KAIJA SAARIAHO (b.1952): Notes on Light for Cello and Orchestra, Orion for Orchestra, Mirage for Soprano, Cello and Orchestra.
Catalogue Number: 09L099
Label: Ondine
Reference: ODE 1130-2
Format: CD
Price: $15.98
Description: The fantastical five-movement Notes finds Saariaho in her element. The piece centers around a mercurial, highly virtuosic cello solo part, which acts as a source of light, - now intense, searing; now luminescent, casting mysterious shadows - which is then reflected, refracted, diffused, intensified or softened and defocused through interaction with the shimmering, fluid orchestral textures. Orion concerns the hunter of Greek mythology, all action and unruly energy, and the eternal constellation named for him, static and of cosmic dimensions. The music is thus in constant tension between dense, static blocks of sound, and frenzied, restless motion. Mirage sets gnomic, trance-induced utterances of the Mexican shaman Maria Sabina, using the combination of voice and solo cello as a kind of expanded soloist, the two parts constantly interweaving and illuminating each other. The orchestra contributes an image of landscape, hallucinatory, shimmerig heat and blinding light. Texts included. Karita Mattila (soprano), Anssi Karttunen (cello), Orchestre de Paris; Christoph Eschenbach.