Shortlisted for the Gramophone Song Award

“…The ranges of voices suites the range of these atmospheric and serious songs, with all four soloists not putting a foot wrong. The sound is clear, sharp, and well balanced, with just a little bit of space around the voices. There are good notes, texts, and translations… this disc comes very highly recommended …”

“… This [recording] one has four singers, all of them outstanding… I’ve never heard more sublime readings of ‘Extase’ and ‘Elegie’ than hers [Connolly]. Nicky Spence is, as always astoundingly good. He brings his deeply attentive soft singing to ‘Serenade’ and ‘Serenade Florentine’. His ethereal reading of ‘Soupir’ … is exquisite… Everything about this album is appealing …”

“The 16 surviving solo songs of Henri Duparc … are given here on a disc that captures precisely — and heartbreakingly — the unsettling duality of beauty and disquiet in much of his work… Throughout, the singers and pianist exhibit an innate understanding of these haunting and tantalising works.”  ****

Editor’s Choice – October 2022

“Complete collection proves Duparc a master of the art song.” ****½

“… This is very much a recording in which we’re aware of Duparc’s edginess as well as his beauty… There’s a terrific and consistently persuasive grandeur and sweep in much of Martineau’s playing here, and of encompassing everything from the percussive ferocity of ‘La vague et la cloche’ to the fragile delicacy of ‘Soupir’. His singers by and large match his intensity… The real revelation … is baritone Huw Montague Rendall, whose ‘Manor de Rosemonde’ is among the finest and most unsettling on disc, superbly voiced and unsparingly vivid in his treatment of the text … this is a fine and fascinating addition to his discography.”

“… This set has a lovely ability to look beyond both the well-known songs and beyond the conventional view of them. Martineau and the four singers all bring a thoughtfulness and profound consideration to the performances, we very rarely simply luxuriate in the simple beauty of sound. And whilst there is plenty of that, each song is a profoundly expressive microcosm, bringing alive the composer's complex and fascinating interior life.” *****