{"id":46397,"date":"2017-07-19T15:53:13","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T19:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=46397"},"modified":"2017-07-19T20:11:53","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T00:11:53","slug":"scrutiny-a-long-awaited-canadian-recital-debut-by-soile-isokoski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/07\/19\/scrutiny-a-long-awaited-canadian-recital-debut-by-soile-isokoski\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | A Long-Awaited Canadian Recital Debut By\u00a0Soile Isokoski"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Soprano
Soprano Soile Isokoski, pianist Martin Katz (Photo: James Ireland)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was worth the wait. I am of course referring to soprano Soile Isokoski\u2019s Liederabend<\/em> last evening at Walter Hall, as part of this year\u2019s Toronto Summer Music Festival.<\/p>\n

With a nearly thirty-year career behind her and recently having turned sixty, the great soprano from Finland finally made her Canadian recital debut. Song lovers turned out in force to hear her\u2014I spotted many singers in the audience, including Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka. Previously, Isokoski had sung very little in Toronto\u2014I recall a Kullervo<\/em> and a Beethoven Ninth with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra during the tenure of Jukka-Pekka Saraste.<\/p>\n

I admit I\u2019m a huge fan, having heard her many times in my travels in some of her greatest roles\u2014Marschallin, Rachel, Madame Lidoine, Countess. Her simplicity, sincerity, and musicality never fail to move me. No artifice, and zero diva posturing\u2014she\u2019s there to serve the music. Now that she has retired from opera, she gives the occasional recital, and devotes most of her energy to passing the torch to the next generation: she teaches at the University of Oulu and is a guest professor at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Isokoski was here as a mentor at the TSMF Art of Song program, during which time I interviewed her for Musical Toronto<\/a>.\u00a0She strikes me as a wonderful teacher\u2014supportive, wise, caring, analytical, and inspiring. It\u2019s quite a coup for the TSMF to bring her back, and this time to sing as well as teach. It helped that\u00a0American pianist Martin Katz, with whom she frequently collaborated in the last few years, is also here.\u00a0I last heard Isokoski in August 2014 in Ravinia, as the Contessa in Nozze. <\/em>As usual, her Contessa was a revelation. Sadly, that was to be the last time I heard her in opera, as she retired in December 2014, with the Marschallin at the Wiener Staatsoper as her farewell.<\/p>\n

Here at TSMF, she began the recital with Schumann\u2019s Gedichte der K\u00f6nigin Maria Stuart, Op. 135<\/em>. These were Schumann\u2019s last songs, composed at a time when his bipolar disorder had snuffed out his creative impulses. Given the subject matter and Schumann\u2019s state of mind, these songs take on added poignancy. The Isokoski lyric instrument has retained its customary warmth and luminous tone. Her justly famous attention to textual nuances was all there.<\/p>\n

This was followed by a selection of eleven of Hugo Wolf\u2019s Italienisches Liederbuch<\/em>. A substantial collection, it\u2019s usually sung by a baritone and a soprano (or mezzo)\u2014a real connoisseur\u2019s cycle. Wolf’s\u00a0melodic inspirations are perhaps not quite as obvious and accessible as that of other song composers like Schubert or Schumann, but they\u00a0grow on the listener. Isokoski chose some very funny songs, like \u201cMein Liebster ist so klein\u201d which she embodied\u00a0to the hilt, showing off her mischievous spirit and great sense of humour.<\/p>\n

After an intermission, Isokoski sang three of the Ophelia songs by Richard Strauss. The choice was a surprise: I really thought she would choose the ones she\u2019s famous for, like Morgen, Zueignung, C\u00e4cilie, etc. The Ophelia songs are mainly for light sopranos, but no matter\u2014Isokoski delivered them vividly, with suitably girlish tone. For me the centrepiece of the recital was the eight Sibelius songs at the end. By then, the voice was fully warmed up and the top was easy, pure, and glorious. To think that at sixty, she could still sing with such gleaming, sweet, smooth tone, without any hint of vocal compromise! It\u2019s a testament to her fine technique and intelligence in managing her repertoire, never singing outside her fach<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Of the eight in the group, she sang my desert-island Sibelius, \u201cFlickan kom ifr\u00e5n sin \u00e4lskings mote.\u201d It\u2019s about a girl hiding from her mother her secret trysts with her boyfriend, until one day she comes home and reveals that she has been betrayed by him. A very dramatic song, with big piano accompaniment. Isokoski delivered it with great pathos. That said, I would have preferred a bigger sound from her, given that this piece demands great drama. She was not helped by the torrents of sounds coming from Martin Katz\u2019s loud piano playing, with the lid fully opened. Katz is a sensitive collaborative pianist and the favourite of many singers the likes of Renata Tebaldi, but on this occasion with the lid full stick, it became a bit overpowering\u2014too much for the intimate Walter Hall.<\/p>\n

With the formal conclusion to the recital, the audience showed its deep appreciation with sustained applause. Isokoski gave two encores, the lovely \u201cDel cabello ma sutil\u201d by Obradors, beautifully sung in Spanish, followed by Bernstein\u2019s \u201cI Hate Music,\u201d a funny song of a tone-deaf soprano, which had the audience in stitches. If you missed the concert, you can still catch Soile Isokoski\u2014as a teacher. She\u2019s giving a public masterclass in Walter Hall on Sunday 2 to 4 p.m. Not to be missed!<\/p>\n

For more REVIEWS, click\u00a0HERE<\/u><\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Finnish, English, German, and Portuguese, soprano Soile Isokoski took the Toronto Summer Music audience on a world tour with pianist Martin Katz. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":46396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,76,19,52,56,59,63,70],"tags":[9689,5509,3357],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/07\/Isokoski-20.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-c4l","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46397"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46397"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46402,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46397\/revisions\/46402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46397"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=46397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}