Friday, January 28, 2011

Karita Mattila Makes You Wish You Lived In New York

(Photo: Hiroyuki Ito/New York Times)
"Ms. Mattila’s focused, intense interpretations of three songs by her countryman Jean Sibelius. There is no better match of singer and material, and she gave a gripping performance of the darkly radiant, almost Wagnerian monologue 'Autumn Evening.' The song’s hushed ending was followed by a solemn silence that seemed to recognize that this — the opportunity to hear one of the world’s great artists doing the work she does better than anyone else — was the reason you go to concerts, the reason you live in New York." [Source]

Get a sampling of the soprano singing "Ah! Perfido" of Beethoven which was also on the program.