Sandrine Piau - Between Heaven and Earth, Danielle de Niese - The Mozart Album

*****
Sandrine Piau, Between Heaven and Earth (Na?ve, through Ode Records)
Verdict: French soprano excels in Handel.

***
Danielle de Niese, The Mozart Album (Decca)
Verdict: Australian-born divette misses the mark in Mozart.

There are not many sopranos whose repertoire spans Bach to Offenbach, but Sandrine Piau is one.

The French singer's latest album, Between Heaven and Earth, gathers together various Handel arias and instrumental offerings with a thought-provoking agenda. In Piau's words, this is music that "reconciles voices from heaven with those of our heart in a ballet emphasising the antagonisms that rack us".

This disc is far from a mindless compilation of flashy showpieces - but that's clear from the radiant opening aria from La Resurrezione, in which Piau and the merry musicians of Accademia Bizantina celebrate the coming of eternal light.

Rejoice Greatly from Messiah is a swinging affair, in a jig-like 6/8.

This album is about energy and that perennial lollipop The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba sounds as if the monarch has zoomed in on a bullet train, riding through a Vivaldi storm. Yet zephyrs could not sigh more contentedly and euphoniously than they do in Largo from Concerto Grosso Op 3 No 2.

For those who hanker after obscurities, the choice item is Prophetic Raptures Swell my Breast from the composer's little-known 1744 oratorio Joseph and His Brethren.

Among the affecting vocals, none is more so than the closing recitative and aria from the first Italian version of The Triumph of Time and Truth with Piau's gorgeous vocals side by side with conductor Stefano Montanari's tremulous violin obbligato.

Would that Danielle de Neise's new Mozart album was such a happy affair. For many, the concert arias such as Bella Mia Fiamma, Addio! will be the selling point, but it's difficult not to flinch at that embarrassingly clumsy piece of editing at Vivi, echoing numerous ensemble problems between singer and instrumentalists throughout the disc.

De Neise struggles to caress Mozart's lines as they should be caressed; her lower range is frequently challenged and passage-work in the well-known Alleluia far from relaxed. As for the luscious Laudate Dominum, Charles Mackerras and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment set just the right pace, but de Neise's dull vocals do little to catch the utter serenity of this piece.