Vivien Schweitzer on Sandrine Piau

"At Weill Recital Hall on Friday evening the superb French soprano Sandrine Piau explored the 'mysteries and dimensions of womanhood': a bountiful topic that has kept male poets busy for centuries and provided texts for innumerable songs. Most of the works she performed are also featured on 'Évocation' (Naïve), her new disc of 19th- and 20th-century French and German songs. …Known primarily as a Baroque and Classical specialist, Ms. Piau sang with a clear and deeply expressive voice, nuanced phrasing and immaculate control. … Ms. Piau sang Chausson’s melancholy 'Hébé' — to a text by Louise Victorine-Ackermann, the only female poet in the program — with delicate yearning, and offered an achingly lovely interpretation of 'Le Colibri.' Debussy was represented by selections including 'Nuits d’Étoiles,' with arpeggiated piano chords evoking a harp. Ms. Piau demonstrated her facility with German repertory in a flavorful rendition of Strauss’s 'Mädchenblumen' (Op. 22), four songs in which women are compared to clinging vines and flowers. She also sang four songs by Zemlinsky, including 'Frühlingslied,' a setting of a Heine poem" ("Music Review," New York Times, 10/12/09).