The Legacy of Mahler Virpi Räisänen & Marita Viitasalo

• 1 Lieder und Gesange aus der Jugendzeit, Book 3 No. 2. Ablosung im Sommer 01:48
• 2 No. 1. Fruhlingsmorgen 02:00
• 3 No. 2. Erinnerung 02:59
• 4 No. 3. Hans und Grethe 02:26
• 5 No. 4. Serenade aus Don Juan 01:48
• 6 No. 5. Phantasie aus Don Juan 02:30
• 7 Jugendlieder, Vol. 1 Sehnsucht I 01:14
• 8 Er klagt, dass der Fruhling so kurz bluht 01:04
• 9 Regen 01:30
• 10 Schliesse mir die Augen beide (1st setting) 01:04
• 11 Schliesse mir die Augen beide (2nd setting) 01:39
• 12 4 Lieder, Op. 2 No. 1. Schlafen, schlafen 02:56
• 13 An Leukon 01:18
• 14 No. 6. Galathea 03:17
• 15 No. 2. Einfaltiges Lied 02:34
• 16 No. 1. Der genugsame Liebhaber 02:47
• 17 No. 1. The Dragon-Fly and the Ant 02:41
• 18 No. 2. The Donkey and the Nightingale 04:47
• 19 No. 1. A Cradle Song 02:25
• 20 No. 2. The Highland Balou 02:00
• 21 No. 3. Sephestia's Lullaby 02:01
• 22 No. 4. A Charm 01:45
• 23 No. 5. The Nurse's Song 03:55
• Total Runtime 52:28

Info for The Legacy of Mahler

Ondine is pleased to announce the debut release of charismatic mezzo-soprano Virpi Räisänen. Having already performed as a successful violinist, Virpi Räisänen has since appeared as a singer at the Staatsoper in Berlin, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Netherlands Opera and the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Ingo Metzmacher in Nono’s opera Al gran sole carico d’amore in 2009 and in the premiere of Wolfgang Rihms’s Dionysos in 2010.

Virpi Räisänen is equally at home with contemporary and baroque music with her beautiful timbre able to fit well with all genres.

Pianist Marita Viitasalo has performed extensively as Soile Isokoski’s accompanist, performing with her in recitals across the world since 1987. She plays chamber music in the Trio Finlandia and appears regularly with Scandinavian orchestras.

“With a Nordic timbre suggesting a genetic kinship with Karita Mattila, Räisänen's instrument is clear, clean and beautifully produced from a technical standpoint, with an extra something that's initially hard to put your finger on. Then, as the recital goes on, you realise a violinist's sensibility is at work...As much as her sound recalls Mattila, her vocal line is like Felicity Lott's...it's a highly impressive calling-card.” (Gramophone)

“the precision of Raisenen's singing is most impressive, although it doesn't come across as cold or overly technical...Her sound is bright on top and her lower register is rich without being matronly. She is idiomatic in German, Russian and English...The only thing that I miss in her singing is communicative warmth and intimacy...Here is a singer to keep an ear on.” (International Record Review)

Virpi Räisänen, mezzo-soprano
Marita Viitasalo, piano

Virpi Räisänen
completed her vocal studies at the Utrecht and Amsterdam Conservatoires with the highest distinction under Eugenie Ditewig and Udo Reinemann. Afterwards she has been coached by Margreet Honig. Following her recent career change from a successful violinist to a concert and opera singer, she has appeared on the stages of the Salzburg Festival, Radio France's Festival Présences, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Musashino Recital Hall in Tokyo, the Helsinki Music Centre, the Staatsoper Berlin, the Netherlands Opera and the Haendel Festival Halle.

Virpi Räisänen made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2009 in Luigi Nono's opera Al gran sole carico d'amore, with Ingo Metzmacher conducting Vienna Philharmonic. She was invited back to Salzburg Festival in 2010 for the premiere of Wolfgang Rihm Dionysos, which was presented in Amsterdam and in Staatsoper Berlin in where she also appeared in the revival of Nono's Al gran sole and in the role of Iseut aux Blanches Mains in Frank Martin's Le vin Herbé. She also premiered in the new opera of Uljas Pulkkis Five women in a Chappel in the Helsinki Festival. In addition to her achievements in contemporary repertoire, she has sung the leading roles of Elmira in Haendel's Floridante, Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice and the double roles of the Muse and Nicklausse in Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann.

