Sibelius: Flickan kom från sin älsklings möte, Op. 37, No. 5 (The Tryst, Gretchen vient du rendez-vouz, The young girl returns from meeting her lover, Madchen kam vom Stelldichein)

Famed for her highly intelligent performances and deep engagement with music, Swedish soprano Miah Persson is in great demand throughout the world. She returned to Wigmore Hall last February with internationally renowned accompanist Roger Vignoles to perform a wonderfully emotive and dramatic programme.

Opening with some of the most celebrated Schubert Lieder, Persson revealed a refined interpretation of each song, searching deep within the texts to convey emotions from agony to ecstasy. With great passion, Persson then entered the Scandinavian sound world to complete her programme with Grieg’s stormy Six Songs and a beautiful collection of Sibelius’s most evocative settings.

Sibelius acknowledged that he did not have a great affinity for the piano, yet there are some genuine jewels on this repertoire. The CD begins with four arrangements of melodies for voice and piano and includes pieces such as Nocturne & Souvenir. André Peyregne, Director of the National Conservatory of Nice, said of Dubé, “this kind of a prodigy you can find once every ten or twenty years…..”

In her autobiography (The Flagstad Manuscript, 1952) Kirsten Flagstad tells of the joy she experienced on finding, when she began to give concerts in the United States, that the Americans so took to the songs of her native country, and particularly of Grieg. She herself had been brought up with them, and even included some in the program of one of her first professional engagements, at an Oslo jail in 1913. She was told that one prisoner due for release had asked to stay on till Easter so that he could hear ‘that girl’ again.

The cycle Haugtussa (The Mountain Maid, 1895) was almost entirely unknown to listeners outside Scandinavia till Flagstad issued her first recording of it in 1940. Even then it failed to achieve the popularity its melodies and poignancy should have eared for it, and only since the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth has it won due recognition. Yet Flagstad had a great love for it and put heart and soul into the songs.

This second volume of “The Flagstad Recitals” focuses on Grieg as well as other Scandinavian composers, offering songs with both piano as well as orchestral accompaniment.

[Grieg Songs] “Listening to Mme Flagstad's recital makes one regret that she did not record more of her great countryman. The songs are varied and rewarding and her account of From Monte Pincio, one of the finest, is beautifully characterised as indeed are nearly all the songs on this record. I only regret that the quality of the recording was not better. The voice remains undimmed…" Gramophone

"…what a marvellously fresh and original work Haugtussa is and how glorious is Flagstad's tone and characterisation! I do urge readers who do not know this song-cycle to invest in this record." Gramophone

On this Hybrid SACD recording ‘Folk Stories’, young multi-award winning mezzo-soprano Cora Burggraaf is joined by the pianist Simon Lepper, cellist Floris Mijnders, and highly-regarded violinist Liza Ferschtman. The disc features folk songs and arrangements by composers ranging from Beethoven, Brahms, and Mahler to some of the most important figures of the 20th century, including Britten, Bartók, and Sibelius.

The Dutch mezzo-soprano Cora Burggraaf graduated with distinction from the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague in 2002. She pursued her vocal studies in London at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio. She has been the recipient of many prizes including the 2009/2010 ECHO Rising Star Award, the 2006 Elizabeth Everts Prize, the second prize in the International Vocalist Competition Den Bosch 2004, the 2003 Maggie Teyte Prize and the Miriam Licette Scholarship. Her studies in London were funded by the Dutch Fonds voor de Podiumkunsten and the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds. In opera, Burggraaf has appeared at the Salzburg Festival, the Royal Opera House in London (for which she was named “Most Promising Newcomer of the Year” by The Observer), San Francisco Opera, Welsh National Opera, The Netherlands Opera, Garsington Opera, Opéra de Bordeaux and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, BBC Proms and the Gergiev Festival.

This is the third solo CD that David has recorded for Tall Poppies. (See also TP088 and TP135). The centrepiece here is Rachmaninoff's Preludes, Op 32, which David plays magnificently. Rounding out the programme are the Schumann and Fauré works, neither of which are for the faint-hearted pianist, Liszt's rarely played transcription of Mendelssohn's Wedding March and Elves' Dance, and lastly David's own transcription of Sibelius' song, The Tryst.

Treat yourself to some scintillating Aussie pianism!

“In the works by Grieg, we wanted there to be unity in the language. So To brune ojne and Jeg elsker dig, by the Danish poet Andersen, are sung in Norwegian. The songs of Op. 48, settings of various German poems, were translated by the poet Nordahl Rolfsen, who was a close friend of Grieg’s. And I have chosen to sing his translations of the two German poems, by Goethe and von Bodenstedt: En drøm (Ein Traum) and I rosentiden (Zur Rosenzeit). They are usually sung in German. In Grieg there is no tragedy, but instead a gentle Nordic melancholy.

In Sibelius, on the other hand, nature is brutal and love is passionate. Never has the personification of nature been as present as it is in these songs. Here, everything evokes the end of winter and the gushing waters of spring (Marssno, Men min fagel), betrayal (Se n har jag, Flickan kom ifran), despair and weariness with life, conveyed by the image of a rose tree growing in the heart (Svarta rosor); I thought it was interesting to include the song En slanda, in which the music, rather than the poem itself, evokes a dragonfly, symbolising the pleasures of life which come to distract the mind of a person who is lost in thought. The idea of completing this recording with Debussy’s very sensual evocations of amorous desire expressed in the three Chansons de Bilitis came quite naturally. Apparition is for me one of Mallarmé’s finest poems, and in his setting Debussy conveys perfectly the ecstatic yet unsettling feelings caused by love at first sight.

We chose to end this recording with Beau Soir. This infinitely gentle song invites us to contemplate nature and the natural cycle of water and of human life.” Karen Vourc’h

Karen Vourc’h studies with Christa Ludwig. In 2010, she will be Annina in Menotti's Saint of Bleeker Street at the Opéra de Marseille, Musetta at the Opéra de Monaco, Mélisande at the Opéra Comique, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and Vincenette (Mireille) at the Chorégies d' Orange. In March she shared the rôle of Emilie in Kaia Saariaho’s new opera, with Karita Mattila, to good reviews.

Celebrated soprano Karita Mattila has proved herself to be irresistible in any musical genre.

This mid-price compilation couples live performances of some of the world’s best-loved opera arias together with the Finnish diva’s unique interpretations of songs from Broadway musicals and the Great American Songbook.

Winner of the first 'Singer of the World' competition in Cardiff, Karita Mattila is one of the most illustrious soprano singers in the world today. She is recognised as much for the beauty and versatility of her lyric voice as for her extraordinary stage ability.

This release marks her 50th birthday in 2010, coinciding with Ondine’s 25th anniversary.

On the occasion of its 25th anniversary in 2010, Ondine releases a series of five twofers, containing best-selling titles from the back catalogue.

The focus is on five of Ondine’s star artists: sopranos Soile Isokoski and Karita Mattila, baritone Jorman Hynninen, violinist Pella Kuusisto and clarinettist Kari Kriikku.

These releases are specially priced (2 CDs for the price of 1) and are limited edition, running through 2010 only.