With this recording dedicated to a selection of German songs by Joseph Haydn, Alice Foccroulle and Pierre Gallon leave their familiar territory - that of Baroque music - and present a personal, thoroughly informed interpretation of these songs, free of the many layers of varnish that have built up over the centuries on these little treasures of vocal music. It is free of the many layers of varnish that have been applied to these little treasures of vocal music over the centuries. Alice Foccroulle is accompanied partly by harpsichord, partly by pianoforte, and leads us across the narrow ridge between the Baroque and the Classical periods. The listener is invited into the Viennese salons of the late 18th century, where love songs and little philosophical or religious tales in German are performed in domestic settings. They are characterised by tenderness, intensity and humour, sometimes with a touch of cynicism. All in all, Haydn shows himself here from an intimate side, impressively realising the zeitgeist of an epoch in a state of transformation. © Passacaille