SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Grieg, Madetoja, Messiaen, Wagner: Soile Isokoski (soprano), Marita Viitasalo (piano), Wigmore Hall, London, 21. 2.2008 (AO)

Many years ago, when independent specialist music shops still existed, there was a salesman with encyclopaedic knowledge and good taste. When I walked into his shop, he ran over to tell me about a new recording. “You need to listen to this !” he insisted.  It was Soile Isokoski’s first collection of Suomeni suloksi, Finnish songs.  At the time Finnish art song was almost completely unknown. The recording turned out to be such a cult classic that it was reissued quite recently.  The recording company wasn’t really taking too much of a gamble, however, as Isokoski was already very well known for her Mozart and Sibelius.  Hugh Canning considered her Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder one of the finest performances of all. It’s superb. She’s also championed Wolf and Zemlinsky to great effect.

Isokoski’s voice is exquisite, but what distinguishes her is her musicianship.  That lithe, agile voice is informed by intelligence and a genuine sensitivity to a composer’s idiom, as this performance of Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder demonstrated. So often these songs are used as vehicles to display a singer’s Isolde credentials, for obvious reasons, but the fact remains that they are art songs in their own terms, not simply blueprints for the opera. It’s instructive to hear the orchestrations made of them, especially considering that song wasn’t often orchestrated in those days. Isokoski’s Wesendonck was therefore a refreshing change,  for she approached them with the miniaturist detail they deserve. Her voice is big enough that she can breathe richness into the arching legato.  She carried the long, rising line that is the third strophe of Der Engel, so it welled up like  a swoon. The text describes the angel lifting the soul heavenwards. Isokoski expressed how the soul must feel, melting with ecstasy. Here, too, the gentle delicacy with which she sang the images of childhood in the first verse, brought out the innocence in this cycle, often missing in more “knowing” performance.  Isokoski can hear, perhaps, the real Mathilde behind the theatrical Isolde.

Yet, for all the refinement and detail in this performance, Isokoski never lost touch with the fundamental strength implicit in the music. The schwellende Pulse beating through Stehe still ! was presented with firm conviction : the intensity of the mood matched with steadfast dignity. Similarly, Isokoski respects the stillness in Im Triebhaus. The plants are “speaking”, though silent. No need here for hothouse histrionics on the part of the singer. Significantly, the piano part is minimal, the voice barely accompanied.  These songs express heightened intensely suppressed emotion : inner atmosphere is in many ways even more significant than outright drama. Thus the way isokoski and Viiitasalo built tension up gradually in Träume was specially moving.  Isokoski voice rises up, wie leere Schäume, floating sensually into the dream-like transcendence the text refers to.  This, truly, was mild und liese in most distilled form.

In Trois Mélodies, written at the age of 22, Messiaen already shows his fondness for chromatic colour. I’ve never heard Isokoski sing Messiaen before, but she has completely absorbed his idiom.  This was magnificent. Each line in Pourquoi? and`La fiancée perdue begins with repeated words, pourquoi or C’est, but each word is shaded differently. The songs grow out of nuance. Simple as they may seem, the singer needs to understand how each subtle variation unfolds.  There’s also no room for anything less than transparent clarity. These songs were so lucidly shaped that, hearing them before Wagner enhanced the sensitivity of Isokoski’s approach to the Wesendonck songs.  The Messiaen songs are much less sophisticated than the Wesendonck songs, but Isokoski clearly enjoyed their pure, lively spirit, singing with crisp, clear freshness.

The beautiful juxtaposition of the Messiaen and Wagner songs will live long in my memory because it was so unusual, but another feature of this concert was the Leevi Madetoja cycle Syksy-sarja (Autumn). These songs, too, are intensely atmospheric. Stabbing ostinato in the piano line creates an image of windswept seas in Lähtö, The Departure. Isokoski projects the words Yksin, Yksin  (Alone, alone) upwards and outwards, for the protagonist is setting out for unknown shores.  The poet, Madetoja’s tragic, feminist wife, who used the name L. Onerva, writes about storms and birds, but it’s clear, from the last song,  Ijät hyrskyjä pain (Forever against the breakers) that the real turbulence is internal. The refrain pois, pois itsestäin means, away, away from myself, but from oneself escape isn’t easy. At the heart of the cycle is Luulit, ma katselin sua (You thought I was watching you). It’s sensual and nostalgic at the same time, and very beautiful. Isokoski breathes lovingly into the final cry Onneni laulun (my song of joy), each vowel carefully articulated. There are several recordings of this cycle (recommended version : Juntunen/ Djupsjobacka on Ondine) but Isokoski and Viitasalo are far more accomplished.  For a change, the Wigmore Hall programme notes weren’t helpful. The reason so few of Sibelius’s songs are in Swedish is simply because until the very late 19^th century, Swedish was the first language of most educated Finns.

The concert began with the Grieg Op 48 songs and ended with encores of Wolf and Mozart.  They were lovely, as one would expect from this team of performers.  The real surprise was the final encore – Charles Ives!  Ives is usually performed “American” style, for want of a more accurate description, but as Susan Graham showed, it is quite feasible to perform much of his music as mainstream song. Isokoski’s Ives was warm and affectionate, something that comes over in a good performance no matter what a performer’s native language might be.

Anne Ozorio


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