The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: UW-Madison soprano Mimmi Fulmer discusses and sings Finnish music, which she will perform in a FREE concert this Sunday afternoon

By Jacob Stockinger

This Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, UW-Madison faculty member and soprano Mimmi Fulmer (below) will open the new concert season at the UW-Madison when she performs a recital celebrating the centennial of Finland’s independence.

Fulmer will sing a variety of Finnish songs, from folk songs to new music, and will be accompanied by pianist Craig Randal Johnson (below).

This past week, Fulmer gave a preview sampling of the concert on The Midday program of Wisconsin Public Radio. In the studio (below), she talked to host Norman Gilliland about the concert and about Scandinavian music.

She also previewed the concert through her own 2014 CD (below), called “Voyage Home” — for Centaur Records — of Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish songs.

Here is a link to the WPR website where you can listen to Fulmer’s appearance on The Midday:

https://www.wpr.org/shows/mimmi-fulmer-0

And for Sunday’s concert here is the full program – unfortunately without translations of the difficult and even obscure language – that you will NOT find on the UW-Madison website (but which will be provided at the concert):

Illalle Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

Soi vienosti murheeni soitto Oskar Merikanto (1868-1924)

Anmutiger Vertrag      Yrjö Kilpinen (1892-1959)

Var det en dröm?     Jean Sibelius

Syvä ilo    Olli Kortekangas (b. 1955)

Maalari; Nuoruuden kaupungissa; Adagio; Illan tullen

Pastorale     Tauno Pylkkänen        (1918-1980)

Armolaulu    Kari Tikka                 (b. 1946)

INTERMISSION

Kalevala-sävelmä (Runo melody) Arr. Ahti Sonninen (1914-1984)

Sydämeni laulu Kim Borg (1919-2000)

Suomalainen rukous       Taneli Kuusisto (1905-1988)

Je chante la chaleur désespérée (solo piano) Jouni Kaipainen (1956-2015)

Tuoll’ on mun kultani  Folk song

Kukapa sen saunan        Arr. Väinö Hannikainen (1900-1960)

Oravan pesä P.J. Hannikainen        (1854-1924)

Three Finnish Folksongs Arr. Ralf Gothóni (b. 1946)

Hilu, hilu; Tule, tule kultani (heard in the YoUTube video below); Minun kultani kaunis on