Martineau describes the plan as a “tasting menu”, starting with Gounod, to whom he ascribes the launching of the genre of French mélodie. Even Ravel said that Gounod was “the true founder of the mélodie in France” and his song “Au rossignol” (“To the Nightingale”) is included in the first of five sections – “founding fathers”, including Bizet, Franck, Lalo and Saint-Saëns. It is fascinating to hear the original version with piano of “Danse macabre”, Graham marvellously biting.

Martineau describes the sequence as “loosely chronological”, and one beauty of the scheme is that rare and forgotten composers are included, such as Paladilhe and Bachelet who are represented in late-Romantic mélodies with night and nature dominating themes. The third group – including Ravel and Debussy – takes us into the 20th century. I found especially fascinating André Caplet’s setting of “Le corbeau et le renard” (“The Crow and the Fox”) with elaborate piano accompaniment.

Only rare songs are chosen for each composer and I suspect that Martineau chose some of them for the colourful accompaniments, as in Chausson’s fluttering accompaniment for his picture of the butterfly in “Le papillon”. The fourth section has childhood as a common theme and the climactic section has only one song, much the longest, Poulenc’s “La dame de Monte-Carlo”, to words by Jean Cocteau. It is like an encapsulated version of the operatic monodrama La voix humaine with the singer on the verge of a breakdown.

A rich collection in excellent sound: no one is likely to be disappointed.