Of Polish origin, Alexandre Tansman arrived in Paris in 1919 where he soon joined the ranks of the most prominent composers and musicians of his time. This programme ranges from the Suite dans le style ancien written in the fashionable neo-baroque style of the 1920s and ’30s, to the poetic Arabesques, the joyful Cinq Impressions and, with their tragic overtones, the Ballades Nos. 1-3 which are among the composer’s most personal and original works. The post-war Eight Cantilenas were Tansman’s homage to the meditative aspects of J.S. Bach’s music.