Kaija Saariaho
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Kaija Saariaho (1952) ODE 1049-2 Cinq reflets de L’Amour de loin Five Reflections on Love from Afar (2001) 29:28 1 I Outremer 6:24 2 II Songe 5:05 3 III L’Amour de loin 7:25 4 IV Si la mort pouvait attendre 5:32 5 V Vers toi qui es si loin 5:01 Nymphea Reflection (2001) 21:40 6 I Sostenuto 3:32 7 II Feroce 3:39 Kaija Saariaho 8 III Dolcissimo 4:15 9 IV Lento espressivo 3:17 10 V Furioso 3:56 11 VI Misterioso 3:02 Cinq reflets de L’Amour de loin Oltra mar / Across the Sea (1998–1999) 21:53 Nymphea Reflection 12 I Départ 4:38 13 II Amour 3:05 Oltra mar 14 III Vagues 2:18 15 IV Temps 3:39 16 V Souvenir de vagues 1:10 17 VI Mort (In memory of Gérard Grisey) 3:38 18 VII Arrivée 3:25 [73:21] Pia Freund, soprano (1, 2, 4, 5) Pia Freund Gabriel Suovanen, baritone (2–4) Gabriel Suovanen Tapiola Chamber Choir (12–18) Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra Tapiola Chamber Choir Jukka-Pekka Saraste Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra Hannu Norjanen, chorus master Jukka-Pekka Saraste Kaija Saariaho (1952) ODE 1049-2 Cinq reflets de L’Amour de loin Five Reflections on Love from Afar (2001) 29:28 1 I Outremer 6:24 2 II Songe 5:05 3 III L’Amour de loin 7:25 4 IV Si la mort pouvait attendre 5:32 5 V Vers toi qui es si loin 5:01 Nymphea Reflection (2001) 21:40 6 I Sostenuto 3:32 7 II Feroce 3:39 Kaija Saariaho 8 III Dolcissimo 4:15 9 IV Lento espressivo 3:17 10 V Furioso 3:56 11 VI Misterioso 3:02 Cinq reflets de L’Amour de loin Oltra mar / Across the Sea (1998–1999) 21:53 Nymphea Reflection 12 I Départ 4:38 13 II Amour 3:05 Oltra mar 14 III Vagues 2:18 15 IV Temps 3:39 16 V Souvenir de vagues 1:10 17 VI Mort (In memory of Gérard Grisey) 3:38 18 VII Arrivée 3:25 [73:21] Pia Freund, soprano (1, 2, 4, 5) Pia Freund Gabriel Suovanen, baritone (2–4) Gabriel Suovanen Tapiola Chamber Choir (12–18) Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra Tapiola Chamber Choir Jukka-Pekka Saraste Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra Hannu Norjanen, chorus master Jukka-Pekka Saraste 1049_Booklet_Korjaus 31.8.2004 12:59 Sivu 2 Cinq reflets de Countess sings of longing. In the second L’Amour de loin (Act IV, Scene 2), the Troubadour When Kaija Saariaho had come around recounts a dream where he saw his distant to the idea of writing an opera, she beloved and heard her voice. decided that it would be about love and The third reflection, L’Amour de loin, is death. Premiered in Salzburg in 2000, one of the key scenes of the opera. In the L’Amour de loin (Love from Afar) treats stage version, the Pilgrim sings to the its subject abstractly, with no great Countess a love song written by the external drama. Troubadour. In Cinq reflets, this has been Cinq reflets de L’Amour de loin (Five transposed to the baritone range, i.e. to be Reflections on Love from Afar), written sung by the Troubadour himself. The to a commission from the Stockholm orchestra stops to listen to the captivating Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 2002, melody, which transports the listener consists of material adapted from five momentarily to the Medieval world. scenes in the opera. It is a symphonic The fourth part is from Act V, the final song cycle in its own right, a reflection act of the opera. Here, love and death of love, nostalgia and fulfilment. meet at last. The Troubadour has decided The opera is based on a libretto by to make the voyage to Tripoli, but he falls Amin Maalouf and features three ill on the way and dies in his beloved’s characters: a 12th-century troubadour arms. The final part in the cycle is the named Jaufré Rudel living in Blaye near epilogue of the opera, with the Countess Bordeaux and writing love poems to an in a convent. Her prayer is a praise to imaginary lady (baritone), a Countess in the almighty and also a declaration of Tripoli (soprano), and a Pilgrim (mezzo) worldly love. The highest form of love is wandering between Blaye and Tripoli, the belief in its fulfilment, not the between West and East, who tells the fulfilment itself. The finite and the troubadour that his imagined object of infinite are, ultimately, one and the same. pure love actually exists. In the first part of the cycle, the 2 1049_Booklet_Korjaus 31.8.2004 12:59 Sivu 3 Nymphea Reflection Because of the larger ensemble, it was Electronics has always played an important possible to replace the electronics with part in the music of Kaija Saariaho. She instrumental effects. The work contains often creates dreamlike soundscapes with sequences based on