Of love, night, and paradise: exquisite songs of the Belle Époque.

La Belle Époque is an era bathed in nostalgia. The very name of it – The Beautiful Age – suggests something that was, and can never be so again. The songs and piano pieces in this recital are utterly steeped in their own time.

Well-known songs mingle with rarely-heard gems: from Fauré’s justly-famous Après un rêve, to Koechlin’s autumnal Novembre and the mysterious, erotic atmosphere of Debussy’s La chevelure, to Entsagen by Romanian composer Enescu, who studied in Paris, and Bachelet's achingly tender Chère nuit.

Mezzo-soprano Adèle Charvet and pianist Florian Caroubi have a remarkable, empathic rapport, and in recent years have made this sumptuous repertoire their own, bringing together highlights of the genre in their 2025 album, Belle Époque!. As a review in Gramophone put it, “[Caroubi] and Charvet always sound as if they instinctively think and feel as one”.

Adèle Charvet mezzo-soprano
Florian Caroubi piano

The programme will include works by Albéniz, Duparc, Bizet, Debussy, Fauré, Massenet and other composers of the Belle Époque.