Although this aspect of the composer is often overlooked, César Franck devoted almost half of his opus numbers to the voice. Covering a wide range of genres – mélodies and duets with piano accompaniment, motets, cantatas, oratorios and operas – this output remains almost entirely to be rediscovered. On the occasion of the release of their complete recording of Franck’s works for voice and piano, Tassis Christoyannis and Jeff Cohen invite us to visit this forgotten world, which, ranging from the naive romance to the finely chiselled mélodie, illustrates the evolution of the genre in Romantic France and proves that this master of instrumental music also knew how to set texts to music.
