Virpi Räisänen’s newest cd appearance as a soloist of Lapland Chamber Orchestra on Outi Tarkiainen’s The Earth, Spring’s Daughter has been published on 7th August 2020 by ONDINE. Orchestra is conducted by John Storgårds.
The Gramophone writes:
” Outi Tarkiainen is a composer of rare moral conviction and geographical attachment, with a longing for the far north that once saw her move to Ivalo in Arctic Finland (while there, she wrote her 2019 Proms commission, Midnight Sun Variations). Her music is filled with longing and latent anger, much of the latter stemming from her sympathy with the plight of the Sámi, the reindeer herding communities of northern Norway, Sweden and Finland that form Europe’s only surviving indigenous tribe. The Earth, Spring’s Daughter is the world’s first notated song-cycle setting the Sámi language, using assorted poets chosen by the composer.”
Anna Pulkkis for Finnish Music Quaterly writes:
” Tarkiainen has compiled the Sami text of the song cycle from poems by Rauni Magga Lukkari, Rose-Marie Huuva, Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, Leena Morottaja, Timo Malmi, and Aila Meriluoto . The 42-minute work consists of seven songs framed by a prologue and an epilogue. The text in the prologue, repeated as part of the epilogue, introduces themes such as the cycles of the seasons and of the generations. Skilfully woven into the whole, the work also highlights environmental and cultural threats, such as colonization in the song “Our father’s estate has been divided up today”… Virpi Räisänen is one of the leading Finnish mezzo-sopranos and an insightful and unerring interpreter of contemporary works. Her performance in Earth, Spring’s Daughter is fantastic both vocally and in terms of interpretation.”
Mats Liljeroos for HBL writes:
“The tonal language is alternately richly painterly and sensitively shimmering, with rather dramatic climaxes, and it is difficult to imagine a better sent interpreter of the suggestively carved vocal poetry than Virpi Räisänen, who not only sings but literally lives out her material with an expression and color-wise exemplary versatile voice.”
Ekkehard Pluta für Klassik Heute:
“Die als Interpretin zeitgenössischer Musik vielfach ausgewiesene Mezzosopranistin Virpi Räisänen gestaltet die Lieder mit einer bewundernswerten Vielfalt an Farben und Ausdrucksnuancen, angefangen vom fast gesprochenen Prolog über blühende Lyrismen bis hin zu den immer wieder geforderten vokalen Ekstasen.” 10 10 10
