By Sebastian Spreng, Visual Artist and Classical Music Writer

The voice knows no borders or nationality; neither does the soul. Bernarda Fink brings worlds together with hers, a voice of endless nuances and facets that above all, reflects “soul.” Whether it’s Schubert or Piazzolla, Bach or Berlioz, she captivates through her nobility, elegance and exquisiteness, a rara avis among today’s exceptional lyric mezzo-sopranos. She occupies a privileged position among them. Bernarda was born and educated in Buenos Aires in a Slovenian family to which music is as essential as bread. Her siblings, singers Verónica and Marcos, are her most closely related “colleagues.” Bernarda went to Europe in 1986, where she established herself as a preeminent lyric mezzo in opera and concert. Surprisingly, though a profuse discography precedes her, she only started performing in the United States in the last few years. After her belated debuts in New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Tanglewood, the distinguished singer connects with us from Chicago, where she is performing prior to her Nov 16-17 Miami debut as soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra in Mahler’s colossal Third Symphony. Bernarda Fink

Sebastian Spreng: Your upcoming Miami debut is somewhat belated, isn’t it? Bernarda Fink: I’m always late for everything. I’m a late bloomer! It has its advantages: you enjoy everything even more than expected. I am immensely grateful for my career, because I never set out to achieve so much, nor expected it. I never imagined that I would sing with Muti or Gardiner, or as in this case, with Bernard Haitink and the Chicago Orchestra, whose perfection leaves me breathless. I’m so fortunate. I live in a continuous state of “I can’t believe it!”

SS: You are the only famous singer who doesn’t have a web page. BF: Do you need it? Is it necessary? I’m so shy and introverted that I don’t quite get this excess of communication. One to one, that’s a different story.

SS: From Monteverdi to Mahler, your international career has displayed amazing natural development. BF: I must say that before the baroque style for which I became know, in that marvelous Buenos Aires of the Teatro Colón where I trained, I sang everything and Mahler was already a vital part of my repertoire. However, I was the first to be surprised by this embrace of early music, somewhat like an unplanned pregnancy. It happened and I asked myself, “And now what do I do with this?” Later, I was grateful to life for having granted me that.

SS: Should we call it “The Abduction of Bernarda”? BF: Precisely. It was René Jacobs who helped me “make friends” with this music. He taught me, he modeled me. It was an incredible process. Now I see it was a marvelous impasse. With the exception of Bach, I no longer sing baroque.

SS: Later came Nikolaus Harnoncourt. BF: I adore him. He doesn’t conduct notes, but rather what’s inside. He goes straight as an arrow to the essence of the music. The depth of his knowledge is overwhelming. I have never once sung with him without experiencing an epiphany, without a “how come I didn’t think of this before?””

SS: Even in the controversial recording of Verdi’s Requiem? BF: They are subjective visions, valid efforts. Just as in Beethoven’s Misa Solemnis, the orchestral mass is enormous, but voice solos require a chamber-music approach. A heavy voice with, for instance, ample vibrato tends to unbalance a quartet. A lighter, more concentrated voice in most cases can carry the message better.

SS: How is it that you sing music as different as Slavic and Argentine so well? BF: You sing better in your native tongue, and my roots are in those two. There’s something you release then, something genuine that crosses all barriers. I love to sing Dvorák’s Biblical Songs as I love to sing Argentinian or Spanish Songs [Fink’s American Tour coincides with the release of her new CD Canciones Españolas – HM 902133]

SS: It sometimes happens that Hispanic singers are unintelligible in their native tongue. BF: Perhaps it’s because we don’t ground ourselves sufficiently in popular song. Even when some famous singers sing Carlos Guastavino or Astor Piazzolla they seem to become inhibited, focusing more on the voice than on the words. And I might not be exempted!  To sing in Spanish, you have to look to role models like Victoria de los Ángeles. I would like the audience to forget my voice and immerse themselves in the words. I want to be just the vehicle, the instrument.

SS: Your models? BF: Victoria de los Ángeles, Teresa Berganza and Christa Ludwig, that unique “voice of chocolate” as I like to call her. And who can forget the emotion in Kathleen Ferrier’s voice?

SS: Do you make room for opera? BF: Very little now. The concert hall, the recital, make me happier, and I choose happiness.

SS: How do you balance the role of singer with the wife of a high rank diplomat? BF: As best I can. My husband is theHigh Representative of the International Community in Sarajevo. We work apart and meet up at our home in the South of Austria or in Vienna, where our children, ages 22 and 19, study. Alas, we can’t accompany or even see each other as much as we would like, but we always manage to cross paths.

SS: Your favorite audience and concert hall? BF: It depends on many factors. The Viennese are somewhat reticent, but once you win them over, they show you incomparable warmth. I love the Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Vienna’s Musikverein. And of course, London’s Wigmore Hall and its formidable audience so educated that it provides artists a blessed degree of silence you could cut with a knife.

SS: Coincidentally, this year you were chosen as “Resident Artist of 2012” at Wigmore Hall. BF: It’s a great honor. It enables me to choose my own programs and accompanists. I sing Schumann, Wolf, Schubert, a recital with my brother (baritone Marcos Fink) and lots of Mahler as a prelude to a huge Mahler recording project with Harmonia Mundi next year.

SS: What surprises you now most about the singing world? BF: That so many young people want to sing. It impresses and comforts me to see art flourish in times of crisis. It’s an oasis where you can open your soul and open up to the most intimate, to life itself. And it gives me confidence, because great music will survive everything and in spite of everything. This great music will be around for long time, I am sure.

SS: Today’s standards are very high, but they evidence a certain depersonalization. BF: Because too much stress on technical perfection can lead to lack of depth. We are currently imprisoned, caged, subjected to constant comparison with other recordings, literally haunted by the legacy of legendary singers. When you concentrate so much on detail, there is always a small chance you can – alas – leave your soul behind.

SS: Then, are lyrics or music more important? BF: Both, together. In music, the ideas and feelings that underlie the words are paramount.

SS: As in the “O Man, take heed!” by Friedrich Nietzche that Mahler used as text in his Third Symphony. BF: In the certainty that joy is greater than sorrow, that the beauty of life is greater than its anguish and suffering. That is the source of its enduring relevance.

Nov 16-17 at 8pm; The Cleveland Orchestra; Franz Welser-Möst, conductor; Bernarda Fink, mezzo-soprano; University of Miami Frost Symphonic Women’s Chorus, Women of the Master Chorale of South Florida & Miami Children’s Chorus

Bernarda Fink selected discography

•  Bach – Cantatas – HM 902016
• Berlioz: Nuits D’Eté, Ravel – HM 901932
•  Brahms Lieder – HM 901926
• Dvorák Lieder – HM 901824
• Gluck – Orfeo &  Euridice – HM 901742
•  Schubert Lieder – HM 901991
• Schumann Lieder – HM 501753
• Canciones Argentinas – HM 901892
• Canciones Españolas – HM 902133
• Bach’s Magnificat – Esurientes Implevit – Nikolaus Harnoncourt