SACDs - Saariaho

“The playing is formidable.” The Guardian, 9th May 2013 **

“Upshaw's always seems the perfect voice and sensibility for Saariaho's music; and Esa-Pekka Salonen, Saariaho's colleague from their student days, is an intensely engaged and sympathetic director of his forces and of the score.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2013 *****

“That the soprano part is tailor-made for Upshaw ensures a smooth elegance in the middle register...The Tapiola Chamber Choir is in command of the diaphanous and often Messiaenic choral writing, with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra no less responsive under the guidance of Esa-Pekka Salonen. As a present for Saariaho's 60th birthday, this could hardly have been improved upon.” International Record Review, June 2013

“Kaija Saariaho's first opera will surely become one of the emblematic works of the decade, its theme of cross-cultural relationships holding up a mirror to our own atomised, divided times.” The Independent, 31st July 2009 *****

“Authoritatively conducted by Kent Nagano, sumptuously played by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and rapturously sung by the three excellent soloists, the performance is one of irresistible shimmering beauty.” The Telegraph, 28th July 2009 ****

“Kent Nagano's Berlin forces convey every nuance of this shimmering score, and the surround-sound recording is first-rate, making this a set that approaches ideal.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2009 *****

“Saariaho has declared herself uninterested in the concept of courtly love and prefers to see her work as a more modern, wider meditation on love. Her delicate music, superbly realised here by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Nagano, reflects this in the same way that Maalouf is able, like Edward Said, to look beyond the clichés of Orientalism. The fine cast features American baritone Daniel Belcher as a lithe, musical Jaufré and Russian soprano Ekaterina Lekhina as a delicate and languid Clémence.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2010

“The success of such a score, then, rests entirely on the sense of atmospheric tension the orchestra is able to create. Happily, Kent Nagano's interpretation here makes the most of every nuance...All in all, this is a finely balanced and atmospheric performance, ensuring that the opera works almost as well on disc as it does on stage. No mean feat.” Charlotte Gardner, bbc.co.uk, 24th August 2009

“The songs push Mattila to her expressive limits as cries of rapture curdle into shrieks of pain and spasms of rage intrude on erotic memories. Its impact on the audience can be gauged from the near hysteria that erupts at the end…Her accompanist, Martin Katz, deals superbly with some of the most fearsomely difficult piano writing in the entire song repertoire.” The Guardian

“Best of all is the highly expressive Quatre Instants by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, dedicated to Mattila and showing how the singer is prepared to extend her range into new music to quite stunning effect.” Financial Times

“Following the Saariaho, passion is torn to tatters in the Rachmaninov group, with perhaps the strongest advocacy of the two Pushkin settings (Oh, do not sing tome and The Muse) since Söderström. Then, instead of making this the final item, Mattila ops for the gentler, even light-hearted, envoi of the Dvorák songs - superbly done, with a real wit and character. Nothing but praise then for the soprano, with generous, untiring and subtly detailed concentration over a longish time span in heavy repertoire, or for her accompanist (Katz is a real listener to what his singer does).” Gramophone Magazine, August 2007

“A frame of applause and ecstatic ovations greet what is one of Karita Mattila's most exciting discs yet… The repertoire takes Mattila's voice into thrilling new regions; and Martin Katz's piano is the voice's equal at every turn.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2007 *****