This well-filled two-CD set is surely the most wide-ranging single issue of Gounod's mélodies.
The first of the discs confirms the commonly held view of Gounod. Almost without exception the songs are pleasing and sentimental, a sweetly scented posy of hymns to flowers, of rêveries and serenades. The selection includes two settings of poems that Berlioz had used in Les nuits d'été, plumbing the depths of the poetry, where Gounod is content to skim across the surface.
In chronological order, the songs show how little Gounod's music deepened, but also how evergreen was his inspiration in melody and harmony.
To turn to the second disc is to have all your prejudices overturned. This comprises non- French settings, for which Gounod dons first Italian garb for the song cycle Biondina, and then English for a group of ten songs written during his stay in London in the 1870s. The Italian cycle is a delight. It would be impossible to guess the composer, as Gounod exchanges his customary flowing themes and rippling arpeggios for an ardent, Tosti-like vocal line over dry staccato chords.
Anthony Rolfe Johnson catches its mix of sunny lyricism and Gallic sensitivity to perfection.
All three singers are on their best form, Rolfe Johnson bringing an air of intimate seductiveness to Byron's Maid of Athens.

Superb ... perfection ... Best of the year