Sandrine Piau (soprano); Orchestre Victor Hugo Franche-Comté/
Jean-François Verdier
Alpha Classics ALPHA1019 57:05 mins
It would be easy to take Sandrine Piau for granted. Reflet, her latest album, is another fine collection of orchestral French song, following on from the utterly outstanding Si J’ai aimé of a few years ago. That’s enticing in itself but, as is typical of Piau, the particular selection of songs is distinctive and intelligent, with interconnections on multiple levels. She states in the booklet that Reflet is an explicit partner to her excellent German-language collection Clair-Obscur. That juxtaposed light and shadow, whereas Reflet explores the play of light, reflections and echoes.
There is familiar fare, with Berlioz’s ‘Le spectre de la rose’ and Duparc’s ‘Chanson triste’ and ‘L’invitation au voyage’, alongside delectable rarities from Koechlin, such as the joyous ‘Pleine eau’. A couple of Debussy piano works unexpectedly appear in orchestral guise either side of a cycle known better on recordings than in the concert hall: Ravel’s 3 Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé.
Provocatively for a French singer in French song, Piau ignores national boundaries to conclude with Britten’s Quatre Chansons Françaises. It almost goes without saying that the performances are magnificent. Piau floats dreamily in the opening of Koechlin’s ‘Épiphanie’, exquisite in itself, but also creating a distinct pre-echo of the more disembodied gossamer threads of ‘Soupir’ from the Ravel cycle.
There is no sense of juvenilia in Piau’s performance of the Britten, her deeply affecting ability to flit between moments of playfulness and fragility in ‘L’Enfance’ bringing out the exceptional maturity of the 14-year-old composer’s setting. Warmly supported by the Orchestre Victor Hugo under Jean-François Verdier and captured in glowing sound, Piau has created another sublime album.