Sandrine Piau: Chimere (CD + Book)
£14.49
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Label: Alpha
Cat No: ALPHA397
Format: CD + Book
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Vocal/Choral
Release Date: 20th April 2018
Contents
Works
Heart! We will forget himDespite and still, op.41
Elizabethan Songs (5)
Metamorphoses (3), FP121
Lieder und Gesange (5), op.127
Artists
Sandrine Piau (soprano)Susan Manoff (piano)
Works
Heart! We will forget himDespite and still, op.41
Elizabethan Songs (5)
Metamorphoses (3), FP121
Lieder und Gesange (5), op.127
Artists
Sandrine Piau (soprano)Susan Manoff (piano)
About
Sound/Video
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1Loewe - Lieder Und Balladen: Ach Neige, Du Schmerzenreiche
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2Schumann - Lieder Und Gesange Aus 'Wilhelm Meister', Op. 98a: Mignon 'Kennst Du Das Land?'
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3Schumann - Lieder Und Gesange, Op. 127: Dein Angesicht
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4Schumann - Myrthen, Op. 25: Die Lotosblume
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5Debussy - Fetes Galantes I, CD 86: I. En Sourdine
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6Debussy - Fetes Galantes I, CD 86: II. Fantoches
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7Debussy - Fetes Galantes I, CD 86: III. Clair De Lune
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8Wolf - Verschwiegene Liebe
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9Wolf - Nixe Binsefuss
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10Wolf - Das Verlassene Magdlein
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11Wolf - Lied Vom Winde
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12Gurney - 5 Elizabethan Songs: IV. Sleep
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13Baksa - Heart! We Will Forget Him
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14Poulenc - Banalites, FP 107: I. Chanson d'Orkenise
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15Poulenc - Banalites, FP 107: II. Hotel
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16Poulenc - Banalites, FP 107: III. Fagnes De Wallonie
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17Poulenc - Banalites, FP 107: IV. Voyage a Paris
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18Poulenc - Banalites, FP 107: V. Sanglots
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19Barber - Despite And Still, Op. 41: IV. Solitary Hotel
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20Poulenc - Metamorphoses, FP 121: C'est Ainsi Que Tu Es
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21Previn - Three Dickinson Songs: As Imperceptibly As Grief
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22Previn - Three Dickinson Songs: Will There Really Be A Morning?
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23Previn - Three Dickinson Songs: Good Morning Midnight
Europadisc Review
As with the two earlier releases, Chimère explores aspects of dreams, in this case specifically their illusory nature: the ‘graveyard of our illusions’, as Piau writes so tellingly in her accompanying note. The artwork of the book ranges from 13th-century phantasmagorical beasts, via Bosch and Moreau, to Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze and Water Sprites, and the programme, though not covering quite such a huge chronological span, takes the listener from Loewe and Schumann, via Debussy, Wolf and Poulenc, to Barber and Previn.
Piau uses her soft-grained, limpid voice to bring an understated quality to Loewe’s desolate ‘Ach neige, du Schmerzenreiche’ which opens the programme, and also to a deeply-felt trio of Schumann songs (Mignon’s ‘Kennst du das Land?’, ‘Dein Angesicht’, and ‘Die Lotosblume’ from Myrthen). The programme then really hits its stride with Debussy’s first set of Fêtes galantes, mixing nostalgia and poetry in the outer numbers with the commedia dell’arte high-spirits of ‘Fantoches’, sung and played with a delightful twinkle in the eye, an enormously stylish tribute in the composer’s centenary year.
Next comes a splendid group of songs by Hugo Wolf (how often are Wolf and his almost exact contemporary Debussy set so illuminatingly side-by-side like this?). The late-Romantic hues bring out the very best in Piau and Manoff, ‘Verschwiegene Liebe’ evoking a love that dare not speak its name, while in the Mörike setting ‘Nixe Binsefuss’ all is watery lightness and transparency, with a finely-judged sense of supernatural mischief. Piau’s account of the ‘Lied vom Winde’ is a tour de force, its Wagnerian undertones delivered with an engagingly Gallic elegance.
Moving decisively into the 20th century, Gurney’s ‘Sleep’ from his Five Elizabethan Songs provides the programme with its central point of repose, sung with an admirable awareness of the music’s long line. Robert Baksa’s Dickinson setting ‘Heart! We will forget him’ is deeply touching, all the more so thanks to Piau’s idiosyncratic way with the English text. As a counterbalance to the earlier Debussy set, Poulenc’s five Apollinaire settings, Banalités, are delivered with enormous panache, forming one of the disc’s indisputable highlights, along with Barber’s enigmatic ‘Solitary Hotel’ with its tango-like inflections and James Joyce text.
Rounding off this beautifully shaped recital are André Previn’s acutely sensitive Three Dickinson Songs, the jazzy central ‘Will there really be a morning?’ exquisitely set off by the more reflective outer numbers. ‘Good Morning Midnight’, with its equivocal welcome of the nocturnal hours, seems to encapsulate the ambivalence of emotions expressed on the disc as a whole, its imagined loves and tantalising but elusive dreams. As they do throughout, Piau and Manoff show total expressive commitment and a finely-honed sensitivity to nuance.
Alpha have quickly become to go-to label for top-drawer vocal recitals, and in Sandrine Piau and Susan Manoff they have found ideal collaborators at the very height of their powers. This disc is, quite simply, a must-have for all lovers of the art of song, utterly captivating from start to finish.
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