Sibelius and Kilpinen songs - Kim Borg
Mon, Nov 7 2011, 3:50PM
In the way that we've sadly come to expect these days, the DG reissue of this splendid disc contained no texts or translations, nor any link to them. Most of the Sibelius I'm familiar with, but the Kilpinen much less so - some I had not encountered before, as far as I can recall.
Leaving aside the general question of provision of texts and translations, which I suspect could provoke a Vesuvial flow of justified moans, does anyone know of a source - internet or otherwise - where these can be found for this disc in particular? There is some lovely singing on this by Borg, a much under-rated artist in my opinion, and appreciation could only be enhanced by a knowledge of the original poetry.
Slightly tangentially (Nordic composers are currently being discussed elsewhere on another bunfight, sorry, thread) has anyone any recommendations re Kilpinen's works other than his song output?
JKH
Tue, Nov 8 2011, 3:35PM
#2
RE: Sibelius and Kilpinen songs - Kim Borg
Thank you, Parla, for those interesting and varied suggestions.
JKH
Fri, Nov 11 2011, 2:35AM
#3
RE: Sibelius and Kilpinen songs - Kim Borg
In the way that we've sadly come to expect these days, the DG reissue of this splendid disc contained no texts or translations
Have a look here http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/
Sat, Nov 12 2011, 10:19AM
#4
RE: Sibelius and Kilpinen songs - Kim Borg
Thank you very much indeed, Guillaume. That's a very impressive site.
JKH
You can't expect anything better from cheap stuff, even from DG. You get what you pay.
Kilpinen is a tiny footnote of Classical Music, except maybe for Finland. He was an almost exclusive Lieder composer, having written 793 Songs! His very few other compositions belong to Chamber Music, with the Cello Sonata as the most promising. Most of the Finnish singers have sung songs of Kilpinen, while the very good independent label CPO has recorded back in 2000 a CD with 26 songs of this obscure composer. The production is first rate with everything needed. Despite it has been deleted, there is some availability in Amazon, etc. Talvela, Mattila and others (including Souzay) have also given a good shot on him, but all these CDs are somehow collectibles.
As for an easy way to the text of the Sibelius songs: If you are a serious collector, you should have one of the full boxes of Sibelius Songs (one in Decca, with Soderstrom and Ashkenazy, or the more recent in BIS with various singers) where there are full texts and lyrics. If you don't own one of them, you should purchase anyone or either. They are very good productions.
If you don't want to spend any money, approach the Finnish Embassy in London; they should have a potential answer to your quest.
Parla