From Amazon.com
Soprano Sandrine Piau follows her exciting all-Mozart aria recital with a disc of Debussy
melodies, where subtlety and declamatory elegance replace coloratura fireworks. Piau’s sparing use of vibrato testifies to her acclaim as a singer of early music, and it’s "authentic" for turn-of-the-century music too. Her refined soprano is a quality instrument, though some may prefer the richer voice of Juliane Banse, whose recent Mozart-Debussy recital on ECM duplicates some of the material. But Piau covers more ground, including the 1913
Trois poémes de Stéphane Mallarmé and a brace of early songs from the 1880s since her well-chosen program spans Debussy’s life-long interest in
melodies. She captures his idiom well--just listen to the delicacy of her phrasing in
C’est l’extase and the floating, disembodied close of
De rêve and
Soupir, among many such instances on this disc. Of special interest are the mellow-sounding piano accompaniments of Jos van Immerseel, playing an 1897 Erard, an instrument whose timbre Debussy would have expected in these songs.
--Dan Davis
Chronique amazon.fr
Dans Debussy, où le sens de la poésie revêt une dimension de tout premier plan, la voix de Sandrine Piau trouve matière à épanouissement. Son agilité vocale et sa fine musicalité font aimer le tout jeune Debussy. Sans oublier le charme d'une diction limpide et toujours compréhensible qui donne à cet ensemble de mélodies de jeunesse une patine tout à fait étonnante. La présence à ses côtés de Jos van Immerseel donne à cette interprétation un relief à la fois subtil et dense.
--Pierre Guillaume
