Piano Forum

That's tough.  If you mean literally music set to texts, in solo piano, without voice or other instrument.

Well, an obvious one is one of several arrangements of Debussy's "L'après-midi..." ... and several of the preludes from both books.  But that leaves out the magisterial songs of Debussy set to texts of Mallarmé.

And, you said no Debussy, but he's one of the richer sources (even just in the Préludes) of text<->music correspondance.  Most of the text of the préludes are based on myth, at best, but, the songs on texts of Mallarmé and the orchestral "Pr. après-midi"

I'm the reverse of what you want advice from:  I know a lot about French poetry, but nearly nothing of French music except for Debussy, and the other famous suspects.

No arrangements, but native piano solo pieces. 

That gets more difficult.

Obviously, some of the Bach-Busoni Chorale-Preludes, but that doesn't fit with your program.

Or something like the Chopin variations on La ci darem, but that's way too much without some severe editing for time on your part.

I think there are some from Schönberg that draw from the Sprachgesänge, but I don't recall.

That's a difficult challenge, to me, to come up with something.

Something that fits with your program.

Obviously, one of the Moszkowski or Liszt arrangements from Mozart and Wagner.

I don't know, one of the Brahms Ballades, I suppose.  Those might be a bit simple, mechanically, but they fit the description.

I'd like to know how this ends up.