Samuli Moilanen Olis Vierella Han

Brand new "Olis vierell h n" record contains songs and arias by Puccini, Verdi, Schubert, Beethoven, Strauss and many other famous composers from different eras performed by Finnish singer and pianist Samuli Moilanen.

I received this record from artist himself for review purposes before it was officially released in Finland. You can't get this CD from stores. Just from concerts and from artists webpage.

According to this record Moilanen is now a lyric tenor with sometimes quite dramatic way of singing. I believe he will become spinto tenor in the future. On this record Moilanen uses he's voice in very elastic way ranging from almost hush-like sounds to full metallic voice. I like the way different compositions have different kinds of characteristics.

Interesting curiosity is that Moilanen accompanies himself on this recording with piano. According to his own words singing and piano accompaniment are recorded at the same time which makes it interesting because music on this record is very demanding to perform when just singing. I don't know how this works live but on this record it seems to work very well; when singer acoompaniments himself he can live in little details in very precise way.

Most heartfelt tracks on this record are songs from Finnish composers Merikanto and Heino Kaski. Compositions are great. It would be nice to read the translations of Finnish texts. Sadly these are not offered in the booklet.

Record ends with Recondita armonia from Puccini's famous opera Tosca. It is interesting to here aria sung with such a lyric way. Usually voices used to sing this aria are more heavy.

One downside I find on this record is the piano Moilanen plays. It sounds old and a little heavy; my ears have accustomed to more bright sound. On some tracks it is also a little out of tune.