More than ably supported by the Orchestre National de Lille under Alexandre Bloch, Gens spans the gamut of emotions, puzzled, hopeful, coquettish, desperately pleading, def iant and, ultimately, broken. Every nuance of the text is clear, yet delivered entirely naturally, so it is a pity the booklet includes only the French, with no English translation.

There is little question that it ranks among her finest achievements...Gens and Bloch take us through this complex terrain in ways that combine directness with admirable restraint.

What’s most remarkable about Gens's interpretation is how much she emphasises Elle’s warmth and wit as well as her anger, paranoia and heartbreak...And as with her matchless portrayals of Classical heroines, she never descends into scenery-chewing melodrama - even when the emotional temperature hits boiling-point, her diction throughout remains so cut-glass that French-speakers will have no need of the text provided in the booklet.

How strange that Véronique Gens hasn’t recorded La voix humaine before, given how ideally suited her dramatic expressiveness and variety of tone are to this incredibly demanding role...Hers is one of the great performances, with Bloch and the Lille orchestra offering crucial support.

Véronique Gens is utterly believable in this new recording encompassing the whole range of her character's emotions ... from intimacy and tenderness to passion, vulnerability, despair and deadly silence. Gens' voice and reactions, I suspect, will stay seared in your mind after you've listened to this for quite a while.