The persistent ‘Baroque specialist’ label hardly sums up this distinguished French soprano. With her distinctively radiant, secure tone and cut-crystal upper range, her repertoire has always been much wider.

The repertoire is eclectic and, also as before, Susan Manoff offers supremely sensitive and subtle piano-playing to complement singing of intense beauty: beguilingly gentle of timbre, Piau’s is a voice that can bloom sensuously at the top, and which she controls exquisitely...this is one of the most fascinating, satisfying and moving recital discs to have come my way for some time. It’s beautifully recorded too.

It's unfailingly beautiful, but without ever lapsing into blandness: Piau’s light soprano is as fresh and pure as when she burst onto the scene in the mid-1990s, and she’s especially captivating in the mercurial Wolf settings and the indolent languor of Poulenc’s Hôtel.

An appreciative nod to soprano Sandrine Piau and pianist Susan Manoff, whose recital Chimère, is an exploration, through song, of dreams. I give Piau and Manoff equal billing, as this is more than a soprano and her accompanist. Their contributions are matched, even down to the interesting CD booklet. Piau provides a delicate tone that belies a certain tensile strength, and Manoff’s playing brings out colours and textures beyond mere support. Their programme, ranging from Schumann through Debussy to Previn, is judiciously chosen and beautifully executed.