Given how much fuller and more natural I find hi-rez audio sounds, I rarely review recordings that are only available in Red Book quality in the US (footnote 1). But when the soprano is Sandrine Piau, whose voice conveyed the essence of springtime when I heard her live at UC Berkeley a little over six years go, and she sings as marvelously as she does on Chimère, her latest song recital with pianist Susan Manoff, I throw such self-imposed strictures out the window.
Piau and Manoff’s recital mixes songs in German, French, and English that, in some manner, address either the mythological creature, The Chimera, or the dreams and illusions around which aspects of our lives—sometimes our entire lives—revolve. Quoting classic lines from Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides, Now,”—It’s life’s illusions I recall / I really don’t know life at all,” Manoff writes, in the hardbound, superbly presented CD package that includes numerous color replications of historic representations of the Chimera,
The chimera is perhaps a portal opening onto a dialogue with our demons, the ages of our lives, the coming and going, the understanding and not understanding at all.
While mixing mythological representations with amorphous concepts may seem a mystifying rationale for a recital program, there’s no question about the level of the duo’s artistry. One listen to Piau’s absolutely exquisite rendition of Carl Loewe’s “Ach neige, du Schmerzenreiche,” which opens the program, will convince you of the soprano’s impeccable phrasing, subtlety of nuance, and ability to convey the deepest of emotions while retaining the refined beauty of her vocal production. Here and throughout the recital, Piau’s high notes are islands of beauty of savor over and over. Manoff, who never calls attention to herself, plays as one, breathing with Piau’s every slight change of dynamics or tempo.
Some of the recording’s 23 tracks, including Debussy’s three Fètes Galantes, I, Robert Schumann’s “Die Lotosblume” from Myrthen, and Poulenc’s five Banalités, will be relatively familiar to lovers of art song. Even if you don’t know the entire Banalités, it is likely you’ve heard its “Hôtel,” which ends with that most banal of carcinogenic lines by Apollinaire, which translate as “I don’t want to work, I want to smoke.”
Most ear-opening will be four settings of poems by Emily Dickinson: Robert Baksa’s “Heart! we will forget him” and André Previn’s Three Dickinson Songs. While I first heard the latter on the premiere recording on which Previn accompanies Renée Fleming, for whom he wrote them, I must confess that it is Piau and Manoff who have first led me into their beauty. In addition, at the risk of possibly being slaughtered by legions of Fleming followers—if there’s such a thing as reviewer’s insurance, I had better sign up before this review is published—it is Piau’s high notes that soar with greater freedom and beauty.
Everyone will have their favorites, of course. As beautifully as Piau performs Fètes Galantes, I’d never wish to be without renditions by Dame Maggie Teyte (who coached with Debussy), Elly Ameling, Frederica von Stade, Karina Gauvin, and a host of other greats. No one can match Teyte’s incomparable freedom of tempo in these songs, let alone convey the inherent sadness and mystery in her voice—qualities that are intensified by her unique use of downward portamento and hollow lower range.
Taken as a whole, however, this is a treasurable recital. The selections may not be as accessible as Arleen Auger’s choices on her Love Songs recital with Dalton Baldwin—do not miss their rendition of Copland’s setting of “Heart, We Will Forget Him”—but their refinement, and the refinement of their interpretations, will appeal to discriminating listeners. As with Jamie Barton’s All I Wander recital, which recently won a BBC Music Magazine award, this recital deserves a place on every vocal lover’s “best of” shelf.
This official clip intersperses interviews in French with exquisite singing.
Footnote 1: European readers can download Chimère in 24/96 from HDtracks UK and HDtracks Germany.