Big Ben Phonogram

Birgit Finnilä
Contraalto

Recording on Big Ben

Dvorak: Bibliche Lieder

571 006-2

Artist Biography

Born: January 20, 1931 - Falkenberg, Sweden

The Swedish contralto, Birgit Finnilä, inherited her musical gifts from her parents, and after taking lessons with Ingalill Linden in Göteborg, she under took a further period of study at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Roy Henderson.

Since her very successful debut in Göteborg in 1963, Birgit Finnilä has sung with many European and American orchestras under such eminent conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Carlo Maria Giulini, Haitink, Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel and Rozhdestvensky, and has given recitals in New York, Chicago (first American tour in 1968), London, Vienna and Paris, as well as in Soviet Union and Australia.

Birgit Finnilä has made her career principally on the concert platform, but her stage appearances included roles in Benjamin Brittenís The rape of Lucretia, Gluckís Orfeo (her operatic was in that role in 1967 in Göteborg), Georg Frideric Handelís Flavio, Mozartís Le Nozze di Figaro, and Wagnerís Ring cycle.

If she has concentrated on concert and recital work Birgit Finniläís range in these fields in vast, covering the oratorios of J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel, the Requiems of Dvo?ák, Mozart and Verdi, major choral works such as Beethovenís Missa Solemnis, solo parts in the orchestral works of Mahler, with whose music she feels a particular affinity, and a wide repertoire of songs by composers as diverse as Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Sibelius, B. Britten and Mahler.

Birgit Finnilä recorded for EMI the role of Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro under Daniel Barenboim, has taken part in Brucknerís Te Deum and also in Shostakovichís Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk under the baton of Mstislav Rostropovich.