The Swedish contralto Maria Forsström, also church musician,
orchestra and choir director, has catholic taste when it comes
to vocal music. Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Brahms’
Alto Rhapsody are natural elements in her repertoire
and Mahler is especially close to her heart - her previous disc
was an all-Mahler programme - but here she invites the listener
to a ride through more than four centuries of solo songs. Beginning
in Italy, then moving north to Austria and Germany, a little
detour to Russia and then southwest-wards to France and after
a quick visit to the British Isles, she settles in her native
Scandinavia. Linguistically too it is a many-faceted journey
and far from being a string of pearls of lollipops the programme
is an eye-opener to some rather rarely heard songs.
Maria Forsström, who has been active as a singer since
2005, possesses a virtuoso contralto, and it is a true
contralto with impressive depth and darkish timbre. It is also
well equalized and expansive and the top has a brilliance that
any dramatic soprano could be envious about. Most of all it
is a voice of immense beauty - beauty that doesn’t exclude
expressivity. In other words: this is an uncommonly well endowed
singer.
The Italian part amply demonstrates what riches there are in
early baroque music. Caccini’s elegiac Amarilli
has long been a favourite but Non ha’l ciel contanti
lumi is a find, quite different with dancing rhythms and
joyous coloratura. That Monteverdi is the great vocal composer
of the period is well known but Frescobaldi, who died the same
year as Monteverdi, is primarily regarded as a composer of keyboard
music. The Aria de Passacaglia shows that he was an inspired
song-writer as well. His oeuvre contains motets and madrigals
as well as a large number of arias, but recordings seem to be
rather rare.
The late baroque is probably easier to digest for present day
listeners and both Caldara and Vivaldi are attractive and melodious.
Incidentally Maria Forsström first heard Vedrò
con mio diletto, which is an aria from the operaIl Giustino,
during a circus performance. ‘The singer sang it while
walking the tightrope’!
Andreas Edlund accompanies skilfully throughout the baroque
section, playing a Japanese harpsichord. Also Matti Hirvonen
sticks to a Japanese instrument, a Yamaha. This is probably
the reason why there are liner-notes also in Japanese.
The evening before I listened to this disc, I heard Die Forelle
live, sung with tremendous intensity and theatricality by a
bass-baritone and with that reading still fresh in the memory
Forsström’s seemed a bit bloodless. Returning to
the song a couple of days later I had to revise my opinion.
That bass-baritone stands out as something very special but
Forsström’s version is a valid reading and probably
more in tune with Schubert’s intentions. All the German
songs, surely the best known in this recital, are excellently
sung. That I want to highlight Schubert’s Ständchen
is just to point out how careful with nuances she is. Sampling
that track would be enough to tempt most readers to invest in
this disc!
But there are even better things to come. The two Rachmaninoff
are sung with true Slavonic feeling and wonderful voice. At
forte it rings out almost like Birgit Nilsson in her heyday,
or - to use an even more Scandinavian comparison - Kirsten Flagstad.
Here, as in the rest of the songs, Matti Hirvonen is a pillar
of strength at the piano.
One of the most pleasant is the little delicate Le Colibri
by Chausson, sung with the utmost sincerity. Following the very
smallest bird with Le Cygne (The Swan) is really a play
with contrasts, but Ravel’s swan is still a delicate bird,
seen as it were from a distance with the ripple of water in
the foreground.
Three of Benjamin Britten’s folk-song settings make a
nice group and here I must single out The Salley Gardens
as the most beautifully sung version I’ve heard. The short
nursery rhyme Oliver Cromwell is lively and really naughty
- listen to the piano! Another gem.
Opening the Scandinavian group is Runeberg’s Flickan
kom ifrån sin älsklings möte - generally
known in English as The Tryst. This time it isn’t
Sibelius’s setting, though, but Wilhelm Stenhammar’s.
I have always found his version just as inspired as the Finnish
master’s. I thought I knew Peterson-Berger’s songs
but Att sorg du mig gjort (That you caused me pain) from
Ur en kärlekssaga Op. 14 was a new acquaintance
- at least I couldn’t find it in my fairly large collection.
It is well worth a listen.
Arne Garborg’s Haugtussa (1896) is regarded as
his masterpiece and Grieg’s settings of eight of the poems
have claims to be his masterpiece too, even though there
are other songs that have become more popular. Many are the
singers, mostly Scandinavian, who have made successful recordings,
including Kirsten Flagstad. Maria Forsström’s readings
of two of the songs are so good - rhythmically alluring (Møte)
with a feeling of an evergreen by, say, Gershwin; lively and
glittering (Killingdans) - that I hope that for her next
disc she will give us the complete cycle.
Finally two songs by Sibelius: Se’n har jag ej frågat
mera (Since then I have questioned no further) a Runeberg
setting, and the intensely dramatic Svarta rosor (Black
roses) by Ernst Josephson, one of the most important Swedish
painters but also a poet. The latter song, magnificently sung,
is a worthy conclusion to this varied and fascinating and superbly
executed disc. The recording is faultless.
Göran Forsling
Track listing
Giulio CACCINI (c.1545 - 1618)
1. Non ha ’l cotanti lumi [2:47]
2. Amarilli [2:37]
Claudio MONTEVERDI (1567 - 1643)
3. Ego flos campi [3:15]
Girolamo FRESCOBALDI (1583 - 1643)
4. Aria de Passacaglia [3:08]
Antonio CALDARA (1670 - 1736)
5. Selve amiche [3:23]
Antonio VIVALDI (1678 - 1741)
6. Vedrò con mio diletto [5:13]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797 - 1828)
7. Die Forelle [2:20]
8. Ständchen [3:46]
Robert SCHUMANN (1810 - 1856)
9. Widmung [2:07]
10. In der Fremde [1:54]
Hugo WOLF (1860 - 1903)
11. Kennst du das Land [6:12]
Sergei RACHMANINOFF (1873 - 1943)
12. V molchani mochi laynoy [2:51]
13. O, ne grusti po mne! [3:00]
Ernest CHAUSSON (1855 - 1899)
14. Le Colibri [2:54]
Maurice RAVEL (1875 - 1937)
15. Le Cygne [3:15]
Benjamin BRITTEN (1913 - 1976)
16. Come you not from Newcastle [1:38]
17. The Salley Gardens [2:36]
18. Oliver Cromwell [0:49]
Wilhelm STENHAMMAR (1871 - 1927)
19. Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte
[4:37]
Wilhelm PETERSON-BERGER (1867 - 1942)
20. Att sorg du mig gjort [2:59]
Edvard GRIEG (1843 - 1907)
21. Møte [3:48]
22. Killingdans [1:54]
Jean SIBELIUS (1865 - 1957)
23. Se’n har jag ej frågat mera [2:13]
24. Svarta rosor [2:08]
Maria Forsström (contralto)
[71:32] 
