SATURDAY - 7:30

Ballade

for Solo Piano (2005)
Dr. Kyle Adam Blair | Piano

"In this short piece I wanted to write music with a melody that grows out of the texture before descending into it again; a work that constantly shifts from a complex, multi-layered texture to concentrated single lines and back again.

Why Ballade? Manny asked specifi­cally for a piece bearing this title, and I wrote it for him in July 2005."

Kaija Saariaho

Calices

for Violin and Piano (2009)* West Coast Premiere
I.
II.
III.
Kate Hatmaker | Violin ~ Dr. Kyle Adam Blair | Piano

Calices for violin and piano is an adaptation of musical material from the violin concerto Graal théâtre, but also an original piece of chamber music.

About Graal Theatre, 1995:

"Graal théâtre (Grail theatre) takes its title from a book of the same name by Jacques Roubaud. While I was working on my violin concerto the book inspired me indirectly in two ways: firstly the title expresses the tension that I feel between the efforts of the composer when writing music and the theatrical aspect of a performance, espe­cially in the case of a concerto, where the soloist, both physi­cally and musically is playing a major role. Roubaud's inter­pre­tation of the old legend with its very personal example, also encouraged me to realise something that I had long found impos­sible: to bring an idea of the violin concerto, a genre with so many moving and skilful masterpieces, into my musical framework and language,

[…]

When compared to my other music, Graal théâtre is the exception in a long row of pieces in which I combine acoustic instru­ments with some kind of electronic extensions. Unlike these earlier works my starting point here was the delicate violin sound and its inter­action with an orchestra."

Kaija Saariaho
Paris, 1995

Vent Nocturne

for Viola and Electronics (2006)* West Coast Premiere
I. Sombres miroirs
II. Soupirs de l'obscur
Dr. Batya MacAdam-Somer | Viola ~ Bruce Bennett | Electronics

"The idea for Vent nocturne (Night Wind) first occurred to me while I was reading a bilingual edition on the poems of Georg Trakl. This synchronicity of the two languages – German and French – led me to muse on the rela­tionship between the viola and electronics.

The work is in two parts: "Sombres mirroirs" (Dark Mirrors) and "Soupirs de l'obscur" (Breaths of the Obscure). These, as their names suggest, focus first on symmet­rical thinking and then on the variation of the glissando, not unlike a sigh, that rounds off the phrases.

To me the sound of the viola has always suggested that of breathing, which, along with the wind, became a major element of the electronic part."

Kaija Saariaho

—Intermission—

Tocar

for Violin and Piano (2010)
Kate Hatmaker | Violin ~ Dr. Kyle Adam Blair | Piano

"One of my first ideas for Tocar, about the encounter of two instru­ments as different as the violin and piano, was the question: how could they touch each other?

Whilst composing music, I always imagine the instru­men­talist’s fingers and their sensi­tivity. The violin sounds are created by the collab­o­ration between the left hand and the bow controlled by the right hand. On the piano, the pianist should be extremely precise in order to control the moment when the fingers touch the keys, afterwards the sounds can be coloured only by the pedals. In spite of such different mecha­nisms, both instru­ments also have some common points, purely musical, noticeably they share some of the same register.

In Tocar both instru­ments move forward inde­pendently, but also keep an eye on each other. I imagine a magnetism becoming stronger and stronger – the piano part becomes more mobile – which draws the violin texture towards the piano writing culmi­nating in an encounter in unison. After this short moment of symbiosis, the violin line is released from the measured piano motion, continuing its own life outside the laws of gravity.

The title, in Spanish, translates as “to touch, to play”.

Tocar was commissioned by the Inter­na­tional Jean Sibelius Violin Compe­tition. The work was premiered by the 20 semi-finalists in Helsinki on the 26th, 27th, and 28th November 2010."

Kaija Saariaho
Paris, November 29th 2010

Je sens un deuxième coeur

for Piano, Viola and Cello (2003)
I. Je dévoile ma peau
II. Ouvre-moi, vite !
III. Dans le rêve, elle l'attendait
IV. Il faut que j'entre
V. Je sens un deuxième cœur qui bat tout près du mien
Dr. Kyle Adam Blair | Piano ~ Dr. Batya MacAdam-Somer | Viola ~ Eric Moore | Violoncello

"Je sens un deuxième cœur is a piece born in the middle of composing my second opera Adriana Mater. The title, as well as the names of the five sections, comes directly from Amin Maalouf's libretto.

My original idea was to write musical portraits of the four characters in the opera, but when I began reworking the material in the context of chamber music, concen­trating on devel­oping the ideas to fit the three instru­ments of my trio, the piece grew further from the opera.
Compo­si­tion­ally, I started from concrete, high profile ideas and advanced towards abstract, purely musical concerns. So, for example, the title of the first section, Je dévoile ma peau, became a metaphor: the musical material introduced was orchestrated to reveal the indi­vidual characters of the three instru­ments and their inter­re­lations. The second and fourth parts both start from ideas of physical violence.

In the context of this trio the violence has turned into two studies on instru­mental energy.
Part three is a colour study in which the three identities are melded into one complex sound object.

The last section brings us to the thematic starting point of my opera, again very physical: the two hearts beating in a pregnant woman’s body. I am fascinated by the idea of the secret rela­tionship between a mother and an unborn child. Musically, the two heartbeats and their constantly changing rhythmic polyphony have already served as an inspi­ration in my music; now the connections between the the two minds added another layer of commu­ni­cation.

These ideas guided the musical devel­opment how to share the intense dually-constructed material among the three trio instru­ments and to let it grow within their specific characters. Finally the title became also a metaphor for music making: isn’t it with the ‘other’ we want to commu­nicate through our music? As written over the last movement, Doloroso, sempre con amore."

Kaija Saariaho
2004

Trois Rivières - Delta

for Percussion and Electronics (1994)
I.
II.
III.
Dr. James Beauton | Percussion ~ Bruce Bennett | Electronics

Version for solo percus­sionist and electronics of Trois rivières for three percus­sionists. Note about the original:

"As the title suggests, Trois rivières is divided into three separate sections. The first part introduces all the instru­mental colours used in the piece. The rhythmic aspect is here nearly eliminated, giving room for the timbral scales, colours, resonances, attacks and textures to come to the fore. The instru­ments come from all members of the percussion family, but unpitched instru­ments are given a primary role.

The second part adds a rhythmic aspect to the nuances of colour and texture, as an ostinato is developed in markedly varying directions.

The last part is an epilogue, recalling compo­nents of the two preceding parts. Here, earlier aspects of the material are reor­ganised and placed in different rela­tionships to each other.

The voices of the percus­sionists act together as an extension of the instru­ments, being used to create either rhythmi­cally free textures or strictly notated rhythms. They are treated instru­men­tally, combining to create rhythms and timbres. The poem La nuit de lune sur le fleuve' (Moonlit night on the river) by the Chinese poet Li Po (701-762) constitutes the material for the voices, which are amplified and further enhanced throughout."

Kaija Saariaho