A pupil of Albéniz and contemporary of Ravel and Debussy, Déodat de Séverac was one of the most significant French composers of his generation. His belief that French music should draw on its rich regional tradition in order to resist foreign influences is vividly reflected in the compositions included on this recording. En Languedoc and Cerdaña (‘Cerdagne’) evoke the picturesque country life of Southern France, making use of an idiom which alternates between impressionism and descriptive romanticism.