Bernac of course had the distinct advantage of a pianist who knew a thing or two about the music he'd written.

François le Roux is fine if you don't mind a bit of yelling here and there. He's a fine musician I think but his voice doesn't have the suppleness Bernac's had - he had one of those baritone voices that just seemed to go up and up. (I remember Joan Sutherland in a masterclass making a tenor sing over and over again the end of one of the songs in Tel jour, telle nuit which goes hooning up to a top A ('Cette santé bâtit une prison') - I'm sure she was trying to get him to crack it.) It's rare as anything nowadays to find a baritone who can manage that (they all seem too anxious to try to prove they're not tenors) - alas that's something the Decca songs set really suffers from. (It's also missing Je nommerai ton front... I wouldn't make any great claims for the song but if you're calling your recording complete then what's it doing missing a perfectly well-known published song? Turn the page after Tu vois le feux du soir and there it is. Oops.)

Catherine Dubosc also doesn't cover herself with glory in the Decca box; her intonation with piano is completely inadmissible. I somehow don't think it's an accident that the French in recent decades have been so welcoming to various imported sopranos and mezzos (Lott, Graham, Norman, Hendricks)...