Philippe Jaroussky & Thibaut Garcia - À sa guitare by Various, Fra (2022/2022), Henry Le Boeuf Zaal, Brussels, Belgium

When we think of melody, the sound of the piano immediately springs to mind. But this is to forget that other strings – plucked this time – once held sway in aristocratic salons. The guitar, together with its cousins the lute or theorbo, wove elaborate designs around the voice. This required a virtuoso capable of both opulence of sound and ethereal atmospheres. These are precisely the talents of Thibaut Garcia, a rising star, but already a worthy partner of Philippe Jaroussky, whose vocal qualities need no further introduction. These two partners take us on a wide-ranging exploration of melody, from the subtleties of the English masters to Schubert’s dramatic Erlkönig, from Mozart’s crepuscular Abendempfindung to the Iberian flashes of Granados' Love and Hate and The Look from the Maja , via the French refinement of Fauré and Poulenc's To his Guitar , his tribute to the genius of Ronsard.