This is the third volume in the impressive coverage of all Poulenc’s songs masterminded by the superb pianist Malcolm Martineau. In reviewing Vol 1 (8/11), Edward Greenfield commented that the recording balance tends to favour the piano. But in the present set any slight piano dominance comes from the sheer character of Martineau’s playing. This is immediately effective in the opening group of four Airs chantés, sung with engaging character and immediacy by Sarah Fox. In ‘Colloque’, which follows, Lorna Anderson is joined by Thomas Oliemans, which brings most beautiful singing in a nostalgic love duet.

Indeed, all the love songs here are memorable in that delicate way the French make their own. In the new French school, Cocteau had called for ‘an end to clouds, waves, aquariums, water nymphs and fogs’ while, with Wagner and Schumann in mind, another target was ‘music one listens to head-in-hands’. Yet the down-to-earth evocations are equally memorable. Apollinaire’s ‘La grenouillère’, ravishingly sung by Ann Murray, contrasts with the passionate ‘Montparnasse’ (the ardent Thomas Oliemans again), followed by Apollinaire’s brief but vivid picture of ‘Hyde Park’. ‘Un poème’ shows Martineau’s delicious pianism at its most delicate and Sarah Fox returns to sing the Miroirs brûlants with characteristic beauty and flair.

The six items which make up the pictorial but unified La fraîcheur et le feu show the versatility and lyric intensity of John Mark Ainsley and again Martineau’s responsive virtuosity. The seven Calligrammes are more romantic but the pictures of rain and cicadas bring plenty of vivid colour, and the closing ‘Voyage’ is quite haunting. ‘Le souris’ makes a touching postlude before the pair of humorous portraits, ‘Monsieur Sans Souci’ and the tale of Madame Eustache, who has 17 daughers (‘not one too many’), ends this splendid recital in mock-humorous vein. With eight outstanding singers and the pianist all on top form, this is the most attractively inviting of these Poulenc anthologies so far issued. Excellent documentation too.