The songs are chosen, for the most part, with Véronique Gens’s voice in mind – no longer the bright soprano of 20 years ago, but now a warm and expressive mezzo, ideal in the more soulful melodies such as Chausson’s Chanson perpétuelle.

The combination of an intriguing program and attractive performances makes a recommendation easy, but I prefer the original voice-and-piano versions to the faint whiff of an expensive hotel lobby given off by lush strings. Alpha provides complete texts with English translations, and the recorded sound is all it should be.

Everything is beautifully and fastidiously done. Gens is in fine voice here, caressing phrases and words with all her customary refinement. Chanson perpétuelle, reflective yet intense, then suddenly searing at its climax, gets one of its finest performances on disc, while the Lekeu is a model of sensual understatement, superbly sustained... I Giardini are excellent, too, really coming into their own in the instrumental pieces that punctuate the disc.

Gens’s singing simply exudes what the fashion and beauty industries like to promote as ‘French girl chic’ - casually elegant, alluringly comfortable in its own skin, and all about clean and simple lines with just a hint of déshabillé around the edges...Messager’s paean to polyamory in J’ai deux amants is insouciant without being arch, and Piaf’s La vie en rose takes on a lovely life of its own in her hands...To borrow a phrase from Verlaine, it all adds up to an ‘exquisite hour’ indeed.

Gens approaches her artistic prime in well-chosen vocal items, combining a cool, elegant soprano and her native savour of the French language.

Gens’s performances are as spellbinding as ever. It’s hard to think of another singer working today who is more compelling in this repertory, with every word crystal clear and every nuance of the text perfectly inflected.