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“Nylund is temperamentally suited to this kind of thing - Isolde's so-called Liebestod is the disc's big success...yet she manages the conversational tone of [the Arabella scene] well, and her long address to the tree in Daphne is attractive too.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2011

“Camilla Nylund's soprano isn't classically 'Finnish' - it doesn't have that thick translucence, agility and piercing top-end focus - but it does boast considerable strength and a remarkable consistency of tone across its range...the voice's edge and power reveal the nihilistic desperation of both [Isolde and Salome], and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra finds extra reserves of warmth, shape and snarl beneath her.” Classic FM Magazine ***

“An intelligent musician, she is also exceptionally attractive and a fearless actress...the voice is youthful, solid, flexible and at ease in negotiating the high tessitura.” International Record Review, April 2011

“The Finnish soprano's cool 'in-between' soprano - big lyric but definitely not hochdramatisch - speaks well in the numbers that do not require outright personal emotions. She evokes an affecting degree of dreamy distance in Elsa's account of her mysterious saviour...Lintu (like Pappano) and Ondine's recordists give us an extraordinary amount of detail” Gramophone Magazine, July 2011

“Isokoski can match her great predecessors in her breath control. It’s good to have a souvenir of her distinguished Marschallin and her Madeleine...With Kamu’s Helsinki orchestra providing a lush underlay, Isokoski soars in the ecstatic Hölderlin settings.” Sunday Times, 30th September 2012

“The beauty of Isokoski's singing, with its even, lustrous tone and quiet stylishness, almost goes without saying, and those qualities are at their most beguiling in the Three Hymns. The technical quality is just as high in the opera extracts, but those performances seem to lack a vital dimension.” The Guardian, 20th December 2012 ****

“The main attraction of the programme is the Drei Hymnen, which do not come round in recordings very often...As each of her three Straussian heroines, she embodies a very touching, human vulnerability.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2013

“As always with Isokoski, one either finds a certain humanity in her less-than-rounded tones - or not. Such positive qualities burn from within during songs such as 'Zueignung' and 'Morgen!'...and especially in the lesser-known 'Befreit', a performance whose subtle empathy is a summation of what has always made Isokoski such an endearing figure on the operatic landscape.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2012

“a feat of some of Strauss's greatest solo songs, all sung with high intelligence, in impeccable German, in beautiful sound (the piano especially sympathetic, well-rounded), with accompaniments from Marita Viitasalo impeccably groomed, seldom obtrusive let alone assertive, and perhaps all the better for that...Isokoski does not always seek to cultivate the voice beautiful...She is adept at picking up every nuance” International Record Review, May 2012

“Isokoski begins with disarming lightness of touch...It's easy to forget that, at its core, this is a rich, almost heroic voice, modulating its way with seeming effortlessness through the bigger numbers at the heart of the recital...Isokoski's technique has stood the test of time...Viitasalo is clearly supportive...but more of an accompanist than an equal partner.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2012 ****

“The intense, silvered beauty of her tone — less peachy and voluptuous than Fleming’s — and the unmannered clarity of her diction are unique in this music today...The strange Ophelia set, rarely programmed, can never have been more sumptuously sung.” Sunday Times, 24th June 2012

“Strauss singing doesn't come much better than this. No doubt the composer himself, with his love of the soprano voice, would have been enthralled by Isokoski's glorious singing. He might also have approved of Janowski's straightforward, quite brisk conducting as he was never one to sentimentalise his own music. With a combination of free, unfettered tone, not a hint of strain in high-lying passages, a fine legato and an amazingly long breath, Isokoski fulfils every demand of her chosen songs. To those attributes she adds just a hint of quick vibrato, which she uses unerringly to expressive purpose throughout.
Add the depth of feeling she brings to inwardly emotional pieces such as Befreit, Ruhe meineSeele! and, above all, Morgen!, a perfect realisation of this oft-recorded piece, and you have performances to rival any of the greats of the past.
She reminds one most of Lisa della Casa, the first soprano to record the Four Last Songs, and Sena Jurinac. She has the same smiling timbre, the same natural style, the same avoidance of wallowing in music that contains its own proportion of sentiment. Try the ecstatic execution of the final verse of 'Beim Schlafengehen' and you'll understand. If, on the other hand, you prefer a more leisurely approach, there are always Janowitz and Karajan.
Janowski is obviously at one with his soprano, not only here but also in Zueignung. Refined playing from the Berlin Radio Symphony and an open recording complete the pleasure.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010