During the Belle Époque, Jules Massenet rose to become France’s leading composer of opera, as notable for his acute dramatic sense as for the refined sensuality of his music. Encompassing three decades of his career, and settings as diverse as Biblical Judea and the Paris of Massenet’s time, the seven operas in this box range from the enduringly popular Manon and Werther through works occasionally revived for star singers (Thaïs and Don Quichotte) to three fascinating rarities (Hérodiade, Le Jongleur de Notre Dame and Sapho). They represent nearly 40 years of recording history and feature a host of celebrated singers and conductors from France and around the world.

This stunning and generous collection belongs right at the top of the heap in its respective repertoire. The Debussy is still a comparative rarity in concert if not on disc, a remarkable fact given that it's wholly gorgeous from first note to last. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's excellence as a Debussy pianist already has been acknowledged by just about everyone who has heard him, and needs no further advertisement here. The performance is outstanding, sensitive to every nuance, but also very French in its clear-eyed sensibility and understanding that focused rhythm and supple tempos prevent the music from turning excessively sentimental or blandly pretty. And in Tortelier, Bavouzet has a conductor who seconds him every step of the way. A similar sensibility informs these swift, razor-sharp, and utterly thrilling accounts of the two Ravel concertos. That for the left hand seldom has sounded so exciting, or in its jazzy central march section, so sinister. Listen to the bite that both soloist and orchestra bring to that descending scale theme, and notice the way Bavouzet shapes his cadenza so as to preserve the illusion of multiple parts played by multiple hands–all without slowing down at the tough passages. It's really an amazing performance by any standard. Even the dark opening, often merely murky on other recordings, has shape and urgency, the buildup to the initial entry of the piano creating incredible tension.