Sandrine Piau "Debussy Melodies".(Sound Recording Review)

Van Immerseel, piano. Texts and translations. Naive V 4932 (Naxos, dist.)

This lovely recording will bring flesh insights to those familiar with this repertoire--and a thirst for more to those unfamiliar with it. Organized chronologically, the disc sandwiches two esteemed cycles from Debussy's maturity--the "Ariettes Oubliees" and the "Proses Lyriques"--between songs from Debussy's youth and his final cycle of songs on texts by Stephane Mallarme. These are deliciously interpreted by soprano Sandrine Piau, who is accompanied by the HIP (that's "historically informed performance," for readers unfamiliar with this groovy moniker for folks of the early-music world) pianist Jos van Immerseel on a historically correct Erard piano made in 1897. Accompanying the disc is a superlative essay and song-by-song appreciation by Francois LeRoux, himself a fine singer of this repertoire.

The chief responsibility on a recording of Debussy's melodies still lies with the singer, of course. Piau sings with astonishing clarity of tone and diction throughout, and her tone is appealingly well-produced and-supported, even when she is singing of frailty and douleur. The songs of youth are chosen from among thirty such that Debussy wrote for the amateur soprano he loved, Blanche Vasnier. Madame Vasnier possessed a voice of uncommonly high pitch; the songs pose more singing hurdles than ...