Sandrine Piau and David Kadouch are reuniting for a project that the French soprano conceived as the second part of a diptych begun with Voyage intime (Alpha 911). This time we enter the world of childhood, but even though this album is called Contes, but « these aren’t stories for children, says David Kadouch. Actually, these stories might even present themselves in a way that provokes anxiety – dark and menacing…Sandrine Piau continues: ‘Folk tales and legends often serve as an initiation and they also act providentially as pebbles that guide us through the forest of our most secret atavistic fears.’

With their well-known and recognised expertise, Piau and Kadouch bring together composers from a variety of linguistic and artistic backgrounds – Hahn, Debussy, Ravel, Wolf, Strauss, Zemlinsky, Poulenc, Shostakovich… and introduce us to fascinating female composers such as Jeanne Bernard (1895–1965), Wally Karnevo (1914–2015), Louise Didier (1872–1955) and Ilse Weber (1903–1944).