Phillip Sear plays two 'album leaves' from 1903 or earlier by the French composer and organist Émile Bernard (1843–1902) ------------------------------------- Bernard studied piano at the Paris Conservatoire under Antoine Marmontel. He does not seem to have been particularly prolific as a composer (by the standards of his day) but his refined piano music plays like a blend of Saint‐Saëns and Fauré. In 1898, he published a set of 20 fantasy-transcriptions of almost all of Mozart's songs as studies in the application of vocal diction to piano playing. In this aim he followed the example of Thalberg, Bizet and Godefroid. The set was dedicated to his friend 'A. Marmontel', whom I take to be his teacher's son Antonin Marmontel (1850–1907), who also taught piano at the Conservatoire. Thumbnail image created with Picsart ( tinyl.co/4WqE ). #frenchmusic