Virpi Räisänen

"​This programme is predicated on the twin abilities of Virpi Räisänen, who began her career as a violinist and then blossomed as a mezzo. It was stimulated by the knowledge that Holst’s Four Songs for Voice and Violin were intended for a single performer, singing and playing, but had never yet been recorded by a sole musician."

"The Earth, Spring’s Daughter is dramatic and gorgeously sounding. [-] Saivo elegantly combines contemporary aesthetics, associations to nature, and a mythological dimension."

Olli Kortekangas excels at sensitive ensemble writing in his opera My Brother’s Keeper about the Finnish Civil War, but the work is hamstrung by its amateurish libretto.

Growing up in roughly beautiful Lapland has affected Outi Tarkiainen’s personality and her voice as a composer. For her, music is almost like a force of nature, which can change people and their destinies. Andrew Mellor met Tarkiainen in Rovaniemi, just as she had finished her song-cycle The Earth, Spring’s Daughter.