Distilled
Nordic magic – that’s what we have here – songs in melodic,
diaphanous late-romantic finery.
This
disc arrives in the same month as Bridge’s similarly
timed collection of rare American orchestral songs. Oddly
enough that too has a Scandinavian connection having
been recorded with the Odense Orchestra in Denmark. It
is interesting that the present project was done in Munich
rather than in one of the Scandinavian cities although
this presumably is down to the joint production with
Bayerischer Rundfunk.
The
nine songs of Rangström’s
Den utvalda (
The
Chosen One) are deeply impressive and are well placed
first on the disc. They demand and in Camilla Nylund
get a soprano of prodigious histrionic range, technical
accomplishment, sensitivity and ringing majesty. The
songs variously erupt in voluptuous grand-Wagnerian conflagration
(
Festive preparation), hymn nature in the tones
of a girlish ingénue, confide in hushed and tense whispers
and serenade in seductive lyricism all dressed in impressionistic
finery. The orchestra is used and responds virtuosically
including the sunset melancholy of the oboe in
The
Sleep of the Five Senses. The effect of avian voices
haunts the writing throughout. As for the six songs of
Palmgren’s
Syksy these are more gentle, less volatile
than the tinder and benzine of Rangström although the
last song
O’er the waves eternally has a luscious
grandeur ending with brass growls and the silver-splinter
crash of the tam-tam. They do not lack determination
but the poetic muse is certainly alive in the mood-painting.
Palmgren, who between 1921 and 1926 taught at the Eastman
School, is better known for his piano music whether the
piano concertos (Finlandia) or solo (Finlandia). Izumi
Tateno (b. 1936) has since the 1960s been his most consistent
champion having early on recorded the lapidary Second
Piano Concerto
The River for EMI. His
A Rare
Bird is a work written from peace and contentment,
shaped by folksong and lambent with smiling Straussian
ecstasy. Much the same applies to the much shorter song
In
the Morning Mist.
The
disc ends with a work once rarely encountered and now
far more accessible. It is Sibelius’s
Luonnotar,
an extraordinary creation-epic tone-poem taking words
from
The Kalevala. I always mentally group this
work with the Sixth Symphony and
The Bard. After
years in which there were few recordings - Phyllis Curtin
for Bernstein (
CBS),
Gwyneth Jones for Dorati (
EMI)
and Taru Valjakka for Berglund (
EMI) – the
last few decades have seen changes. We now have
Soile
Isokoski,
Helena
Juntunen,
Mari-Anne
Häggander,
Solveig
Kringelborn and
Elisabeth
Söderström. It is one of the most demanding tests
of a singer. Its whispered precise ostinato from the
strings is gripping but then Sibelius is the master of
the ostinato as we also hear in
Nightride and Sunrise.
Nylund is superb at every tier of demand made by Sibelius.
There is only one moment when on the impossibly demanding
sustained high note at 5:05 her voice transiently dries
yet on the final notes her voice maintains its moist
fullness down to
niente.
Luonnotar is extraordinary – carrying
the undertones and impact of symphonic ambit in a succinct
and very poetic casing.
If
you enjoy Strauss’s
Four Last Songs, the sensuously
orchestral Bantock as in the
Sappho Songs (see
review) or the orchestral songs of Zemlinsky and
Schulhoff (see
review) then you must hear this.
The
words for all the songs are printed in the CPO booklet
as sung and side by side in German and English translation.
Deeply
pleasing, tender and flammable singing and playing which
will I hope prompt what deserves to be a series drawing
on the hidden treasury of Scandinavian orchestral song
repertoire.
Rob Barnett
Ann
Ozorio’s appreciation of Sibelius’s Luonnotar
Camilla
Nylund (soprano) 
