Gabriel Fauré found perfect inspiration for his own intensely emotional and often highly charged compositional style in Paul Verlaine’s perfumed poetry, producing some 17 songs over seven years that both enchanted and perplexed his friends and colleagues. The five “Venice” songs (Op 58) led some to suggest that Fauré should find another source, but he ignored them and, spurred by his devotion to the soprano Emma Bardac, created the ecstatically romantic cycle La Bonne Chanson (Op 61). Both sets are sung here with an exhilarating, passionate urgency by the American tenor Tony Boutté, expertly supported by pianists Emily Kilpatrick and Roy Howat, editors of a new edition of these classic art songs.
