François Le Roux - Joseph Kosma: Les Feuilles Mortes - Chansons (2000)

Joseph Kosma was a Hungarian Jew who studied in Germany and, on the run from the Nazis, ended up in France, fighting with the Resistance and composing scores for classic French films like La Grande Illusion and Les Enfants du Paradis. Even more famous than his film scores, however, were his cabaret songs, which intelligently synthesize the French chanson with German cabaret, gypsy violin music, the feverish passion of klezmer, and a pizzazz that is all Hungarian. A list of his lyricists and collaborators is a roll call of mid-century France --Prévert, Sartre, Raymond Queneau, and Juliet Greco. The fame of his greatest collaboration with Prévert ("Les Feuilles Mortes" is perhaps even better known in its English version, "Autumn Leaves") should not blind us to the importance of all of his work in this field. The throaty smoothness of Francois Le Roux admirably complements these dramatic performances of an eclectic selection of songs. -- Roz Kaveney