She made her Amsterdam Concertgebouw debut in 2011 with Gordan Nickolic leading the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, followed by appearances with the Orchestre Philharmonique et le Choeur de Radio France with Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra with Sakari Oramo, the Helsinki Philharmonic with John Storgårds, the Tapiola Sinfonietta with Anne-Marie Helsing, the Flemish Radio Choir and Orchestra with Bo Holten, the Oulu Symphony Orchestra and the Ostrobothinan Chamber Orchestra with Dima Slobodeniouk and Juha Kangas.

In 2013 she will sing as soloist among others of the Barock Orchestra of the Tampere Philharmonic, the Pori Sinfonietta, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra in Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Tapiola Sinfonietta in Helsinki, Espoo and Hong Kong. In few occations as a soloist of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra with Hannu Lintu, also on cd recording of Berio Calmo for ONDINE. During the autumn 2013 she will also sing recitals in Tokyo and Chiba, Japan.

In 2012 appeared Virpi Räisänen's internationally highly acclaimed debut cd The Lagacy of Mahler also for ONDINE.

Virpi Räisänen has performed lied repertoire throughout Europe and Japan. She has established herself as a specialist in contemporary music, having performed dozens of new works, many of them written and dedicated to her. She created the project VIULAJA (violin-mezzo)around her ability to sing and play violin simultaneously. A film Trasparente in Ilmari Mäenpää's music where Virpi sings and plays violin, was released in 2011.

In addition to her singing career, Virpi Räisänen is Artistic Director of the Oulunsalo Soi Chamber Music Festival.

Marita Viitasalo
was born in the south of Finland. Upon beginning her piano studies she moved to Helsinki and made her concert diploma at the Sibelius Academy. After further studies at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome and at the Viennese Hochschule f%uuml;r Musik she started a most respectable career as a concert pianist and accompanist, for which she has been honoured with the Pro Finlandia Medal in 2006. A piano professor at the Sibelius-Academy since 1981, together with Professor Erik Tawaststjerna she has been leading the International Piano Festival in Espoo since 1989.

Since 1987 Ms Viitasalo has been the constant duo partner for the renowned Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski. Together they have given recitals all over the world and are charming their audience in Vienna or Paris as much as in London and New York.

Together with Eeva Koskinen and Riitta Pesola in their Trio Finlandia, founded in 1986, Marita Viitasalo has travelled in the USA, Southeast Asia and all over Europe, including Berlgium, Russia and Greece. Besides the traditional repertoire the trio gives a special impact to contemporary and Finnish composers. For this reason, Olli Kortekangas has dedicated his composition for piano trio and orchestra Charmes to Trio Finlandia which gave the debut performance in 1999 together with the Finnish Radio-Symphony Orchestra.

Due to her dedication for the impressionist composers, Ms. Viitasalo has won special renown for her interpretations of Chopin, Ravel, Debussy and Sibelius. Appearing regularly with the main orchestras in Finland and Scandinavia as well as the Music festivals of Edinbourgh, Helsinki, Kuhmo, Savonlinna, Salzburg or Schleswig-Holstein, she has also played in Berlin, Luzern, Rom, Stockholm, Toulouse, at the Wigmore Hall in London, the  Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna as well as in Tokyo and Nagano.

Ms Viitasalo has played several recordings of music by Sibelius, Debussy and Ravel, in addition to numerous recordings with Soile Isokoski, including songs by Schubert, Schumann and several Scandinavian composers, as well as Wolfs Italian Songbook with Ms. Isokoski and Bo Skovhus.

Her further experiences include a production of Hindemiths Marienleben together with Carla Fracci at the Maggio Musicale in Florence and a performance at the Scala in Milan documenting the life of Alma Mahler with works of several Viennese School composers.

Marita Viitasalo is a prize winner of the Finnish Maj Lind competition, and among her teachers were Professor Timo Mikkilä in Helsinki, Professor Rodolfo Caporali in Rom as well as Professor Dieter Weber at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna.

Booklet for The Legacy of Mahler