Fornerod was a teacher‚ theorist‚ musicologist‚ choir trainer‚ lecturer‚ critic for the Tribune de Lausanne and‚ from 1954 to 1965‚ director of the Fribourg Conservatory. Obviously‚ Switzerland and Swiss music­making were much in his debt‚ and per­haps still are. The insert­notes tell us that he was a cultivated man‚ ‘disguising a profound and sensitive spirit behind an appearance of smiling‚ ironic detachment’. But was he a good composer? In all honesty I have to say no. If I go a little further than that‚ I must regretfully report that these three discs constituted the most unpleasurable listening I’ve experienced for some time. Unpleasurable‚ not unpleasant (apart from the too­close recording of the oboe in the Divertissement pastoral). In fact some grit would have been very welcome. But instead the slow movements meander modally‚ the faster ones chug‚ also modally. With the single exception of the first movement of the Cello Sonata‚ where François Guye’s beautiful cello playing does its best to lift the music out of the slough‚ Fornerod gives us the musical equivalent of chocolate and cuckoo clocks. Tunes start hopefully and go nowhere‚ pastoral rumtummery is rife‚ while his orchestration adds nougat to the overall mixture. Worst of all‚ there hardly ever seems to be a reason why one paragraph should follow another. Performance standards vary from Guye and the Sine Nomine Quartet at one end‚ to local choral society sopranos at the other. But‚ sadly‚ that is not the issue.