There’s no doubt about it: soprano Anu Komsi is a singer of great talent and no mean imagination. The voice is characterful more than purely beautiful, perhaps because Komsi isn’t afraid to sacrifice tonal luster for the sake of the text. This isn’t a problem in Glière’s wordless Concerto for coloratura soprano, Alyabyev’s The Nightingale, or Delibes’ witless but adorable Bell Song from Lakmé. All of them are sung very well, and with a willingness to phrase and explore the sense behind the notes in a way that’s notably ear-catching.
In Ophelia’s mad scene from Thomas’ Hamlet some of the liberties that Komsi takes can be chalked up to the character’s insanity, and the result is gripping. However, Mozart’s Queen of the Night (the more famous second aria, Der Hölle Rache) goes completely off the rails. Mannered sforzando articulation and a schizophrenic battle between violent delivery of the nastier bits of text and dainty flights of coloratura culminate in a ghastly and stupid interpolated cadenza with flute, ending in a bloodcurdling shriek. It’s vile.
John Zorn’s La Machine de l’être, billed as a “monodrama”, is another wordless vocalise, ugly, atonal, and pointless, albeit superbly sung. It has a distinctly faded aura about it, like some of those things that Cathy Berberian used to do so memorably but that don’t really bear repetition. As for Luonnotar, it has some fabulous moments once it gets going, but the very opening is much softer than Sibelius’ indicated piano dynamic, and the pregnant pause that Komsi inserts mid-phrase on her second entrance sounds like a bad edit. It’s a pity, because the entire second half of the piece is really stunning, the ending perfectly done.
BIS’s sonics are typically fine, although the orchestra’s exaggerated softness at the start of Luonnotar means that Komsi is much too loud if you take the trouble to make the orchestra audible. Otherwise, Sakari Oramo and the Lahti Symphony do an excellent job accompanying Komsi. Without doubt an intriguing singer, the only thing she lacks is that internal editor that tells her that difference for its own sake often turns self-defeating.
