“Living with Joseph Canteloube's music and enjoying the pleasure of singing his songs is more like being in love with a repertoire than being in awe of it”, says Frederica von Stade. “Canteloube displays a natural, almost childlike talent for story telling in his music, and the sophistication of his orchestral settings actually emphasises the purity and simplicity of the folk he loved so deeply. Though he may not be a great composer - as Mozart or Beethoven are great - still there is greatness in the sheer beauty of his expression”.

Born in the town of Annonay in the Auvergne region of south-central France, Marie-Joseph Canteloube de Malaret (1879-1957) accomplished for his native folk what his fellow ethno-musicologists Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály did for the music of Hungary, and Cecil Sharp for the music of England. In 1901 Canteloube enrolled in the Paris Schola Cantorum, where he entered the orbit of Vincent d'Indy, whose infectious passion for French folk culture was perhaps the most important influence on Canteloube's development. In addition, he enjoyed a close friendship with Joseph Marie Déodat de Séverac (1873-1921), whose compositions, according to Pierre Lalo, were “full of the fragrance of the earth”. After many years this wonderful set makes its return as a unique two cd set on Newton Classics.