Nautical theme to moving Faure collection

For years, Hyperion Records patiently compiled the complete Lieder of Schubert and Schumann, CD by CD. Singers were hand-picked, and the projects were overseen by Graham Johnson, who was also the immaculate accompanist.

Lately, Johnson has turned his attention to French song and, now composers such as Chabrier, Saint-Saens and even Deodat de Severac have been accommodated, Gabriel Faure is next in line. Au Bord de l'Eau is the first volume of the complete songs, with three more forthcoming.

When EMI released its complete Faure set with Gerard Souzay and Elly Ameling, the songs were dealt with chronologically, but Johnson is not so dependent on "chronological happenstance", as he wryly puts it. And so this first instalment gathers together songs with maritime associations, opening with a setting of Gautier's Les Matelots and ending with the four searching miniatures of L'Horizon Chimerique.

Faure is difficult to classify. He is certainly more adventurous than the likes of Chabrier and Saint-Saens, yet not as explorative as Debussy or Ravel.

Yet, while the delightful Tarantelle could have slipped out of the pages of Carmen, Danseuse, written a year after Debussy's death, shows Faure was at ease with a new century.

Seven singers share duties, ranging from Felicity Lott, using her many years of experience and artistry to cover for a voice that is not in its prime, to baritone Christopher Maltman, one of Jonathan Lemalu's companions on Volume 8 of Hyperion's Schumann collection and last seen as the captain in the video of The Death of Klinghoffer.

Maltman charts an exquisite voyage through L'Horizon Chimerique, although climaxes in the earlier songs, Les Matelots and Larmes, find him a little overpowered for the material. Tenor John Mark Ainsley, who has less range to deal with in Barcarolle and Au cimitiere, is tonally more consistent.

Two special plaudits. One is for the sound, recorded over two years in unspecified venues, with the team of Mark Brown and Julian Millard achieving a remarkable consistency of balance and presence.

The other is for Graham Johnson's various essays and notes which offer the most evocative and demystifying introduction imaginable to repertoire that can be elusive.

* Faure: Au Bord de l'Eau: The Complete Songs I (Hyperion CDM 7333, through Ode Records)