Sandrine Piau - Clair-Obscur - The Sunday Times

The French soprano Piau is a long-standing maitresse of the baroque and a great Handel singer, but here she returns to her first love, German lieder. Zemlinsky’s Waldesgespräch belongs to the late-Romantic world of Berg’s Seven Early Songs and Strauss’s Four Last Songs with his very last song, Malven, as an afterthought. Piau’s bright, crystalline tone and care for words reveal a mature artist at the peak of her powers.