French singers who attempt the lush and overgrown music of late Romantic Vienna are rare, but Sandrine Piau, arguably the greatest of our day, does so here, indicating that she has loved this repertory since her student days. It may also be that she sensed an opening and moved to fill it with the set of orchestral songs. The market is glutted with recordings of Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs, and even the Seven Early Songs of Berg are not uncommon, but to hear these works in the voice of Piau, whose background is in ...
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French singers who attempt the lush and overgrown music of late Romantic Vienna are rare, but Sandrine Piau, arguably the greatest of our day, does so here, indicating that she has loved this repertory since her student days. It may also be that she sensed an opening and moved to fill it with the set of orchestral songs. The market is glutted with recordings of Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs, and even the Seven Early Songs of Berg are not uncommon, but to hear these works in the voice of Piau, whose background is in Baroque music, is to hear them anew. Piau's clear lines and restrained use of vibrato stand in sharp contrast to the oversize styles of the German operatic sopranos who usually undertake this repertory, and while hers are neither particularly French nor Baroque readings, they have an attractive soberness and gravity. The Clair-Obscur (light-dark, or chiaroscuro) title is only broadly appropriate; various songs, including two of Berg's, refer more to time of day or time of year. Piau does...
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