Richard Strauss

Lieder

Soile Isokoski, soprano
Marita Viitasalo, piano

ODE 1187-2 · CD · October 2011

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"Strauss singing doesn\

Track listing

23 tracks · 61:14

Listen to samples on selected tracks.

Richard Strauss

1 Allerseelen, Op. 10/8 2:58
2 Schön sind, doch kalt die Himmelssterne, Op. 19/3 1:55
3 Die Nacht, Op. 10/3 2:39
4 Ich trage meine Minne, Op. 32/1 2:29
5 Die Georgine, Op. 10/4 3:50
6 Ach Lieb, ich muss nun scheiden, Op. 21/3 1:53
7 Mein Auge, Op. 37/4 2:57
8 Meinem Kinde, Op. 37/3 2:25
9 Muttertändelei, Op. 43/2 2:39
10 All mein? Gedanken, Op. 21/1 1:12
11 Ständchen, Op. 17/2 2:48
12 Zueignung, Op. 10/1 1:59
13 Das Rosenband, Op. 36/1 3:06
14 Wie sollten wir geheim sie halten, Op. 19/4 1:53
15 Du meines Herzens Krönelein, Op. 21/2 2:06
16 Mein Herz ist stumm, Op. 19/6 3:09
17 Befreit, Op. 39/4 5:06
18 Morgen!, Op. 27/4 3:46
19 Cäcilie, Op. 27/2 2:13
20 Wie erkenn ich mein Treulieb vor andern nun, Op. 67/1 2:41
21 Guten Morgen, ?s ist Sankt Valentinstag, Op. 67/2 1:26
22 Sie trugen ihn auf der Bahre bloß, Op. 67/3 3:20
23 Malven, Op. posth. 2:44

Product details

Format: CD
Release date: October 2011
Catalogue no.: ODE 1187-2
EAN / UPC: 0761195118726
Total duration: 61:14

Performers

Soile Isokoski, soprano
Marita Viitasalo, piano

This CD features Finnish star soprano Soile Isokoski and her longstanding duo partner, pianist 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." Her earlier CD release of Strauss Orchestral Songs and Vier letzte Lieder (ODE 982-2) 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.

Booklet with liner notes in English, German and Finnish and the song texts in the original German and in English

Soile Isokoski offers a rare treat in terms of vocalism. Seldom today does one hear a singer offering such pure tone and stylistic poise, articulating the text with unaffected clarity and blooming in the silvery top register that Strauss exploits so lovingly.
Rupert Christiansen, The Daily Telegraph, 11.2.2012

Ihr Einfühlungsvermögen, ihre Ausdruckswärme, ihr feines Empfinden für Lyrik, dazu ihre reiche Musikalität - all das stellt sie auf eine hohe künstlerische Stufe. Ihr Solokonzert mit Liedern von Richard Strauss ist ein echter Schatz, ja geradezu ein Votum für die Kunstform Lied. Soile Isokoski kann ihre Stimme strahlen und blühen lassen (vor allem in der Höhe), sie vermag die berühmten „Bögen" der Strauss-Melodien wunderbar nachzuformen, sie ist in Musik und Dichtung ganz „drinnen" - und das kann man nur von ganz wenigen Sängern sagen.
Clemens Höslinger, Klassik Heute, 8.2.2012

Soile Isokoski

Soile Isokoski is recognized as one of the world's finest lyric sopranos. After graduating from the Sibelius Academy, she gave her début recital in Helsinki in 1986 and subsequently won a number of important international singing competitions. She made her début at the Finnish National Opera as Mimì in Puccini's La Bohème and has since delighted audiences and critics alike at opera houses in Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, London, Milan and Paris, at The Metropolitan Opera and at music festivals in Salzburg, Savonlinna, Edinburgh and Orange.

Full biography

Marita Viitasalo

Marita Viitasalo began her performing career after winning a prize in the Maj Lind Piano Competition. She studied with Professor Timo Mikkilä at the Sibelius Academy and went on to study at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome on a scholarship, completing her final examination there in 1971. She then studied with Professor Dieter Weber at the Vienna Music Academy for four years and completed a piano diploma with excellent marks both at the Sibelius Academy (1972) and in Vienna (1976).

Full biography