For Ying Fang, the starting point for Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne is a single song: Baïlèro. She describes it as “one of the most beautiful songs ever written”, but her fascination with the cycle extends beyond the melody itself.

In Canteloube’s settings, she hears a landscape, a culture and a particular way of life.

“Canteloube didn’t just transcribe folk tunes, he captured the light, the colour, and the breathtaking landscape of the French mountains, along with the love and wit of the people who lived there,” Fang says. “What makes this music so distinctive is how it pairs that raw, rustic human spirit with lush, impressionistic orchestral colours.”

Fang returns to Sydney in October to perform the cycle with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor Sir Donald Runnicles, following her Sydney Symphony debut with Runnicles in 2024. The concert also includes Darius Milhaud’s Le Bœuf sur le toit and Brahms’ Fourth Symphony.

Ying Fang. Portrait © Dario Acosta

Written between 1923 and 1930, Canteloube’s 27 Songs of the Auvergne draw on folk melodies from the Auvergne region of central France. Their subjects are often...