Fauré’s songs represent his art at its most radiant, demonstrating the composer’s exceptional gift for melody as well as his acute sensitivity to the subtleties of the greatest French poets of the day. In ‘La bonne chanson’, the result is a song cycle like few others: an ecstatic hymn to the beloved (the composer’s mistress) which celebrates the triumph of love. Here, it provides a glorious opening to Nicky Spence and Julius Drake’s all-Fauré recital.