As that of her near-contemporary
colleague Magnus Lindberg, Saariaho's music has been fairly well
served in terms of commercial recordings, at first on Finlandia
and now on Ondine. The disc under review offers three recent works
composed between 2002 and 2007 in recordings that do full justice
to the composer's refined and often arresting sound world. A
common feature shared by these works is that none of them mixes
live sounds and electronics.
Some time ago I
reviewed another live recording of
Orion (Warner Classics 2564 61952-2)
- readers are best referred to that
review
. Suffice it to say that Orion is Saariaho's
largest orchestral work so far. It is in three movements :
Memento mori,
Winter Sky and
Hunter.
Notes on Light is Saariaho's second cello concerto, the
first one being
Amers composed in 1992. A recording of it is available
on Sony SK 60817 which I reviewed here several years ago. Light has always been
important to the composer and one of her early works was
Lichtbogen (roughly "Northern Lights").
Notes on Light is in five movements and the title of
each movement more or less hints at what to expect of the music :
Translucent,
secret; On fire; Awakening; Eclipse and
Heart of Light.
Incidentally, the title of the fifth movement comes from a few lines from T.S.
Eliot's
The Waste Land. "… I could not/Speak, and my eyes failed, I was
neither/Living or dead, and I knew nothing/Looking into the heart of light, the
silence". The mostly mysterious first movement is followed by some sort of
devilish Scherzo.
Awakening is a rather longer and more developed
movement with some more emphasis on lyrical lines and warmer orchestral
colours.
Eclipse is a short, static section in which the soloist is
momentarily silent. The final movement begins somewhat tentatively, but
textures open-up with a downward motif variously repeated throughout the
movement, whereas the music remains mysterious till reaching the unresolved
coda. The fairly large orchestral forces are often used sparingly but with
Saariaho's typical refinement to telling effect. The fiendishly difficult solo
part was tailor-made for Karttunen's artistry. Karttunen navigates almost
effortlessly throughout this demanding but ultimately highly rewarding and
beautiful work. I firmly believe that
Notes on Light is one of
the finest cello concertos that I have heard recently and one that
often brought Dutilleux's own concerto to mind; and this I mean as
a compliment.
A double concerto
for voice, cello and orchestra,
Mirage sets words by the
trance-induced incantations of the Mexican shaman and healer María
Sabina, albeit sung in English translation. Although the opening
promises much, I found this work somewhat less gripping than the
others here. I would be tempted to say that the setting of these
mescal-fuelled incantations is a bit too "clean", too polished to
do full justice to the surreal character of the words and that it
would have made more impact if set in a raw, Varèse-like
incantatory manner. This is nevertheless a fine work in the rather
limited repertoire of double concertos for voice and
instrument.
In spite of this
minor reservation about
Mirage, this is a splendid release that
does Saariaho's refined, subtle and often quite beautiful music
full justice. The recording is up to this label's finest standards
and one hardly notices that these are live recordings. This superb
release is a most valuable and rewarding addition to Saariaho's
growing discography that should not be missed.
Hubert
Culot
Karita Mattila (soprano: Mirage);
Anssi Karttunen (cello: Notes, Mirage)
