Sandrine Piau Offers Insight To Her New Mozart Recording

(Photo: Sandrine Expilly)

"When Naïve offered me the chance to record a Mozart recital in 2001, it was something I hadn't even dared to dream of, because he seemed to me to be the composer most emblematic of every kind of perfection. I made the disc with a feeling almost of transgression and a tremendous fear of not being worthy of him. Now, thirteen years later, I come back to Mozart with the experience of the roles I've tackled on stage in the meantime. Donna Anna is probably the character I most wanted to include, not only because I've sung her in the theatre but also because the part is traditionally given to heavier voices than mine. Like any so-called Baroque singer, I'm suspicious of traditions, and I like the idea that behind her cries of suffering she has still retained a redemptive gentleness, which one can sense in 'Non mi

dir.' The arias I've chosen are often tormented. I suppose this is a disc of maturity, which both reflects my trajectory over these past few years and catches me at a specific moment in my life, like a snapshot." - Sandrine Piau [Source] The recording features arias from Lucio Silla, Don Giovanni, La Finta Giardiniera, Le Nozze di Figaro, Idomeneo, Mitridate, and Il Re Pastore. Purchase the new album, Desperate Heroines, by clicking here and read an inspiring review of the disc here. You can listen to audio clips of each track by clicking here. 

New Releases: Gruberova, Mields, Piau and Thielemann

Sandrine Piau Sings Broadway Tunes and Schoenberg

(Photo: Antoine Le Grand/Naïve)

The new release, Songs, from Ensemble Contraste features mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes singing popular works from Broadway and film. She is joined by several other singers on the Naïve release, including Sandrine Piau who is better known for her high-flying roulades of Vivaldi and Händel. Here she takes on "Memories" from Cats and "Climb Every Mountain" from The Sound of Music. The soprano also makes an appearance on another new recording of music for voice and string quartet. She is soloist on Schoenberg's "Quatuor à cordes n°2 en fa dièse mineur, avec soprano, op.10." Sharing the disc is mezzo-soprano Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Click on the links under each disc for listening excerpts.

LISTEN: Songs

LISTEN: Berg, Webern, Schoenberg