In the world of classical music, songs are an amalgam of music and poetry. In listening to songs, language is a limiting factor; if the words mean nothing to you, half the magic is gone. For that reason, serious collections of songs appear to be limited to Germany, France, and Russia (though why the Italians or Spaniards do not have serious song collections beats me). My knowledge of the French and German languages is reasonable. I don't speak Russian, so my song listening centres on French and German. I was at ease with a new CD from Sandrine Piau, accompanied by David Kadouch. The 19 songs are partly in German (Liszt, Wolf, Schubert, Clara Schumann) and partly in French (Duparc, Lili Boulanger, Debussy -- and the cosmopolitan Liszt again).
Piau sings like an angel, and her diction is good -- so necessary in these songs. I also liked Kadouch as her partner (he plays two solos during the CD). Recitals mixing languages are strangely rare, but I greatly welcomed this one. Recommended.
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