They have nothing else to record for their star tenor Benjamin Bernheim at Deutsche Grammophon? When we see the programs that Alpha and the Palazzetto Bru Zane have managed to concoct for the soprano Jodie Devos or the tenor Cyrille Dubois, we come to think that “editorial art” has abandoned what was a beacon of phonographic publishing. The feat of Sweet France is to save the cost of an orchestra by recording transcriptions for tenor and piano (accompanist’s arrangements) of the Summer Nights and of Poem of love and the sea. To justify the title, three popular songs were added (Dead Leaves, Sweet France, When All You Have Is Love ; mannered and sweet) and the four best-known melodies of Duparc. Why deprive yourself of the orchestral art of Berlioz and Chausson? Why deprive yourself of Marie-Nicole Lemieux in exchange for this sound X-ray of a voice (fortunately brilliant) captured in a vacuum? A boring exercise for die-hard Bernheim fans.
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