Sibelius: Våren flyktar hastigt, Op. 13 No. 4 (Text: Runeberg) (Spring is flying)

“'Gretchen am Spinnrade' is a model of how a middle-weight voice can scale the song's peaks thanks to an inner conviction and trusting how the notes and words can shoulder the dramatic weight...So beautiful is her enunciation in the Swedish-language Sibelius songs that you could take phonetic dictation...The Grieg songs show signs of vocal tiring...In 'Die verschwiegene Nachtigall', though, one can hardly imagine a more alluring nightingale song.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2012

“a lovely, beautifully balanced recital...In an opening Schubert set, Persson, for all the natural brightness of her voice, achieves the right aching heaviness in Lied der Mignon, and a beguiling sense of gentle repose in Du bist die Ruh.” Sunday Times, 15th July 2012

“Persson is beautiful and so is her voice, so she starts with a big advantage. But that is only the start...I did find...that there was a danger of monotony, undercharacterisation and reliance on sheer undeniable vocal beauty. Roger Vignoles is an ideal accompanist, setting the mood with a few notes or chords” BBC Music Magazine, September 2012 ***

“Persson clearly relishes the possibility of characterization particular songs...The voice is light and lyric throughout but there's power too when required, so the final lines of Du bist die Ruh are radiant...However - and this is possibly a subjective caveat - what Persson lacks is the kind of rounded warm tone and inner conviction that makes the best Schubert recitals so warmly satisfying...Hosford is the perfect partner up on the rock” International Record Review, September 2012

“Tine Thing Helseth is blessed with a combination of great wind-playing attributes: a soulful - dare one say brooding, Nordic - approach to phrasing, quite astonishingly outstanding intonation and a sound which is open and honest, even and focused in all registers...Helseth can do the ultimate in good trumpet-playing: smith a tune with seeming effortlessness.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2012

‘Inspired performances … It is a magic partnership, giving fresh insights in every song’ (The Guardian)

“Sibelius's songs have taken a long time to come in from the cold. After all, the few that are relatively well-known (Black roses and Op 37 No 5, 'The Tryst') are passionate enough to have come from Italian opera, and others which over the years have found a place in the repertoire have a span of phrase and a melodic surge that encourage the voice to rise thrillingly, as in 'The Tryst's' predecessor, 'Was it a dream?'. The tingle of a Nordic chill in among this is in fact a further excitement of the blood. Given a voice that can combine the sparkle of sunlight on snow with the dark splendour which lies at the heart of those black roses, an entire programme of Sibelius's songs offers not an austere pleasure but almost a rich indulgence.
But from both singer and pianist there must also be a ready supply of imagination. Katarina Karnéus and Julius Drake answer these calls magnificently. The voice is firm and resonant, purest in quality in the upper D-to-F region and of ample range. In Julius Drake she has a pianist who extends the normal field of vision, and the two work together to great effect.
In the opening song, To evening ('Illalle'), Karnéus and Drake 'build' the verses with such effective graduations of power and intensity that everything is enhanced – the vocal line, the piano's tremolandos, words, mood, the poem-aspainting, the song as miniature epic. In some others – 'Little Lasse' in Op 37 and the remarkable 'Tennis in Trianon' of Op 36 are examples – von Otter and Bengt Forsberg bring a further sophistication, more rightfully placed in the second example than the first. But if you want a single disc of 25 to to represent Sibelius's output of roughly 100 songs then this disc must take first choice.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

‘She ranks among today’s finest sopranos by virtue of the fact that her voice is one of the greatest in the world, hitting you in the solar plexus each time you listen to it. On a concert platform, however, she’s remarkably self-effacing, never indulging in self-conscious histrionics and concentrating all her energies on the expressive potential of the glorious sound that issues from her throat’ Guardian

“…the whole Sibelius group, anything but an easy opener for the programme, sets exacting challenges to which Isokoski rises, culminating in the mini-opera "The maiden's tryst". In the Strauss songs… Isokoski is realistically touching in "Meinem Kinde" and precisely focuses in on the dreamy eroticism of "Cäcilie". Marita Viitasalo, Isokoski's regular accompanist for nearly 20 years, mirrors her voice to perfection... an important souvenir of fine recital singing.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2006

"A thrilling performance of Luonnotar in which Isokoski’s sonorous soprano is matched by atmospheric playing from the Finnish orchestra. The rest of the disc makes you wonder why Sibelius’s orchestral songs occupy one of the most unjustly neglected corners of his output." Erik Levi BBC Music Magazine

“Soile Isokoski's voice has matured into a powerful instrument without losing its distinctively plangent expressiveness and intense way with words… Segerstam… provides spacious yet vividly dramatic support, with superb orchestral playing.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2006 *****

“Sibelius wrote his songs originally for voice and piano and in that form they are most often recorded. Some he later orchestrated, while others were arranged by Jussi Jalas (his son-in-law), Ernest Pingourd, Ivan Hellman and Nils-Eric Forgstadt. All produce good results and none of the songs appear over-dressed. On the contrary, they are, as it were, fulfilled: orchestral textures are so strongly implicit that the full range of instruments brings out their coloration and renders them complete.
Soile Isokoski has recorded a number of the songs previously with piano, part of a fine recital on Finlandia in 1989, which was about the time we first learned of the radiant Finnish soprano who five or six years later would receive the international acclaim she deserved…” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The voice… lovely, firm and ample in range. Above all, she has a rare command of the legato style which makes her singing a delight to the ears… the recital always gives pleasure, and the challenge of Luonnotar itself is joyfully met. The orchestra play with full appreciation of the richly coloured scores, and since Flagstad in the 1950s there have been few recordings which provide these genuinely enhancing accompaniments as an alternative to the piano.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2006