spectral analysis and computer tools and uses echoes to change microintervals; the effect is that of the listener’s perception of space. electronic music rather than instrumental Sometimes she uses the computer to delve music, true to the composer’s desire of deep into a single note, finding enough transporting the listener to another world material to generate an entire work. beyond everyday experiences. Nymphea Reflection stems from Nymphea Reflection is divided into six Nymphea, a work written for the Kronos sections, each based on a different type of Quartet (USA) and electronics 14 years texture. They each reveal a particular aspect earlier. The composer used the computer of Kaija Saariaho’s personal idiom in in many ways in the creation of this work, writing for string instruments. At times, she for instance basing the entire harmonic works with a Ligetian mass in a constant material of the work on an analysis of a state of internal change, while elsewhere single abrasive note played on the cello. she creates kinetic energy by modulating The work also provokes strong extra- the tension between clear sounds and noise. musical associations. Its title alludes to a In the final section, she adds one more painting of water lilies by Claude Monet. element, a poem by Arseni Tarkovsky The composer was fascinated by the about the longing of humans for something symmetrical structure of the plant and indefinite, something richer than worldly by the metamorphic processes created as existence. The mood of the text is matched water ripples constantly shift the leaves by the music, but the words do not here into new positions. The slow gradual convey meaning; instead, they generate change of melodic and rhythmic motifs sonority. Words, images and computer is a key feature of the work. software have sunk beneath the surface and Nymphea Reflection is different in generated pure music. nature from the underlying quartet. 3 1049_Booklet_Korjaus 31.8.2004 12:59 Sivu 4 Oltra mar composer Gérard Grisey, who died while Before writing her opera, Kaija Saariaho she was working on this piece. Grisey was wrote a number of works that somehow one of the main developers of the addressed the domain of the opera that exploitation of tonal colour known as she was going to write. Oltra mar spectral music in the 1970s and 1980s, and (‘Across the sea’ in old French) is about an important influence for the young Kaija a voyage, a symbol of Man’s attempt to Saariaho, who subsequently developed understand the universe. Grisey’s ideas further. Death always follows Written for the New York Philharmonic life. And the voyage goes on for ever. in 1998–1999, the work is divided into © Risto Nieminen, 2004 seven movements, encompassing the Translation: Jaakko Mäntyjärvi whole of human existence between departure and arrival. The choir is included in all movements, but only the Kaija Saariaho (b. 1952) is today second, fourth and sixth movements have one of the world’s most significant text. The texts are brief meditations on contemporary composers. love, time and death. The vocalized She has received several internationally movements are voyages and evocations of distinguished awards, most recently the the sea, the origin of life, and also act as Grawemeyer Composition Award for her bridges between the principal movements. opera L’amour de loin in 2003. In 1997, The texts are widely separated in time she was awarded the title Chevalier à and space, but the music knits them l’ordre des Arts et Lettres in France. together. The music is heavy, as befits Kaija Saariaho has been commissioned the subject: the ponderous rolling of the by the BBC, Ircam, the New York ocean, heralding the birth and death of Philharmonic, the Lincoln Center in human life. It links Man to the infinite New York, the Salzburg Music Festival, universe and the order of nature. the Théâtre de Châtelet in Paris and the Kaija Saariaho dedicated the sixth Finnish National Opera, among others. movement to the memory of French Saariaho frequently draws inspiration 4 1049_Booklet_Korjaus 31.8.2004 12:59 Sivu 5 Kaija Saariaho 5 1049_Booklet_Korjaus 31.8.2004 12:59 Sivu 6 from extra-musical sources, be they the night sky, the natural environment or literature. Saariaho studied music and fine arts in parallel before taking up composition, the latter at the graphic arts department of the University of Art and Design Helsinki. She studied composition with Paavo Heininen at the Sibelius Academy from 1976 to 1981 and continued with Brian Ferneyhough at the Freiburg Music Academy, completing her diploma in 1983.