Karita Mattila (soprano)
Tuija Hakkila (piano)
Friday 1 February 2002
Teatro Guimera, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary
Islands (Spain)
Presented by the XVIII Festival de Música de
Canarias
Schubert:
Non t'accostar
all'urna
La
Pastorella
Mio ben
ricordati
Aria "Vedi quanto adoro" (D.
510)
Mahler:
Frulingsmorgen
Errinnerung
Hans
und Grethe
Sibelius:
Var det en drorn,
Op. 37, No. 4
Demanten po
marssnon,
Op. 36, No. 6
Flickan kom ifran sin
alsklings mote,
Op. 37, No.
5
Duparc:
L'invitation
au
voyage
Phidlye
Chanson
triste
Strauss:
"Morgen",
Op. 27, No. 4
"O süsser Mai", Op. 32, No.
4
"Schön sind, doch kalt die
Himmelssterne", Op. 19, No. 3
"Meinem
Kinde", Op. 37, No. 3
"Cäcilie", op. 27, No.
2
The first part of Karita Mattila's recital in Teatro Guimera was far from
spectacular. She started off with Schubert's Italian songs. A curious cluster
in his canon, they are not up to his best Lieder, but interesting because
the composer seems to be nodding to his musical neighbors to the south and
making a good stab at quasi-bel canto. But only the last of those songs
here, the recitative and aria Didone Abbandonata: "Vedi quanto t'adoro"
(to a text by renowned opera seria poet Pietro Metastasio) has any real
musical worth. The piece recalls a kind of Haydnesque dramatic aesthetic, and
Mattila projected all the Sturm und Drang of the beleaguered heroine
magnificently. A handful of unextraordinary early Mahler songs followed, mostly
of the cute and sentimental variety. Mattila was more at home with the Sibelius
section, especially the poignant and complex "Flickan kom ifran sin alskilings
mote," to a poem in Swedish by Johan Ludvig Runeberg, the Finnish "national
poet." The drama-in-miniature recounts a conversation between mother and
daughter about her lover, and Mattila gave an astounding performance.
The second half was markedly better, in terms of both musical substance and the quality of Mattila's voice (which, admittedly, suffered slightly in the first half because of the dryness of the auditorium). In fact, she made a costume change during intermission (from chic, Phrygian black to a blindingly bright floral print), and a line from the opening Duparc song, "L'Invitation au voyage", sums up her presence and the excellence of the rest of the performance: "Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté, lux, calme et volupté." Her delivery of this line was exquisite, the timbre of her voice velvety, the control impeccable. She handled the dynamic extremes of "Phydle" with seamless artistry, and with "Chanson triste" she had the audience on the verge of tears, especially upon hitting the touching high note on the word "mon" of "mon amour."
Unbelievably, things went from perfection to superperfection with the last
Strauss set. "Morgen" was lovely, Mattila's melting tones bringing vividly to
mind the sunrise imagined in the text; her effulgence was irrepressible in "O
süsser Mai." With "Meinem Kinde" musical and maternal instincts were wedded in
one of the most gorgeous lullabies ever written, Mattila soaring magnificently
on the word "Sternein." With "Cäcilie", as in the preceding songs,
Mattila's ability to sculpt every phrase and enounce every nuance with her
superbly expressive instrument was eminently on display. The audience was on its
feet at the end.
