For as long as I can remember, I have loved and admired France, and especially the city of Paris – ever since my first visit as a young boy: I was captivated by the powerful charm of the country to the point of falling in love with it and later settling there. And today, after living there for over a decade, I still feel the same sense of wonder for this city. In this album, I pay homage to my two homelands with a selection of pieces and songs that grasp the essence of the 20th century, from the period between the two wars and in the 1950's.

Ernest Bloch’s Suite Hébraïque was the starting point for this programme: ‘This music came as a revelation to us. Its language is overwhelming and tells of the ravages of the twentieth century. The other composers in this programme (Ravel, Bloch, Bruch, Prokofiev, Shostakovich) each in their own way experienced the full force of this tormented century and drew inspiration from the most timeless and universal aspects of folk and sacred repertories, the better to respond to the brutality of the age’, say violist Arnaud Thorette and pianist Johan Farjot, who devised this programme.