Two of Messiaen's three song-cycles specify not 'soprano' but grand soprano dramatique. He was thinking, I suppose, of the type of voice that the French call Falcon and in fact all three cycles were conceived for a noted Brunnhilde of her day, Marcelle Bunlet. Even for a Wagnerian soprano, however, they make almost impossible demands: I wonder how Bunlet coped with the cruelly low tessitura of some of the songs, with the taxing florid writing that appears in others, with the frequent alternation of vehemently dramatic declamation and a kind of ecstatic melisma that calls for the utmost purity of voice. Few sopranos have attempted them, understandably enough, even the Chants de terre et de ciel, the one cycle in which the words grand and dramatique are omitted from the title-page.
Jane Manning is no Brunnhilde, but as we know from her splendid recording of the third of the cycles, Harawi (DKP9034, 6/85), she has a good many of the qualities that these songs demand. She is technically quite fearless: in, for example, the penultimate song of Chants de terre et de ciel, where the voice must rival the piano in brilliance and percussive attack, and the last of the Poemes pour Mi, with its awkwardly-pitched, wide-ranging vocalises (the voice now emulating a trumpet). Unlike many singers with the hardiness to attempt such pages she can also sing quietly: such moments as the concluding line ''Ta voix'' (No. 6 of Poemes pour Mi, comparing the voice of the loved one to a spring bird), or the tender close of ''Bail avec Mi'', from the Terre et ciel cycle, are charmingly done; there are not many singers who could so effectively manage the transition, in the fourth song of the latter cycle, from an evocation of clashing bells to the quiet contemplation of a sleeping child. And where Messiaen simply demands more than anyone but a Brunnhilde could give, Manning selflessly refuses to sacrifice the long arcs of his phrasing to her own vocal comfort; these are courageous performances that never understate the music.
The fast beat in her voice, hardening under pressure at times to shrillness, is not ideal for those passages of rapt serenity that really need floated, almost white tone. This robs the Poemes pour Mi (she is more comfortable with the generally quieter expression of the later cycle) of some of its sensousness and some of its moment of stillness. There is an edginess, indeed, to the overall sound (Messiaen's fondness for dazzling chords in the upper half of the keyboard doesn't help) that will not be to everyone's taste, and the very bright recordings puts no space between the listener and either Manning or her admirable, rather forwardly-placed pianist. Just for once I would recommend a discreet tinkering with your treble control.'