Album of the Week: Saariaho x Koh, by Jennifer Koh & Kaija Saariaho

Our new ALBUM OF THE WEEK is...

Saariaho x Koh, 

by Jennifer Koh & Kaija Saariaho

Follow Kaija Saariaho: Website | Instagram | Facebook 

Follow Jennifer Koh: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook 
Follow Cedille Records: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook 

Happy listening!

About the album:

Jennifer Koh, a “brilliant violinist” (The New Yorker) who performs with “conviction, ferocity, and an irresistible sense of play” (Washington Post), showcases works by Kaija Saariaho, the visionary and much-honored Finnish composer with whom Koh has closely collaborated and feels a deep personal bond.

The album offers the world-premiere recording of Saariaho’s Light and Matter for violin, cello, and piano, inspired by sunlit colors and shadows in a city park outside the composer’s window. Also receiving its first recording is the violin and cello version of Aure, meaning a gentle breeze, created for and dedicated to Koh and cellist Anssi Karttunen, another champion of Saariaho’s music.

Read the complete review on Cedille's page

SEPTEMBER 02

DOLORES WHITE - USA 

Born 02 September

More about her

Find scores by Dolores White:

LUCY ARMSTRONG - LATVIA

Born 02 September

More about her

Find scores by Lucy Armstrong:

 Check here last year's composers of the day

Album of the Week #18: Kaija Saariaho: True Fire, Trans & Ciel d'hiver

Check out our new ALBUM OF THE WEEK! 

Each week, we will post a different album that will make your Wednesday way easier! This week, listen to:

Kaija Saariaho: True Fire, Ciel d'hiver & Trans (Live)

About the album:

Kaija Saariaho (b. 1952) is among the most prominent names in contemporary music scene today. This new album by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hannu Lintu includes world première recordings of three works by Saariaho featuring bass-baritone Gerald Finley and harpist Xavier de Maistre as soloists. True Fire is a six-movement song cycle that was written to a commission from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the NDR Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre National de France, for baritone Gerald Finley with an original idea to explore the scope of the baritone voice. 

The texts conclusively determined what the vocal expression would be like and how the details in the musical material would shape up. The disparate texts chosen by Saariaho in fact have a common underlying theme: the status of humankind surrounded by nature, our observations of it and our belonging to it. Saariaho’s orchestral triptych Orion (2002) is one of her most performed works. Orion as a celestial phenomenon is showcased in the middle movement, Winter Sky. In 2013, Saariaho rescored this movement for a smaller orchestra, and to distinguish it from the original she gave it a title in French with the same meaning, Ciel d’hiver. It joins the series of works by Saariaho that are in one way or another inspired by things in sky and space. Trans for harp and orchestra is the composer’s latest addition to a series of concertos. It was written to a joint commission from the Suntory Foundation for Arts, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, Radio France and the Hessen Radio Orchestra. The premiere was given by Xavier de Maistre in Tokyo in August 2016.

Source: Naxos Direct

Follow Kaija Saariaho:

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK

Follow Hannu Lintu:
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER

Follow Gerald Finley:
WEBSITE | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM

Follow Xavier de Maistre:
WEBSITE

Follow Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra:
WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | TWITTER

APRIL 29

MARY ANN GRIEBLING - USA
Born 29 April

More about her

Find scores by Mary Ann Griebling:

ANA GIURGIU-BONDUE - ROMANIA
Born 29 April

More about her

Find scores by Ana Giurgiu-Bondue:

 Check here last year's composers of the day

14 OCTOBER 2019

KAIJA SAARIAHO - FINLAND

BORN 14 OCTOBER

Kaija Anneli Saariaho (born 14 October 1952) is a Finnish composer based in Paris, France.

Saariaho studied composition in Helsinki, Freiburg, and Paris, where she has lived since 1982. Her research at the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music (IRCAM) marked a turning point in her music away from strict serialism towards spectralism. Her characteristically rich, polyphonic textures are often created by combining live music and electronics.

During the course of her career, Saariaho has received commissions from the Lincoln Center for the Kronos Quartet and from IRCAM for the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the BBC, the New York Philharmonic, the Salzburg Music Festival, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, and the Finnish National Opera, among others.

Her work in the 1980s and 1990s was marked by an emphasis on timbre and the use of electronics alongside traditional instruments. Nymphéa (Jardin secret III) (1987), for example, is for string quartet and live electronics and contains an additional vocal element: the musicians whisper the words of an Arseny Tarkovsky poem, Now Summer is Gone. In writing Nymphea, Saariaho used a fractal generator to create material.

Source: Wikipedia and Kaija Saariaho Official Website

♫ LISTEN

Spins and Spells by Kaija Saariaho

➺ Find out more about Kaija Saariaho

EVELIN SEPPAR - ESTONIA
BORN 14 OCTOBER

Evelin Seppar (b. 1986) is currently living and working in Tallinn, Estonia. She has written for solo instruments, various ensembles, solo voice, choir and orchestra, but she is most passionate about vocal and choral music. She has studied at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (Toivo Tulev, Helena Tulve) and at the Academy of Music of Drama (Ole Lützow-Holm), University of Gothenburg. Evelin has been receiving an increasing number of performances around the world with groups like the Netherlands Chamber Choir, Norwegian Soloists’ choir, Latvian Radio Choir and Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. Her music has been performed in Europe, China and the U.S.

Seppar has written for solo instruments, various ensembles, solo voice, orchestra and electronics and made different arrangements. She has foremost caught attention as an author of choral music. Psalm of David No. 88 received a special prize at the composition competition organised by Estonian Composers’ Union and Pirita Monastery in 2010. Brother in Trouble won the main prize at the competition of choral songs and arrangements in Võro language 2011. Sonnet No. 53 was on the program of the new music festival Arēna in Latvia in 2012. Near was selected on eof the winning works at the Ortus International New Music Competition in the USA. 

Her most extensive works so far are the opera Teine (premiere in Tallinn St. Nicholas’s Church in 2012), opera Icarus (premiere in Amsterdam Conservatory in 2014), Lighthouse for vocal ensemble and two instrumentalists (premiere in Nantes in 2014) and Cities for vocal ensemble (premiere in Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw in 2016).

Source: Evelin Seppar Official Website and Emic

♫ LISTEN

Igaüks üksi, seisavad by Evelin Seppar

➺ Find out more about Evelin Seppar