Léa Desandre & Thomas Dunford, Idyll

Sometimes one melody is enough to evoke a whole lifetime of memories. Met Idylle let mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre and lutenist Thomas Dunford merge three centuries of French love music into a long-drawn, languorous stream of emotions. From hushed airs de cour to the melancholic mélodies of Claude Debussy, from the bard of the belle époque – Reynaldo Hahn – to chansonnières Françoise Hardy and Barbara: longing, happiness, and melancholy appear in new guises each time. The combination of Desandre's expressive voice and Dunford's poetic lute playing creates a rare closeness in which layers of time dissolve and music becomes a game of touching and letting go. Don't expect a sentimental soundscape, but a panoramic portrait of Queen Love.