Laurent Naouri takes the trouble to sing the right notes at the right dynamic levels at sensible speeds and you can hear his words. That already is a great deal. But I’m afraid it’s not enough. For one thing his is a dark‚ grainy voice‚ doubtless impressive in the field of opera in which he has made his mark‚ but I’m not sure it’s suitable for the mélodie in general‚ let along to those of Poulenc. Although we can hear the words‚ at no point did I feel that Naouri was really engaged with what he was singing about. The first song must stand for all 44 on the disc. La grenouillère is one of Poulenc’s most tender‚ evocative and ironic songs‚ as it is of Apollinaire’s poems. But Naouri seems unaffected by the sudden image of the artists’ stupid‚ large­breasted female companions. Poulenc’s music speaks of contempt‚ love‚ amusement‚ sadness‚ lust‚ all pressing on the composer’s necessary objectivity. Naouri seems to have decided that this is a sad song‚ and that’s about that. Listen instead to Cuénod (Dante)‚ recorded with Poulenc in 1953. Here is someone who really cares about these people‚ who is really swept up in the wave of nostalgia as he thinks back to those dear‚ dead days on Froggery Island. The melancholy in Cuénod’s final ‘Au bord de l’île’ is almost unbearable. Nothing in the other 43 songs can persuade me that this project is successful‚ apart from David Abramovitz’s lively and at times virtuoso piano playing.