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Violinist Renaud Capucon’s latest album, Les Choses de la vie – Cinema II, takes its name from a film made in 1970 by the distinguished director Claude Sautet (known in English as The Things of Life). Recorded with the orchestra Les Siecles and conductor Duncan Ward, the album is a tribute to French composers of music for the cinema. They span the decades from the mid-20th century to our own time: Michel Legrand, Maurice Jarre, Francis Lai, Joseph Kosma, Philippe Sarde (who scored Les Choses de la vie ), Francois de Roubaix, Jean-Claude Petit, Vladimir Cosma, Gabriel Yared, Philippe Rombi and Alexandre Desplat. “There’s a great tradition of film music among French composers,” explains Renaud Capucon, “Each has their own personality, their own style.”

Among the most familiar numbers on the 19-track CD are Legrand’s ‘The Windmills of Your Mind’ from The Thomas Crown Affair, Jarre’s Lawrence of Arabia, Kosma’s ‘Les Feuilles Mortes’ (known in English as ‘Autumn Leaves’), Petit’s music for Jean de Florette, and Desplat’s theme from The Shape of Water, which in 2018 won an Academy Award for Best Original Score.