten-Pears young artist) and pianist Benjamin Mead have decided to celebrate the group in a fine recital of solo piano pieces and mélodies.

Ingeniously programmed, each of the six composers is presented in alphabetical order with each introduced by a solo piano piece played with suitable colour and wit.  Heinzen has an attractive soprano voice without resorting to unnecessary bother. All selections display a complete understanding of the French idiom, sung directly and without affect. Similarly, her understanding and approach to the text is both idiomatic and sympathetic in what can often be rather abstract or obtuse settings familiar with poetry by the likes of Rilke,...