Sunday - 1:00
Sept Papillons
for Solo Cello (2000)
I. - II. - III. - IV. - V. - VI. - VII.
Leighton Fong | Violoncello
Sept papillons was the first piece Saariaho wrote after her opera L’Amour de loin, and it was partly written during the rehearsals of the opera in Salzburg. One can sense the desire to find a new world, which has nothing to do with the opera neither in style nor in language. From the metaphors of the opera which all have an eternal quality—love, yearning, and death—she moved now to a metaphor of the ephemeral: butterfly. Also, from the long times-spans of the opera she moved to these seven miniatures, which each seem to be studies on a different aspect of fragile and ephemeral movement that has no beginning or end.
Sept papillons was commissioned by the Rudolf Steiner Foundation and was first performed by Anssi Karttunen in Helsinki in September 2000.
Bon Vent
for Solo Violin (2018)** US Premiere
Anna Presler | Violin
Suzanne Gessner (1952-2020) was an important and much-loved French violin pedagogue. The piece was written for her retirement festivities and premiered at that occasion on June 16, 2018 by Aliisa Neige Barrière at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris (CRR)'s Auditorium Marcel Landowski.
"Bon vent ! (Fair winds!) is somethinig Suzanne Gessner often says to her students, instead of good bye or good luck, when sending them out kindly towards new musical adventures. When the director of Paris' Regional Conservatoire, Xavier Delette, proposed I greet Suzanne with my music, the sunny and optimistic atmosphere of these words inspired me for this piece, imagining a wind, often light and flexible, but sometimes also more heavy or impetuous, which carried so many young violinists towards their future. And I was happy to find myself with Aliisa [Neige Barrière], one of those students, around this project, which thus became our common gift: Dear Suzanne, Fair winds!"
Kaija Saariaho, Paris, June 16, 2018
Duft
for Solo Clarinet (2012)* West Coast Premiere
I. Blütenstaub
II. Blühend
III. Flüchtig
Dr. Curt Miller | Clarinet
Duft (Scent) for solo clarinet received its world premiere at the International Clarinet Competition Freiburg, Germany on 28 July 2012. Composer and clarinetist Jörg Widmann had asked Kaija Saariaho to write the piece for the final round of the competition.
Duft, a colourful and expressive piece, exploring the lyrical abilities of the instrument consists of three movements entitled: "Blütenstaub" (Pollen), "Blühend" (Blossoming), and "Flüchtig" (Fleeting).
Duft was also a repertoire piece at the Beijing Music Competition in May 2013.
—Intermission—
Dolce Tormento
for Solo Piccolo (2004)* West Coast Premiere
Dr. Michael Matsuno | Piccolo
With a duration of 5 to 6 minutes, Dolce Tormento is relatively short, but, as the title suggests, full of „sweet torment“ in the character of the music. The text is from a sonnet of Petrarch, reprinted below in the original as well as in various translations.
But there are also „sweet torments“ for the player! Kaija chose the piccolo for this piece because we had not yet explored combining voice with this instrument. Both the high range and limited resonance of the piccolo, as well as the nature of the Italian language posed new challenges in developing a musical polyphony.
Of all her flute works this is the most freely notated, and interpretation is a further challenge, especially for flutists not familiar with Kaija Saariaho’s musical language. I, of course, am steeped in it, and since she was writing for me, writing rather quickly besides, the score is more or less in „shorthand“, which she knew I’d be able to understand.
The usual Saariaho vocabulary is present: air sounds, controlled vibrato, glissandi, trills, multiphonics, use of the voice and layers and transitions of all these. But there are no bar lines, no tempo markings beyond „rit. A tempo“ (three times on the last page), no dynamics, and a minimum of musical instructions: „Sempre dolce, espressivo, libero“ at the beginning, then „piu agitato“, „molto rubato, espressivo“ and „calando“ toward the end. Traditional notation is used for the rhythmic values of the pitches, but the way the notes are spread out on the staff plus the way the phrases of the text are inserted without indication of duration suggests more a „spacetime“ notation/interpretation than in her other scores.
Two further hints toward interpretation appear in the printed score under „Performance Notes“: „One characteristic of this piece is an unstable playing between octaves, with the desired sound vacillating freely between the octaves with frangile expression.“
„The text should always be recited between whispering and sotto voce, in such a way that the given pitch resonates either as air or tone.“ -- K.S.
