Pergola, Wroclaw, Poland3rd May 2019
Tarja Turunen
TARJA TURUNEN concerts, whose voice being a lyrical soprano that reaches three octaves, are always an unforgettable experience. She began her musical education at the age of six. In addition to singing lessons, she also took piano and flute lessons. At the age of 18, she began studying opera singing at the Sibellius Academy in Kuopio. At the same time, at the instigation of the school friend Tuomas Holopainen, she became the vocalist in the band Nightwish.
Despite the growing popularity of the band, which gained recognition thanks to the album ‘Oceanborn’ released in 1998, she continued her studies and also performed as a soloist in operas and ballets such as Evankeliumi. She studied at the Academy of Music in Karlsruhe in Germany. In 2004, together with the band NIGHTWISH, she released the album ‘Once’ and also began a solo career since the release of the single Yhden Enkelin Unelma. On October 23rd, 2005, the cooperation with NIGHTWISH came to an end and she continued her solo career. Within the next years she released well-acclaimed albums, e.g. ‘Henkäys Ikuisuudesta’, which gained the status of a double platinum record in Finland. ‘My Winter Storm’, released in 2007 gained the status of a gold record on the day of the premiere in Finland, and a few days later gained the title of double platinum in Russia, gold in the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland and Hungary. On September 1, 2010, she released the third studio album ‘What Lies Beneath’, which is warmly welcomed by music critics.
It seems Tarja takes another step in her solo career. She just published the song, which is the preview of her new studio release. Her last studio release was the Christmas album ‘From Spirits and Ghosts’, which was out in November 2017. Earlier, in 2016, the singer recorded a full Rock album, ‘The Shadow Self’. Last year, Turunen published a concert release entitled ‘Act II’, which included, among other things, recordings from her tour “The Shadow Shows”. Furthermore, at the end of last year, the artist announced that she planned to record a new album, which would be the most rock album in her career. She said she would enter the studio at the begging of the upcoming year and that October seemed to be the most likely date for the new album to be out. As I mentioned Tarja Turunen has just published a song called ‘Dead Promises’, which is the first official announcement of her new album. The album itself is entitled ‘In The Raw’ and it will be out on August 30th, 2019 on earMusic as CD Digipak. As Tarja herself comments upon the new album, she likes how the guitar sounds: in your face. She said: “I need something powerful behind me so that I don’t feel like I am left alone.” Surely enough the audience gathered at the open air space next to the Fountain and Centennial Hall made her feel a bit less alone - we certainly hope so!
Music & Performance
The concert in Wroclaw was a spectacle of beautiful, breath-taking, emotional vocal and light. It won’t be a lie to say the scene shamed the stars that night. Expressive, phenomenal voice paired with powerful, hard-hitting melody line of guitars and cello was like a thunderstorm to conquer any heart. The venue itself is quite spectacular - the scene is located in vicinity of the oldest and most beautiful parks in the city, green and very picturesque Pergola, Centennial Hall and the multimedia Fountain so the reverberation of the sound, reflection of the scene lights in the water and the overall celebratory atmosphere of May 3rd definitely added to the fantastic quality of the show.
Some were hoping we would be presented the new song I previously mentioned, ‘Dead Promises’, that had its premiere on 3 of May 2019, but unfortunately it did not happen. Still the songs played were diversified enough to satisfy fans. Aside from original compositions we were also given two covers, by MUSE and GARY MOORE. Just before ‘Deliverance’ Tarja mentioned she was a lucky woman to love and be loved a lot in her life and that love was the most important thing. The emotional and extremely powerful performance that came after was one of the highlights of the show. The vocalist was truly engaged in the show, taking to the audience and giving her most charming smiles. Same could be said about the guitarists siding her - very powerful and energetic displays of their skill mastery were definitely huge advantage of the concert.
Fantastic, rich and elaborate guitars passages combined with the vocalic powerful force gave me real thrills. I’m always in awe to experience the power human voice may reach and impact it has on the listeners. It’s like magic; a hypnotizing, charismatic and beautiful show!
Setlist
01. No Bitter End
02. 500 Letters
03. Demons in You
04. Love to Hate
05. Little Lies
06. Calling from the Wild
07. Supremacy (Muse cover)
08. Undertaker
09. Deliverance
10. Victim of Ritual
11. Innocence
12. I Walk Alone
13. Over the Hills and Far Away (Gary Moore cover)
14. Die Alive
15. Until My Last Breath
Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Light: 10
Sound: 10
Total: 10 / 10
All Pictures by Karo Kratochwil
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