The medium of the orchestral song-cycle is one that much attracted Britten. His concept of an anthology of sometimes diverse texts, unified by a common literary or poetic theme was a favourite device to which he returned several times. The very early yet astonishingly mature Quatre Chansons Françaises and the still relatively unknown Our Hunting Fathers are coupled on this first volume with one of Britten’s great masterpieces, Les Illuminations which still startles in its vivid pictorial strokes and aching sensuality. Many composers had passed over Rimbaud’s poems considering them too surrealist for lyrical settings. Britten, however, relished the opportunity to respond to their visionary, violent and sexual images. The vocal line closely follows the diversity of the text, by turns starkly declamatory, lyrical and heated.