Product Review

Graham Johnson is acknowledged as the greatest living authority on French song. His innate feeling for the music is combined with prodigious scholarship, and his wonderful recordings in Hyperion's French Song Edition have enjoyed great critical acclaim. Hyperion proudly presents Johnson's latest effort, a set of the complete songs of Francis Poulenc released to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the composer's death. The songs on each of the set's discs are arranged to present four different journeys through the composer's career. A special joy is the inclusion of a 1977 recording of Pierre Bernac narrating the well-known L'histoire de Babar. The set's singers include Dame Felicity Lott, acclaimed as one of the foremost performers of Poulenc, as well as other stars from previous recordings in the series.