Work: Four Songs for piano and voice (Vier Lieder für eine singstimme mit klavier), Op.2

A programme of Schubert and Berg Lieder are sung with ultimate mastery, albeit the programme goes long on melancholy and short on variety.

Despite some fascinating, impressive and often beautiful moments, the consistent refusal to give the audience time to applaud, pause and digest what they had just heard turned the evening into a wash of death songs.

In Wagner and Strauss, the beauty and power of Mattila's voice, still fresh and flexible, left the audience reeling in a recital that was a showcase for technique and artistry.