Sandrine Piau - Debussy: Mélodies

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