Hyperion presents a third volume in its acclaimed Debussy songs series, accompanied and curated by Malcolm Martineau, with booklet notes by French music expert par excellence Roger Nichols.

Young soprano Jennifer France, winner of the Song Prize at the 2014 Kathleen Ferrier Awards and making her debut on the label, has a thrillingly expressive voice of diamantine beauty and is an ideal performer of these songs. Baritone Jonathan McGovern performs Le promenoir des deux amants and other songs with warm tone and great musical sensitivity.

The twenty-six songs on this recording fall into four categories: twelve on poems by Théodore de Banville; four settings of various authors, probably from 1882, but rediscovered only recently and first published in 2012; five songs on poems by Paul Bourget; and five from the years 1890 to 1910.