Pascal Comelade was born in Montpellier, France. After living in Barcelona for several years, he made his first album, under the name of Fluence, influenced by electronic music and by the group Heldon. Since 1980 Comelade releases music under his own name. Ever since, his music has become more acoustic and is often characterised by the sounds of toy instruments, used as solo-instruments or as an integral part of the sound of his group, the Bel Canto Orchestra. Marc Hurtado is one half of the experimental French duo Étant Donnés. Active since the end of the 1970s, the group has released several albums, also collaborating with people like Alan Vega, Lydia Lunch, Michael Gira or Genesis P-Orridge.

Fifty years after his death, Poulenc is one of the most frequently performed French composers of the twentieth century all over the world. His choral output offers a nuanced portrait of a musician who, at bottom, fell in love with the texts he set, whether they were sacred (CD 1) or secular (CD 2). ʻA singer, as fashioned by Francis, presents us with words raised to the height of severity or charm by Poulenc’s musical intelligence’, wrote Jean Cocteau. An admirable compliment to an oeuvre as capable of expressing faith (Motets pour un temps de pénitence) as resistance.

This version of The Queen of Spades was originally recorded in 1974 and made available as a special import; it was then generally released by Philips in 1988. Reviewing it at the time, AB gave a level account of its strengths, but had little difficulty in preferring the Tchakarov set when it was issued in 1990. Deleted by Philips, the Ermler performance has now been restored to the Melodiya catalogue. I cannot see anyone dissenting from AB's view: certainly I do not, except perhaps to regard him as being over-generous in his account of Atlantov's Herman in calling it ''loud and unsubtle''. Stronger words would also be appropriate, especially when Atlantov is compared with the sensitive Wieslaw Ochman on the Tchakarov set. Valentina Levko is a good Countess in what is a well-established Russian tradition of responses to the role: AB thought the old lady's reminiscences not so pointedly delivered as by some other singers, and I would add that she would certainly have acquired a better French accent during her long sojourn as the Venus of Paris.

The venerable Charles Aznavour graced his adoring public with a stellar album of material for the new millennium, titled Aznavour 2000. The album tends to sway toward upbeat, jazzy, swingin' numbers, such as the opener, "Le Jazz Est Revenu," "Elle a le Swing au Corps," "La Formule Un," and "Nos Avocats." His voice, always warm and compassionate, is like an old friend, giving this album a feeling of intimacy, although his public spans the globe and numbers in the millions. The shining moments, however, are the ballads, which drip with his eternally stylish and sophisticated melancholy, such as the lovely and heartbreaking "De la Scene a la Seine," a tribute to the late, tragic Italian-Egyptian star Dalida. The downcast "Qu'Avons-Nous Fait de Nos Vingt Ans" echoes of his ancestral Armenia and "Je Danse Avec l'Amour" is a classic-sounding French chanson. "Quand Tu M'Aimes" and the samba-styled "Je Ne Savais Pas" are from his musical Lautrec (based on the life of Tolouse-Lautrec) and offer more variety to this winning and marvelously orchestrated album. A sheer pleasure through and through for fans of the amazing and enduring Charles Aznavour.

Even on its first record "L'Escapade" (1974), Mona Lisa appeared as a dedicated follower of the theatrical, emotional and melodramatic rock created by Ange. The emphasis, the sensibility, the vocal subtlety of Dominique Le Guennec goes beyond the usual style. He "lives" his lyrics and surprises the listener by performing an expressive and suggestive music that evoke Genesis.

It's been six years since Divinidylle, and Vanessa Paradis is making up for lost time with the 22-track Love Songs. The title bears some poignancy – this is her first offering since splitting from Johnny Depp. (He and their daughter Lily Rose get co-writing credits on the dubwise "New Year.") Benjamin Biolay produced the set, wrote six tunes for it, co-wrote another with Paradis, and performed a duet with her…

Julian Prégardien decided to record the Dichterliebe cycle after he came across the new Bärenreiter edition; he went on to explore the work in concerts with his constant accompanist, Eric Le Sage, inserting other works by Robert and also by Clara Schumann, whose bicentenary is celebrated in 2019. When Clara played the Dichterliebe in the 1860s, she used to slip extracts from Kreisleriana between the songs. Eric Le Sage records the same extracts on a Blüthner piano of 1856, the year of Robert’s death, and also to include Romances composed by both Robert and Clara at a time when their future marriage was still uncertain. The sublime ballade Löwenbraut also forms part of the programme – a reminder of the young Robert’s anguish on Clara’s departure.

Gardiner illuminates Alceste's subtle colors and inflections, assisted by von Otter, whose perceptive performance as Alceste is one of emotional sincerity and spot-on vocal accuracy. Despite being a watershed between baroque and classical opera - and a major influence on Mozart, Berlioz and even Wagner -Gluck (1714-87) is still best known today for one opera. Orfeo ed Euridice might be a masterpiece but it's one that has tended to overshadow his other fine achievements.

Most of the secular choral works of Francis Poulenc have enjoyed respectable treatment on disc–but not for awhile. This newcomer not only is equal to the best in the catalog, but it contains all of Poulenc’s a cappella compositions in the genre, including the infrequently heard Petites voix. Although the masterpiece Figure humaine, written in 1943 during the Nazi occupation of France, is the big work here–and it’s performed with spectacularly vivid ensemble clarity and all the poignancy that Poulenc must have intended with his very deliberate use of vocal timbre and expressive means–the generous program reminds us also of the merits of the composer’s „lighter“ works, particularly the Chansons françaises of 1945/46, Chanson à boire, for male choir, and Petites voix (1936), for treble voices.

André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry’s three-act opera Guillaume Tell was first performed in 1791 at the Salle Favart of the Comédie-Italienne in Paris. The opera deals with the Swiss fight for freedom in the 14th century against the domination of the Habsburgs. The story of Wilhelm Tell is well-known.