Ei hävetä yhtään olla RSO:ssa töissä jos arvostelut ulkomaillakin ovat seuraavanlaisia mitä saatiin torstaisesta Edinburghin konsertista:
THE TIMES
Finnish Radio SO/Oramo at the Usher Hall
A passionate concert that exuded power, authority and love was topped off
by a heady performance from Karita Mattila
Geoff Brown
Like many of the world's top conductors, Sakari Oramo has several orchestras in his wardrobe. He may have stopped wearing his Birmingham outfit, but he still has the Kokkola Opera in Finland and next month takes ownership of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. However, he appeared in Edinburgh with the orchestra he knows best, the Finnish Radio Symphony. Twenty years ago he was its concert master; from 1993 he served as associate principal conductor, moving to the top ten years later. If he doesn't know the orchestra's strengths, its quirks, and where the bodies are buried, no one does.
Every bar of Sibelius's First Symphony in this concert exuded power, authority and love. Even Oramo's conducting looked more passionate, more florid certainly, than it did in his years with the CBSO. The baleful opening clarinet solo set the scene for a turbulent, blood-red interpretation, raging enough to feel dangerous, yet sufficiently sculpted to keep Sibelius's framework intact. The concentrated energy of Oramo's first movement was ferocious. Then came the Andante's emotional arc, marvellously shaped, with the cellos' consoling cradle song shifting into anguish by degrees before sinking back, bruised. A combative Scherzo led into the Finale, introduced with searing cries. Whatever Sibelius needed - battle cries, fire, a tragic sigh - the orchestra provided with the kind of understanding probably bred in the bone.
The musicians had Janácek's number, too, despatching the Prelude to From the House of the Dead with just the right jagged aplomb. However, the chief Finnish glory of the first half was Karita Mattila, whose soprano voice is as rich and heady as full cream milk. She seemed almost surprised by the heat of the audience's response, though could she honestly expect us to sit on our hands after such multitextured displays of the opera singer's art? During Jenufa's prayer, from Janácek's opera, she pierced us with anguish. A moment later, the gears had changed and she was Tatyana from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, writing her love letter in fervent hope. Technically, nothing seemed to unseat Mattila, but her rigorous control across every register wasn't finally what made these performances special. She was open and embracing; she sang with her heart. No wonder the audience loved her.
Rowena Smith
The Guardian,
Monday August 18 2008
Article history
On paper, this rather short programme from the Finnish Radio Symphony and Sakari Oramo was something of an oddity. Despite the presence of Finnish soprano Karita Mattila singing two substantial operatic scenas, it was not a star showcase. After she dispatched Jenufa's Prayer and Tatyana's Letter Scene, the orchestra then wrapped up the evening with Sibelius's First Symphony.
Oramo had described the programme as being unified by a certain melancholic fin-de-siècle sensibility. As a concept, it sounded woolly - but it made perfect sense in his performance. The tone was set by his approach to the Prelude to Janácek's From the House of the Dead: punchy and vital rather than ponderous and gloom-laden.
Mattila's contribution was predictably charismatic. Having taken the Usher Hall by storm with the huge, bell-like properties of her voice, she proceeded to seduce the audience with the intensity of her performance. Mattila's gift to inhabit a role, even in a concert performance, is such that the vulnerability of Jenufa shone through, despite the power with which the monologue and prayer scene were delivered. She even performed the Letter Scene without her shoes, presumably to capture all the better the teenage impetuosity of Tatyana.
In the wake of Mattila's glamorous, vital presence, Sibelius's First could have seemed an anticlimax. But Oramo's take on the piece - briskly unsentimental but with a sense of ebb and flow, highlighting the wonderfully responsive playing of the Finnish RSO - turned out to be the
highlight of the performance
THE SCOTSMAN
MUSIC: FINNISH RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Published Date: 15 August 2008
By KENNETH WALTON
FINNISH RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
*****
USHER HALL
IN A relatively short Festival appearance last night, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra packed a universe of colour and seething emotion into its feverish programme.
Under its chief conductor, Sakari Oramo, the heat was intense from the start, never a guaranteed prospect when the opening notes come from the gnawing Prelude of Janacek's opera From the House of the Dead. Oramo lost no opportunity to illustrate its testy, virile demeanour.
And it set the scene perfectly for another Janacek operatic excerpt, Jenufa's Prayer, featuring the huge, charismatic personality of the Finnish soprano, Karita Mattila. What a glorious voice. The contained ecstasy of her performance was sheer class, only to be overshadowed by an even more sublime account of Tatyana's Letter Scene from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.
No containment here. Bare-footed and wretchedly animated, Mattila hit every emotional button with her heartfelt singing, enjoying instinctive support from Oramo and his band.
How do you follow that? No problem for these boys, who opened Sibelius's Symphony No 1 with steely, stormy petulance, and proceeded to conquer peak after peak in a performance loaded with ingenious, imaginative and explosive touches.
Matka meni mukavasti, kivat konsertitkin vaikka itse pidin juuri tuota Edinburghin konserttia parempana kuin Santanderissa lauantaina soitettua. Sali oli parempi ja jotenkin yleismeininki kaikilla innostuneempi. Eilen tultiin takaisin mutta tänään piti taas tehdä töitä. Kiertueella soitettu ooppera-alkusoitto Kuolleesta talosta saa peräänsä pari tuntia lisää kun koko ooppera esitetään Helsingin Juhlaviikoilla torstaina. Ooppera viedään myös Tukholmaan Östersjö-festivaalille, itse en sinne lähde mukaan kun kokoonpano on hieman kutistettu sitä varten. Eikä se muutenkaan vaikuta kovinkaan houkuttelevalta käynniltä: aamupäivällä lento sinne, harjoitukset, konsertti ja iltalennolla takaisin. Varmaankin rankka päivä.
Niin ja julkisivuremontti - ei vieläkään ohi. Näytti jo lupaavalta kun ei koneita ole pihassa näkynyt kunnes ne tänään taas ilmestyivät. Ja valmista piti olla jo syyskuussa 2007. Kyllä. Hienosti hoidettu.
Niin ja julkisivuremontti - ei vieläkään ohi. Näytti jo lupaavalta kun ei koneita ole pihassa näkynyt kunnes ne tänään taas ilmestyivät. Ja valmista piti olla jo syyskuussa 2007. Kyllä. Hienosti hoidettu.
