In November, Staffan will be Polypheme in Händels Acis & Galatea first in Geneva, them in the cultural capital Timisoara. This after a busy spring and summer where he apart from his concert schedule sang Il Re in Aida at Wermland Opera, The Father in the newly written children’s opera Where is the sandwich? at The Royal Opera in Stockholm and Count Ceprano in Rigoletto at Opera på Skäret.
Martin Nyström at Dagens Nyheter writes in “Staffan Liljas bass voice is beautiful sounding and agile”
It is an ambivalent wealth of contrasts that is fully expressed in Staffan Liljas’ debut album, where he with his most colourful, sonorous and agile bass voice interprets Italian motets and English anthems from the 17th century. All of this to an accompaniment of the highest caliber by the organist Peter Lönnerberg, theorbist Jonas Nordberg and cellist Mime Brinkmann, who makes her instrument come to the fore as the albums second bass voice.
Jan Jacoby på Custos skriver:
[…] an unusual and especially in this repertoire well placed bass voice. It is forceful yet slender, strikingly agile and fluid, instrumental in the clarity of its lines, but with a timbre helpful for diction, and its range reaches unhindered from dark profondo notes to a relaxed top.
Staffan Liljas handles his unusual instrument throughout with a technical excess which includes both gracefully nuanced dynamics as well as distinct and vigorous coloraturas. His presentation has a enjoyable artistic presence with evocative changes in timbre and not least a stylistically accurate feeling for the seamless connection between serious penetrating declamation and fluid coloraturas which perhaps comes to its most pronounced use with the father figure Claudio Monteverdi with Ab æterno ordinata sum from 1640 and a posthumously published Laudate Dominum.
Detmar Huchting at Klassik Heute writes:
Staffan Liljas performs the vocal pieces with the extraordinary and consciensciously used beauty of his bass voice and with a subtle interpretation of the texts deeper meaning.
For all lovers of baroque music from the 17th century, this excellent cd should be another piece of the puzzle, lending further radiance to the collection.
Joakim Olsson Kruse at Kyrkomusikernas Tidning writes:
The bass Staffan Liljas releases his first solo-cd and has put together a flowing program which elegantly shows both the full colour palett of his voice and introduces us to the possibilities for virtuosic and intimate solo singing for bass voice in the generations before Bach and Handel.
Everything is extremely enjoyable, but the high point may be the concluding English anthems by Purcell, Blow and Turner. Is one given the sense that Staffan Liljas here is most on his home turf? Can additional dimensions of luster in the timbre and an even greater variation in interpretation and dynamics be sensed? In some of the English pieces he is joined by a euphonious vocal ensemble, which hightens the impression yet more. Congratulations to an elegant and tasteful solo debut!