Finnish soprano
Soile Isokoski's recital includes arias central to the lyric soprano repertoire. She brings an especially full and burnished sound to these performances, each of which is a model of flawless technique, lovely tone, and thoughtful expressiveness. Not least among her virtues is her absolutely true intonation, which gives her voice its characteristic gleaming purity.
Isokoski's interpretations are subtly nuanced; she is reportedly not a natural stage actor, but vocally she fully embodies the characters whose passion she is expressing. She's especially effective in the longer scenes, in which the character passes through a variety of emotional states, such as The Letter scene from Eugene Onegin, and Desdemona's Act IV scene. She invests no less feeling and insight in the arias, such as Micäela's "Je dis, que rien ne m'épouvante," and Liù's "Tu che di gel sei cinta." Her luminous and passionate "Mi chiamano Mimi" is a marvel. The playing of the
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by
Mikko Franck, isn't quite up to
Isokoski's standards; it occasionally has intonation issues, and attacks aren't always unanimous. Ondine's sound is clean and spacious.