Camilla Hoitenga
S'amor non è, che dunque è quel ch' io sento?
Ma s'egli è amor, per Dio, che cosa e quale?
Se bona, ond'èl'effetto aspro mortale?
Se ria, ond'è si dolce ogni tormento?
S'a mia voglia ardo, ond'è 'l pianto e lamento?
S'a mal mio grado, il lamentar che vale?
O viva morte, o dilettoso male,
come puoi tanto in me, s'io no 'l consento?
E s'io 'l consento, a gran torto mi doglio.
Fra si contrari venti in frale barca
mi trovo in alto mar, senza governo,
si lieve di saver, d'error si carca
ch' i' medesmo non so quel ch' io mi voglio,
e tremo a mezza state, ardendo il verno.
Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)
Étincelles
for Solo Cello (2007)** US Premiere
Eric Moore | Violoncello
Étincelles ("Sparks") was composed for cellist Alexis Descharmes, who on the occasion of his 30th birthday commissioned and premiered 30 short pieces for solo cello.
Kaija Saariaho extracted the musical material for this miniature from her then recently premiered cello concerto Notes on Light, namely its second movement "On Fire".
Étincelles was premiered by Alexis Descharmes on his birthday concert on March 3, 2007, at the Amphithéâtre de la Cité de la musique in Paris.
Lullaby
for Solo Cello (2020)
Leighton Fong | Violoncello
Lullaby was composed in reaction to the passing of composer Oliver Knussen in the summer of 2018, and is dedicated to his memory. It combines a lullaby melody and material from Tarantella, a short cello piece Knussen wrote for Kaija Saariaho’s 50th birthday in 2002.
In the words of their mutual friend Anssi Karttunen, who premiered it: "The piece is a meeting of two characters, two moods, two very different composers. It is a celebration of how opposites attract, and how the passing of a friend provokes multiple emotions from sadness to reflection, even anger."
Lullaby was premiered by Anssi Karttunen on November 16, 2019, at Villa Mairea, Noormarkku, Finland.
Oi Kuu
for Bass Clarinet and Cello (1990)* West Coast Premiere
Dr. Curt Miller | Clarinet ~ Eric Moore | Violoncello
"This version for bass flute and cello of Oi kuu was born in 1993 out of my desire to bring together two musicians with whom I had worked extensively separately: flautist Camilla Hoitenga and Anssi Karttunen. The flute part is vastly different from the original clarinet part, often replacing the multiphonics with the combination of the playing mode with the voice in the instrument, and other peculiarities of playing this instrument. This version is dedicated to Camilla and Anssi.
Oi kuu (Oh moon, 1990) marks a small break between two large orchestral works, Du Cristal and …à la Fumée. It consists of elements which came to my mind when searching for a common denominator for bass clarinet and cello; harmony based on multiphonies of the clarinet; the multiphonies and colour transformations of the cello; similar and different articulations; different colours in the same register.
Oi kuu was written at the request of Kari Kriikku and Anssi Karttunen and is dedicated to them."
Kaija Saariaho
あかあかやあかあかあかやあかあかやあかあかあかやあかあかや月
bright so bright bright bright so bright bright so bright bright bright so bright bright so bright oh moon
Myōe (1173–1232)Du Cristal and ... à la Fumée Du Cristal and ... à la Fumée
Aure
for Violin and Cello (2011)** US Premiere
Anna Presler | Violin ~ Leighton Fong | Violoncello
"Shadows of Time in five episodes for orchestra by Henri Dutilleux is a work that I particularly admire. It is a rich and extraordinarily shaped composition. I find the third movement, "Mémoire des ombres" (Memories of Shadows) deeply moving in its subject (the text is a sentence from Anne Frank’s diary: "Why us, why the star?"), in its dedication – "for Anne Frank and for all the children in the world, all innocent (1945-1995)" – and in its unforgettable compositional mastery.
I took a phrase, the first one sung by the child’s voice, as a point of departure for my little homage because it has often come to my mind since 1998, the year I first heard the work.
I wrote this piece originally as an homage to Henri Dutilleux’s 95th birthday.
The present version for violin and cello has been created for Jennifer Koh and Anssi Karttunen, and is dedicated for them.
Aure, physics, old word. Breeze, breath, air:
We were caressed by a gentle breeze that our ancient language called "aure"; a kind of delicate morning breeze, misty and scented in the dew. (Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'outre-tombe)"Kaija Saariaho