Gérard Souzay (1918-2004) was a French baritone, one of the great singers of mélodie and Lieder in the twentieth century. He was admired for elegance, textual refinement and tonal beauty.

In the Pristine catalogue he appears in Fauré’s Requiem with Ernest Ansermet, Suzanne Danco and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

Souzay’s singing was supple, cultivated and verbally acute, with a uniquely French balance of colour and restraint. He could make intimacy carry across a concert hall.

His page is essential even from a compact catalogue footprint. Souzay sings as though every vowel has been polished by candlelight.