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, Massenet's twilit Crépuscule, 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. 

With English surtitles.