At the invitation of the Kunstmuseum Basel, Hans-Georg Hofmann, artistic director of the Sinfonieorchester Basel, has collaborated with musicians of the Sinfonieorchester Basel to create a musical round dance on the works of the Fauves entitled "Belle Époque".

Fauré's 1st Piano Quartet is one of the central chamber music works of the Belle Époque. Sensual timbres are combined with a strict formal structure that influenced subsequent composers such as Ravel and Debussy. Debussy's "Ariettes Oubliées" are six songs based on poems by Paul Verlaine. Debussy set them to music between 1885 and 1887 and dedicated them in 1903 to his lover Mary Garden, the "unforgettable Mélisande". We hear these songs in an arrangement for soprano and string quartet. The programme is framed by songs and chansons by Hahn, Satie, Gershwin and Poulenc, which take a musical look at Parisian nightlife under the motto "La dernière Valse".