Album: Sandrine Piau, Susan Manoff, Aprés Un Rêve (Naïve)

Accompanied by pianist Susan Manoff, soprano Sandrine Piau here presents a programme of lieder and melodies mostly concerned with the dreamworld of nighttime, from Schumann's setting of Zu Rosenegg's poem "Die Nacht", through the romantic reverie of Fauré's title-track to Poulenc's settings of Aragon and Apollinaire.

It's a journey whose darkest depths are reached by Vincent Bouchot's use of Morgenstern's Galgenlieder (Gallow Songs), in which are encountered more surreal images – notably the inhabitants of the moon depicted "show[ing] their teeth to the sulphurous hyena" in "Moonthings".

DOWNLOAD THIS: Aprés Un Rêve; Moonthings; I Wonder As I Wander; Fête Galante