In the smoke of the cabaret hides the border between popular music and art music. With his genius as an orchestrator, Britten in his Folksongs modulates the simplest of English popular melodies. In the same spirit, Charles Ives at the dawn of the 20th century or William Bolcom, a contemporary of Pierre Boulez, borrowed from traditional folklore before setting out on new avant-garde paths.  With Victor Holländer, who wrote the Blaue Engel score for Marlene Dietrich, we are given a glimpse into the irreverent and sulphurous Berlin cabaret nightlife of the 1930s.

Pauline Claes mezzo-soprano
Lionel Bams piano

Folksongs et Cabaret songs de Britten (1913-1976), Bolcom (1938-), Ives (1874-1954), Holländer (1896-1976).