BBC Music Magazine Feature, May 2013

BBC Music Magazine website

"Meanwhile the most effective performance by Stotijn was of Berg's neglected Four Songs, Opus 2."

LA Times, June 2012

"Another popular performer brought the audience to its feet in the second half of the morning concert, when mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn delivered a group of "Cabaret Songs" set in rousing period mode by William Bolcom, with lyrics by the late Arnold Weinstein."

Ventura Star, June 2012

"The mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn sang the Wagner songs with glowing voice and deep sensitivity, supported by the excellent Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and Mr. Tonnesen."

The New York Times, June 2012

"This allowed for the real star of the evening, mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn to become the focal point. Stotijn is an incredible singer: her voice is clear, warm and powerful and her stage presence is mesmerizing. But what made this performance memorable was her understanding and execution of the songs. In the first song, ‘Lullaby’, Stotijn demonstrated the different characters, the mother and Death, with intonation and body language, and she continued this throughout the song cycle. This meant that even for someone who does not understand a word of Russian, it is entirely clear what the songs mean and what is going on. Mussorgsky’s figure of Death has many different faces; he is seductive, soothing, aggressive, even joyful – and all of these elements were present in Stotijn’s performance."

Bachtrack.com, April 2012

"Christianne Stotijn was Brangäne, carefully characterised, with lovely inflections in the voice that chimed with the dilemma in which she is after all instrumental in creating."

ClassicalSource, March 2012

"Christianne Stotijn was a suitably seductive Zefka, and Julius Drake provided superbly dramatic accompaniment. Stotijn began the evening with a heartfelt performance of Schumann’s Liederkreis Op. 39, at times recalling Janet Baker in her directness and sensitivity."

OMH review, October 2011

"Stotijn kept a commanding presence even – especially – when singing quietly, a quality that made ‘Hamlet’s dialogue with his conscience’ completely captivating...“None but the lonely heart”, Tchaikovsky's most popular song, was beautifully performed, stretching its sense of longing, while the powerfully wrought “Why?” doubled back on itself with a strangely ruminative coda. “My Genius, My Angel, My Friend” found her eschewing all vibrato for a striking closing verse, while in the glorious “Whither the day reigns”, Stotijn cast off all inhibitions, filling the hall with song. Her exuberance extended to the first of two Tchaikovsky encores, “The Cuckoo”. Here she charmingly inhabited the characters, introduced in an amusing synopsis by Julius Drake, while “How fair this spot” found her indulging us in a self-proclaimed favourite of the composer."

www.classicalsource.com, February 2011

"Triumph she did. Christianne Stotijn’s was a benchmark Queen’s Hall recital from which Handel was excluded and the morning was devoted to a compelling combination of Strauss and Schoenberg...Stotijn’s soft-edged but always luminous, deeply-felt singing had sprinkled beauty, and the finest sense of phrasing and colour, on everything she touched, each line shot through with the gleaming responsiveness of Joseph Breinl’s piano playing.These qualities also distinguished the succinct passion of the 15 songs that form Schoenberg’s momentous Book of the Hanging Gardens, not least because Breinl’s accompaniments, particularly the postlude to the 14th song, were models of articulacy. Among the encores, Strauss’s Morgen had surely been hopefully awaited by the audience. It was exquisitely sustained.

Star rating: *****"

heraldscotland, August 2010

"In music where the composer's own emotional turmoil is never far away, Stotijn and Breinl brought engaging integrity to these meaningful settings."

Scotsman.com, August 2010

BBC Music Magazine VOCAL AWARD WINNER

"Vocal: Christianne Stotijn & Julius Drake

Tchaikovsky: Romances (Onyx)

The Dutch mezzo-soprano is best known for her interpretation of Mahler, both in recital and in highly-acclaimed performances conducted by Bernard Haitink, whose protégé she has been. Christianne Stotjin was a BBC New Generation Artist and recipient of a Borletti Buitoni Trust Award (2005).

'Christianne Stotijn is that artist in a thousand whose personality shines through everything she does."

Bristol Magazine, April 2010, BBC Music Magazine Awards

"This Mahler performance was yet another chance for Haitink to work with his protégée, the Dutch mezzo Christianne Stotijn...As The Lonely One in Autumn she sat rapt, visualising the scene until imagination was fleshed out in the simplest of song. And she was minutely sensitive to each orchestral soloist: her duetting with the principal flute, threading each word through the melodic line, created a muted and sensuous yearning in the final Abschied that will remain long in the memory."

The Times, October 2009, London Symphony Orchestra / Bernard Haitink

"The one touch of transcendence came at the start of Urlicht, which Christianne Stotijn sang with clairvoyant grace."

Financial Times, September 2009

"The protracted pace of Jurowski's fourth movement allowed the mezzo soloist, Christianne Stotijn, to linger rapturously over Urlicht"

Evening Standard, September 2009

"Then, with the Scherzo's final gong-stroke still vibrating on the air, mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn's voice stole in with a folk poem about heaven. This was a brilliant stroke, which suggested that the murky, trivial aspects of life and the transcendent are separated by only a hair's breadth – an idea of which Mahler would surely have approved."

Telegraph, September 2009