Elisabeth Söderström Singing Sibelius Made Available For Third Time

The latest release of a famous recording. Pre-order here.

Recorded at Kingsway Hall in London between December 1978 and November 1981, this set of complete songs from Jean Sibelius features baritone Tom Krause and soprano Elisabeth Söderström accompanied by pianists Irwin Gage and Vladimir Ashkenazy as well as guitarist Carlos Bonell. It won the Gramophone Award for "Solo Vocal Award" in 1985. Originally released on LP, this 4-CD set was available previously only by Universal Japan and then as part of a special limited-edition Gramophone Awards Collection series on Decca. For connoisseurs, this edition sets the standard quite high in the artistry department. Born in the Swedish-speaking region of Finland, Sibelius didn't begin to learn Finnish until age 11. His songs were made popular worldwide by opera singers Birgit Nilsson and Jussi Björling through their recitals, concerts, and recordings. Scandinavian music in general continued to be under-represented on disc until Elisabeth Söderström recorded a 1957 program of works that ranged from Erik Gustav Geijer to Ture Rangström. Since the initial release of Decca's Sibelius songs, the industry has produced a plethora of recordings featuring the composer's vocal gems interpreted by artists such as Karita Mattila, Anne Sofie von Otter, Monica Groop, Katarina Karnéus, Soile Isokoski, and Barbara Bonney.  Listen to excerpts from Sibelius: The Complete Songs by clicking here. Read a 2004 review of the Gramophone re-issue, and see the complete list of songs, after the jump. [Source, Source]

Finnish Sopranos Gone Wild! Karita Mattila and Sirkka Lampimäki

Karita Mattila Recital Program Complete For Carnegie Hall

Accompanied by pianist Martin Katz, Finnish soprano Karita Mattila will sing a recital program on December 10, 8PM, at Carnegie Hall in New York.

"The first half of the program is devoted entirely to the music of France, beginning with one of Francis Poulenc’s most beloved song cycles. Banalités is the tongue-in-cheek title concocted by avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire—the “banalities” of existence are anything but banal when turned into art. Poulenc’s cycle encompasses languorous boredom in a hotel room, the giddy whirl of Paris, tragic love, and Surrealist wordplay. French genius Claude Debussy was recovering from a serious case of Wagner addiction when he composed the Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire (Five Poems of Baudelaire). Set to texts by one of France’s greatest poets, these are among Debussy’s richest, most complex mélodies (19th-century French art song) that recall memories of bygone lovers, meditate on sensual pleasures and regret, and envision the afterlife. Born in Somero, Finland, Karita Mattila is among the world’s foremost proponents of music from her native country, including compositions by Aulis Sallinen—one of Finland’s most distinguished

Mattila with Katz in Helsinki

composers. Tonight, we hear a song cycle on four poems by Finnish poet Paavo Haavikko. During the heyday of radical music innovators like Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern, composer Joseph Marx struggled to cling to his late Romantic origins. Presently, his gorgeous lieder are coming back into sight and sound; tonight, we hear five of his best songs in different moods." [Source] The full program listing is after the jump and you can read the full program notes by clicking here.

Happy Birthday: Karita Mattila

"Cantilena" Bachianas Brasileiras,
No. 5 (Villa-Lobos)

"Karita Marjatta Mattila was born September 5, 1960 in Somero, Finland. Mattila appears regularly in the major opera houses worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Bastille, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Vienna State Opera, Toronto Roy Thomson Hall and Großes Festspielhaus, Salzburg and with top orchestras. During her career, Mattila has sold over 150,000 certified records, which places her among the top 50 best-selling female soloists in Finland. In 1983, Mattila won the first Cardiff Singer of the World competition. The same year she graduated from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where she studied singing with Liisa Linko-Malmio. She then continued her studies with Vera Rozsa in London. In 1985, she made her Covent Garden debut with the Royal Opera as Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. In 1988, she was seen as Emma in the first ever televised production of

"Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém"
Rusalka (Dvořák)

Schubert's Fierrabras at the Vienna State Opera. On March 22, 1990, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni. In 1994, she made her Spanish debut as Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin in Madrid. In 1996 followed important Paris debuts in Wagner's Lohengrin, Verdi's Don Carlos for which she received the François Reichenbach Prize Orphée du Lyrique and in Richard Strauss' Arabella in 2002. In 1997, she was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for her performance of Elisabeth in Don Carlos at the Royal Opera House and awarded the Evening Standard Ballet, Opera and Classical Music Award for 'Outstanding Performance of the Year' in this production. Mattila has won Grammy Awards for 'Best Opera Recording' for Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 1998 and for Jenůfa in 2004. In

"In Quali Eccesi, O numi!...
Mi tradi quell'alma ingrata"
Don Giovanni (Mozart)

2001 The New York Times chose Karita Mattila as the best singer of the year for her performance in Fidelio at the Metropolitan Opera, and in the same year she was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award “Outstanding Achievement in Opera” for both Jenůfa and Lisa in The Queen of Spades at the Royal Opera House, London. Dedicatee of Kaija Saariaho's song cycle Quatre Instants, which she created in April 2003 at the Châtelet Theatre and Barbican Centre. Paris saw her first Salome in 2003 and she was honored with Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government as a recognition of her contribution to the arts. In 2004, Mattila sang her first New York Salome at the Metropolitan Opera, which together with the subsequent Káťa Kabanová inspired the New York press to write:

"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend"
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Styne-Robin)

"Memory" Cats (Lloyd Webber)

"Don't Cry For Me Argentina"
Evita (Lloyd Webber)

'When the history of the Metropolitan Opera around the time of the millennium is written, Karita Mattila will deserve her own chapter.' In 2005, she was named Musician of the Year 2005 by Musical America, which describes her 'the most electrifying singing actress of our day, the kind of performer who renews an aging art form and drives the public into frenzies.' BBC Music Magazine named Mattila as one of the top 20 sopranos of the recorded era in 2007. Worldwide audiences saw her Manon Lescaut live in movie theatres in 2008. On September 23, 2008, she reprised Salome at the Metropolitan Opera, again broadcast worldwide in High Definition on October 11, 2008. She opened the Metropolitan Opera's 2009-10 season with Tosca, which was seen live in HD worldwide on October 10, 2009. In 2010 at Opéra National de Lyon, Mattila created the role of Émilie du Châtelet in Kaija Saariaho's monodrama Émilie, which was dedicated to her." [Source]

Watch a video from 1986 of Karita Mattila singing "Ständchen," "Wiegenlied" and "Muttertändelei" of Richard Strauss by clicking here.

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.

Kaija Saariahosta Chosen By Carnegie Hall

(Photo: Heidi Piiroinen/HS)

Carnegie Hall has chosen Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho to the be composer-in-residence for the 2011-12 season. The season will start November 30 with Hannu Lintu leading the Avanti Chamber Orchestra. In the spring concerts will include the French vocal ensemble Soloistes XXI, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra featuring Karita Mattila as soloist and conductor David Robertson, as well as the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst. Saariaho is the most decorated and renowned Finnish composer of this generation. Her biggest success with opera compositions for companies in Salzburg, London, Paris, Santa Fe, Helsinki and Toronto. For more information about concerts, go the Carnegie Hall website here. 
[Source]