Le Triomphe de l’amour
Sandrine Piau; Les Paladins;
Jerome Correas
Naïve OP 30532
The recorded repertoire of the soprano Sandrine Piau is extensive; it also covers a remarkably wide field, from Purcell and Biber in the 17th century to Frank Martin and Benjamin Britten in the 20th. It is, however, as an interpreter of baroque music, both opera and oratorio, that Piau is best known and it is French baroque opera, from Lully and Charpentier in the 1680s to Sacchini in 1783, which forms the subject matter of the disc under review.
As the title suggests, the arias are all about love: about desire, about jealousy, about grief for the death of the beloved. Piau has an agile and expressive voice. She displays an impressive coloratura in the disc’s opening aria from Grétry’s L’amant jaloux and even more so in the fearsome passage work of the extract from Sacchini’s Renaud. Her technique is, however, never offered for its own sake. This is best heard in the sadness and the passion of the aria from Campra’s Idomenée and in the long sustained lines of the arias from Charpentier’s David et Jonathas and from two Rameau operas: Les paladins and Les indes galantes. There are also several instrumental tracks; of these the dance sequence from Rameau’s Les fêtes de Ramire is especially attractive.
We can look forward to Piau’s appearance with Tafelmusik early in the new year. Meanwhile we have this disc, which I recommend with enthusiasm.
