Customer Reviews

Strauss: Four Last Songs / Orchestral Songs ~ Isokoski

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have most of 4 last song recordings: te kanawa, norman, schwarzkopf, fleming, janowitz, della casa, auger; although there were great recordings (according to the experts) - but I believe; this is ONE of the best; the more I listen to this one, the more I am convinced that Soile and Marek are great team and express more sensible and sensitive feeling to the songs. Super highly recommended.

The right kind of voice can make you fall in love - - and see the world in a new light... It happened to me for real once. And now it did again, sort of. This whole album sounds - as it always should, maybe, but which it so seldomly does - as if these songs, one after the other, are being reinvented, being recreated by Soile Isokoski! And the stunning playing of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Marek Janowski are the ideal accompaniment for Soile Isokoski's singing, which is velvety but at the same time clear like a bell and with a full and ringing high. From the gentlest pianissimo's to the greatest fortissimo's Soile Isokoski's voice just soars, with the orchestra always the equal of and supportive to the soprano's art, which is simply magnificent. Her art displays a deep understanding of and a complete familiarity with the words she is singing, combined with the clearest diction. The same clearness and freshness, combined with a deep richness and colorfulness of sound, is displayed in the playing of the orchestra, so it all fits together wonderfully!
This must be one of the best Strauss Lieder albums ever to have emerged and TMHO it can hold pride of place beside the great Schwarzkopf/Szell album. If Elisabeth Schwarzkopf is the queen, then Soile Isokoski must surely be the crown princess.

The glory of this CD is the Four Last Songs, but the rest of the recordings are wonderful as well. It nicely mixes the often recorded (Zueignung) with the somewhat rarer, meaning that repertoire isn't just replicated.
Isokoski has a wonderful voice for Strauss; it resembles Janowitz in several aspects, not as solid or truly dramatic as Norman or Voight, but richer than Schwartzkopf. Throughout she sings without affectation, letting the accuracy of phrasing and command of line speak for her. She is assisted admirably in this by Janowski's conducting, which is well-described as 'transparent'. The Strauss textures which become thick and muddy in some hands are here allowed to breathe, so that all the lines can be heard.
The first thing noticed about the Four Last Songs is how comparatively fast they are in parts, especially the first one. But comparatively fast does not mean rushed, and the quicker tempi remove the veneer of sentimentality which has accumulated on these songs. Listening to that opening sweep in the orchestra as the voice comes in low, it's hard to imagine going back.
This is an ideal CD for a Strauss beginner, and any lover of the Four Last Songs or operatic/vocal Strauss must get this.

Mr. Strauss may or may not have described himself as a first-rate second-rate composer, but he could be proud of the Four Last Songs - a grand slam out of the musical ballpark - some of the most sublime music in the repertoire.

But why purchase Isokoski's CD over others? Well, you shouldn't, but rather have the recordings of all the other icons. Each brings a particular interpretation, as insightful other reviewers have noted, and I suppose in the end it really is more a matter of whose voice/sound you prefer at any given time. Forced to choose, however, I would select this recording. Ms. Isokoski sings with a purity of tone, sweet when needed but with enormous strength other times. Her rendering rings with a real joy and freshness, much like when rain suddenly stops and all is fragrantly wet.

A deciding factor, too, would be the coupling of eleven other orchestral songs to the title draw. Each is stand alone beautiful yet forming a wonderful musical tapestry, enhanced by an absolutely superb recording by the Ondine label engineers.

For the ultimate enjoyment, I would recommend listening with the Bose noise reducing headphones, in singular repose, with the effect of Ms. Isokoski singing in the middle of your head. It can be an out of body experience. Given the option, I would hope that the last sound I hear on Earth would be the last of the Four Last Songs - sort of for the definitive out of body experience.

Soile Isokoski, where have you been hiding? Long an ardent devotee of Strauss songs (especially the Four Last Songs) I thought I had heard the finest interpretations by the usual suspects - Schwarzkopf, Della Casa, Popp, Te Kanawa, Fleming, Janowitz, Norman, Auger etc. Granted each of these great singers "owns" certain songs, but few have the incredible consistency of Isokoski. Not only is hers a voice of crystaline beauty that seems to know no specific range, her intelligence pays homage to the music and words without the 'milking for effect' that is the tendency of many very fine singers who sound as though they have fallen in love with their own sound as much as Strauss' intentions. Radiantly beautiful from beginning to end. She is the new Strauss heroine for the decade! Brava!

This recording was made in 2001 and released a year later. As it has been extensively reviewed in the ten years since, I do not have a great deal to add apart from providing a perspective from the time since elapsed and of one who has a dozen recordings of these miraculous songs.

