Grieg & Sibelius Songs
Whether in Sibelius' Wagnerian-in-scope song "The Maiden in the Tower" (actually a solo from his brief opera of the same name) or his ominous "Fall Evening," Finnish soprano Karita Mattila, with her grand, soaring, secure voice brings a personal, storytelling, evocative stamp to the songs she sings. The Grieg songs are less emotionally complicated, and the effortlessness and expressiveness with which Mattila sings the two Solveig songs from Peer Gynt create an intimacy in wonderful contrast; her voice, scaled down, positively glistens. "Luonnotar," a 10-minute tone poem for soprano and orchestra, is the disc's centerpiece. This strange story of a "maiden of the skies" who descends into the sea and offers her knees as a place for a duck to build its nest has an ancient but hazy aura to it, and Mattila takes us through it with great intensity, building to a impressive climax which she rides easily. Conductor Sakari Oramo and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra catch the Northern lights in both voice and instruments. A fine disc of songs from a leading operatic soprano.--Robert Levine