The title refers to the style of the poems that French composers in the 17th century chose to set to music. Galanterie implies lightness and grace, both of which are to be found in this selection and in the singing of Johannette Zomer. The other side of the coin is that the subject matter of the air sérieux was often the despair of an abandoned lover. Several of these songs have the singer seeking the darkness of a wood or forest in which to express loneliness and desolation.

Perhaps “desolation” is too strong a word, as the emotional weight is, indeed, often galant rather than heart-rending. The first item, Noires forêts by Antoine Boësset, has the lover avoiding daylight after his lady has announced the end of their affair (oddly translated in the booklet as “the day of my execution”). The air – in two stanzas, the second being a decorated version of the first – is attractive enough; but you will listen in vain for the passion with which a contemporary Italian composer would have expressed the lover’s plight.

On the other hand, Rochers, vous êtes sourds by Michel Lambert, where Ariadne contrasts the immobility of her audience with the flight of her ungrateful rock, Theseus, does touch the heart. So does Laissez durer la nuit by Sébastien le Camus where, again, the lover seeks the dark. The reason lies not so much in the content as in the expressiveness that Zomer brings to the vocal line, sometimes very effectively intensifying her tone on a sustained note. She and Fred Jacobs are excellent advocates for music that did, in truth, grow on me.