There is little doubt that, alongside the very different version by Renee Fleming, Isokoski has provided the best account this century so far, although she must be stand comparison with the scores of recordings in the fifty years following their first performance in 1950 (by Kristin Flagstad conducted by Furtwängler!). Her voice comes from the same stable as the likes of Lucia Popp and Barbara Hendricks in that it is silvery, shimmering and light in timbre but not without sufficient penetration to both cut through and soar over a big, sumptuous orchestral sound. To match that voice type, Janowski's speeds are on the brisk side but not superficial or perfunctory; these are more in the Böhm school of interpretation: taut and disinclined to linger but carrying a kind of nervous brilliance of its own. I could look for more of a sense of nostalgic, aching beauty in the concluding "Im Abendrot" and the strings of the Berlin Rundfunk could be more voluptuous - but again, it is refreshing to hear Strauss played with more immediacy and delicacy of touch than the three-pile velvety approach of Big Beast interpreters like Karajan and Masur with Jessye Norman, whose V-8 voice is to Isokoski's as the mighty ocean swell is to a sparkling Nordic stream.

The trembling immediacy of Isokoski's delivery is infectious; she sounds youthful and ecstatic with the kind of emotional simplicity and directness associated with Lisa della Casa or Sena Jurinac. Sometimes I want to hear these songs done by the likes of Fleming, Norman and on other occasions I prefer a lighter, less self-conscious touch of the kind delivered by Te Kanawa with Andrew Davis in her first and better recording.

It is no mean bonus that Isokoski sings eleven gorgeous Strauss Lieder culminating in the captivating "Three Kings" carol arrangement with its exquisite extended orchestral coda. This is played even better by Karajan's Berlin Philharmonic with Tomowa-Sintow but his singer is inferior in breath-control and tonal subtlety to Isokoski and Janowski conveys even more of the drama of Herod's threat to the Christ-child before returning to the serenity of the Nativity scene.

Ondine's sound is a tad bright and brittle but this again suits the lighter style employed in this music. Isokoski's diction is occasionally sacrificed to maintaining smooth beauty of tone but that doesn't bother me; this is still a five-star disc by any reckoning and could be your favourite if her style temperamentally matches yours.

Recently I heard a live recording of Chausson's "Poéme de l'amour et de la mer" with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski on the local FM Radio, I was so taken with her singing that I went in search of her recordings.

I was unable to find the Chausson but I did find this recording of 15 Orchestral Songs of Richard Strauss.

Having received the CD yesterday, I have played nothing else for the last 2 days. This CD is 64 minutes of bliss.

My favourite interpreter of Strauss' Songs is Gundula Janowitz, I don't think anyone will surpass her; however, based on this recording, Soile Isokoski is my number 2.

There are plenty of recordings of the 4 Last Songs but not so many of Strauss' Other Orchestral Songs. I therefore recommend Soile Isokoski's recording to anyone that can't get the Janowitz recordings and those that can or already own them - add it to your collection anyway. You won't regret it.

This disc has received a multitude of awards and lots of praise, and listening to Isokoski's take on this music, I can hardly conclude otherwise than that all of it is eminently well deserved. Isokoski has a bright tone and takes a very uncloying, unsentimental, transparent and somewhat fast approach to the Four Last Songs. And the result is, in my view, a complete success. Yes, the music is indeed sentimental, but what Isokoski has apparently understood is that given the lushness of the orchestral part and the hauntingly elegiac and wistful melodies, there is really no need to add further overpowering heartache. No, keep attention to the arching musical lines and let the voice soar, pure and beautiful. In this respect, Isokoski's performance is a complete wonder and even if I would be reluctant to replace Schwarzkopf or Janowitz, this is an essential addition.

Just as impressive are the rest of the songs here; the Brentano settings are wistfully magical and Zueignung moving and lovely, clear and unfettered (just to take a couple of examples). Janowski's direction is utterly musically compelling as well and the sound of the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin is wonderful (the woodwinds are particularly deserving of praise). In all respects, then, this disc is a complete success; urgently recommended.

Soile Isokoski was a total unknown before making this breakthrough recording in 2002. Her voice has a trembling vulnerability reminiscent of Barbara Hendicks, and the two could share the same roles of Sophie, Pamina, and others poised between lyric and colorature soprano. The blend of voice and orchestra in Strauss's luscious candy-coated orchestrations is excellent.

In Strauss songs voice can be enough, and for many listeners it will be. Marek Janowski and the Berlin Radio Sym. play beautifully, if not exactly with depth, and they are caught in Ondine's typically clear, bright sonics. The real test, however, is the Four Last Songs, where the singer must convey not just lyric beauty but the melancholy depth of Hesse's poetry. Janowski takes the first song too fast for Isokoski to make points with the words, but she spins a lovely vocal line. Tone continues to dominate as the singer swallows the words in the next two songs. I waited eagerly for the concluding Im Abendrot, the slowest song, but Janowski is glib, uninflected and colorless here, and Isokoski, now vocalizing with touching sensitivity, has little to work with. To give her credit, while not in the same league as Schwarzkopf or Norman, she sings with purity and dignity throughout. Her career was well launched, and a few short years later she made it to the Met.