Strauss, R: All mein Gedanken ... Op. 21 No. 1

This CD features Finnish star soprano Soile Isokoski and her longstanding duo partner Marita Viitasalo, with a selection of Lieder by Richard Strauss.

Included are such popular songs as Zueignung, Cäcilie, Morgen!, and Allerseelen. Along with the cycle of 3 Ophelia-Lieder and Strauss’s final complete composition, Malven, this collection spans 65 years of Strauss’ writing.

The music of Richard Strauss has been a cornerstone of the singing career of Soile Isokoski: “His music just sits so well in my voice, in terms of both its range and its lyrical quality.”

Soile Isokoskis’ earlier CD release of Strauss Orchestral Songs and Vier letzte Lieder (ODE9822) became a major commercial success and earned her a Gramophone Award.

Soile Isokoski is hailed as one of the finest singers in the world (“Isokoski's lyric soprano is like liquid gold.” – David L. Kirk, Fanfare Magazine, March/April 2009) whose recordings have been praised as top-choice and garnered the highest distinctions at the BBC Music Magazine Awards, Gramophone Awards and MIDEM Classical Awards.

"In 'Stimme der Sehnsucht,' a poem by Carl Busse, the voice of longing is depicted as a mysterious whispering sound, a dark and confused spirit from Thule, a mythical island beyond the boundaries of the world. Edgar Allan Poe’s poem 'Dream-land' portrays Thule as a surreal realm of melancholy and dread, while Rainer Maria Rilke wrote: ‘That is longing: living in turmoil and having no home in time'." Christianne Stotijn

Christianne Stotijn’s recital of Lieder by Pfitzner, Mahler and Strauss confronts powerful emotions – longing, loving, grief, and a desperate wish to turn the clock back to happier times. The collection is dominated by the theme of night, an exploration of dreams, restlessness and darkness.

This is a thoughtful and moving programme from one of the outstanding mezzos of our time. Christianne Stotijn’s previous recordings for ONYX have been praised and her song recital CD 'Tchaikovsky Romances' (ONYX4034) was awarded a BBC Music Magazine Award in 2010.

When Dame Margaret Price died in January 2011, the musical world reacted in an understandably emotional fashion. By contrast, the Welsh soprano herself was a woman with an understated approach to her life, eschewing the frenetic international star system in favour of loyalty to a select few major opera houses. She bade farewell to public performance in 1999, retiring to rural Wales where she turned to breeding golden retrievers. Although a local vicar persuaded her to perform in a charity concert, she found the occasion so nerve-wracking that her dogs finally became the only audience for her singing.

The name of Richard Strauss immediately conjures up thoughts of operas and large-scale symphonic works; but we tend to underestimate his lieder, a genre to which the composer devoted no fewer than 205 pieces! Like a glorious sunset culminating in the Four Last Songs, they mark the conclusion of the illustrious tradition of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf and Mahler.

To many observers, no artist has ever replaced the great mezzo-soprano, Jan DeGaetani, as an interpreter of contemporary song. Writing of her, New York Times critic Harold C. Schonberg called her “the finest song recitalist that the United States has ever produced.”

DeGaetani, with her magnificent duo-partner, Gilbert Kalish, performed together for thirty-years, the partnership ending with DeGaetani's death in 1989. This two-CD set gives us one of their final recitals together, and includes the wide-ranging repertoire that these two artists were known for.

Richard Strauss, the great composer of symphonic poems and grand operas, wrote solo songs throughout his life: his first compositions, performed within his family circle, were songs and his setting of the poem Malven (Mallows) was to be the last piece he completed. Taking a keen interest in the possibilities and limitations of the human voice, Strauss in the solo song genre found the opportunity to try out various musical options and to discover his own individual style. But the writing of songs also served as a form of relaxation, a way of passing the time. The result is a varied spectrum of atmospheres, moods and emotions: from the jesting tone of Hat gesagt — bleibt’s nicht dabei to the heart-felt declaration of love in Cäcilie and the portrayal of madness of the Three Songs of Ophelia.

Camilla Tilling, whose successful opera career in a very short time has taken her to some of the world’s most prestigious venues — including Covent Garden, the Metropolitan, La Scala and La Monnaie — made her international breakthrough in the role of Sophie in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. Ever since, Strauss’s music has held a special place for her, and on her first solo recording she has chosen to perform some of her favourites among his songs. She is partnered by the fine German pianist Paul Rivinius, with violinist Ulf Wallin making a guest appearance in Morgen!, where he plays the solo that Strauss added when making an orchestral version of the song.

Camilla recently starred in the recent production of Hansel and Gretel at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to great acclaim: “But the second cast was terrific - better on points than the first, with a particularly enchanting Gretel from Camilla Tilling, who had…personal sweetness and vocal charm”. The Telegraph

Following his critically acclaimed debut album Rare Verdi, MSM releases Grammy Award nominee Johan Reuter’s second recording. Focusing on lieder by Richard Strauss, the composer whose operas Johan Reuter will soon be making his mark on the world’s most prestigious stages including London (Elektra & Salome), Berlin (Frau ohne Schatten), Vienna (Arabella) and Salzburg (Frau ohne Schatten). The album also explores Mr Reuter’s roots by including the works of two prolific Danish composers, both contemporaries of Strauss – Carl Nielsen and Hakon Börresen.

“The excellent, lithe Danish baritone Johan Reuter” Evening Standard

“A winner from the new small label Michael Storrs Music” The Times

“He brings each track alive with astonishing vividness” Classic FM Magazine