PROVOCATIVE THOUGHTS: 
The late Patric Standford may have written these short pieces deliberately to provoke our feedback. If so, his success is reflected in the rich range of readers' comments appearing at the foot of most of the pages.
Marie-Nicole Lemieux
5054197659409 (Erato, CD)
FIRST RELEASE (29 September 2023)
Tracks: 17
℗ 2023 Parlophone Records Ltd
© 2023 Parlophone Records Ltd
Main country of recording: Monaco
Reviewer: Geoff Pearce
Review of Marie-Nicole Lemieux published on 19 August 2023
Marie-Nicole Lemieux, contralto
Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo
Kazuki Yamada, conductor
Hector Berlioz:
1-6 Les Nuits d'été
Maurice Ravel:
7-14 Shéhérazade.
Camille Saint-Saens:
15-17 Mélodies Persanes
The Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux joins the Orchestra Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and its Artistic and Music Director Kazuki Yamada, to present her interpretation of the 'traditional' recorded pairing of two French song cycles: Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été and Ravel's Shéhérazade. Lemieux complements these with the less frequently recorded Mélodies Persanes (Persian Songs) from Saint-Saëns, settings of poems by Armand Renaud.