Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski's first recording was a lovely and intimate recital of Finnish songs with pianist Marita Viitasalo. Her second recording was much more ambitious -- a full disc of Strauss' orchestral songs closing with the Vier letzte Lieder accompanied by Marek Janowski leading the Berliner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester -- and much more successful -- it won a Gramophone award in 2002. After that, Isokoski released superb discs of Mozart arias and Wolf lieder along with heartfelt recitals of hymns in Finnish and ...
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Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski's first recording was a lovely and intimate recital of Finnish songs with pianist Marita Viitasalo. Her second recording was much more ambitious -- a full disc of Strauss' orchestral songs closing with the Vier letzte Lieder accompanied by Marek Janowski leading the Berliner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester -- and much more successful -- it won a Gramophone award in 2002. After that, Isokoski released superb discs of Mozart arias and Wolf lieder along with heartfelt recitals of hymns in Finnish and Finnish sacred songs. Finally, in 2006, she released a disc of the music she was born and trained to sing: Luonnotar and other orchestral songs by the greatest Finnish composer of all time: Jean Sibelius.It is a wholly magnificent achievement. Isokoski has a pure soprano voice with seemingly no upper edge and apparently no technical limit -- even in Luonnotar, her voice soars effortlessly over the orchestral accompaniement of Leif Segerstam and the Helsinki Philharmonic. If this...
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