Composers
Kaija Saariaho
© Ralph Mecke
Born: 1952
Kaija Saariaho is a prominent member of a group of Finnish composers and performers who are now, in mid-career, making a worldwide impact. She studied composition in Helsinki, Freiburg and Paris, where she has lived since 1982. Her studies and research at IRCAM have had a major influence on her music and her characteristically luxuriant and mysterious textures are often created by combining live music and electronics. Although much of her catalogue comprises chamber works, from the mid-nineties she has turned increasingly to larger forces and broader structures, such as the operas L’Amour de loin and Adriana Mater and the oratorio La Passion de Simone.
For a complete biography, click here.
Key Works: - Nymphéa
(1987; string quartet, electronics) - Du Cristal
(1989; orchestra, live electronics) - Graal Théâtre
(1994; violin, orchestra) - L’Amour de loin
(2000; opera) - Orion (2002; orchestra)
- Quatre Instants (2002; soprano, orchestra)
- Adriana Mater (2005; opera)
- La Passion de Simone (2006; soprano, SATB, orchestra)
- Notes on Light (2006; cello, orchestra)
- Mirage (2007; cello, soprano, orchestra)
- Emilie (2008; opera)
- D'OM LE VRAI SENS (2010; clarinet, orchestra)
| Career Highlights: - 1976-81 studies composition with Paavo Heinen at the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki
- 1986 awarded Kranichsteiner Prize at Darmstadt
- 1989 awarded Ars Electronica Prize for Stilleben and Io; one year residency at the University of San Diego
- 1991 composition of ballet music Maa, premiered by Finnish National Ballet
- 2003 awarded the Grawemeyer Prize for L’Amour de loin
- 2006 premiere of Adriana Mater, Bastille Opera
- 2007 awarded Nemmers prize in music composition
- 2008 Composer-in-Residence, Mostly Mozart, Lincoln Center, New York
- 2009 awarded Wihuri Sibelius Prize
- 2011 awarded the prestigious Léonie Sonning Music Prize
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Critical Acclaim: Simply unadorned and crystal-clear – Kaija Saariaho’s Love From Afar is modern opera at its most beautiful. — Liisamaija Hautsalo, Finnish Music Quarterly
It is rare when a new work sounds completely convincing and lucid at first hearing; thanks to Saraste and Karttunen, that was the case with Notes on Light. — The Boston Herald
Saariaho’s Lines are not only expressive and singable but immaculately clear. — Richard Morrison, The Times
Terra Memoria, a masterful new 15-minute string quartet by Finnish-born Kaija Saariaho. She is, quite simply, one of the most original compositional voices of our time. — Kyle MacMillan, Denver Post
Full Biography:
Kaija Saariaho is a prominent member of a group of Finnish composers and performers who are now, in mid-career, making a worldwide impact. Born in Helsinki in 1952, she studied at the Sibelius Academy there with the pioneering modernist Paavo Heininen and, with Magnus Lindberg and others, she founded the progressive ‘Ears Open’ group. She continued her studies in Freiburg with Brian Ferneyhough and Klaus Huber, at the Darmstadt summer courses, and, from 1982, at the IRCAM research institute in Paris – the city which has been her home ever since.
At IRCAM, Saariaho developed techniques of computer-assisted composition and acquired fluency in working on tape and with live electronics. This experience influenced her approach to writing for orchestra, with its emphasis on the shaping of dense masses of sound in slow transformations. Significantly, her first orchestral piece, Verblendungen (1984), involves a gradual exchange of roles and character between orchestra and tape. And even the titles of her next, linked, pair of orchestral works, Du Cristal (1989) and …à la Fumée (1990) – the latter with solo alto flute and cello, and both with live electronics – suggest their preoccupation with colour and texture.
Through IRCAM, Saariaho became allied with the French ‘spectralist’ composers, whose techniques are based on computer analysis of the sound-spectrum of individual notes on different instruments. This analytical approach led her to the regular use of harmonies resting on long-held bass notes, microtonal intervals, and a precisely detailed continuum of sound extending from pure tone to unpitched noise – all features of one of her most frequently performed works, Graal théâtre for violin and orchestra or ensemble (1994/97).
In recent years Saariaho has turned to opera, with outstanding success. L’Amour de loin, with a libretto by Amin Maalouf based on an early biography of the twelfth-century troubadour Jaufré Rudel, received widespread acclaim in its premiere production directed by Peter Sellars at the 2000 Salzburg Festival, and won the composer a prestigious Grawemeyer Award. Adriana Mater, on an original libretto by Maalouf, mixing gritty present-day reality and dreams, followed, again directed by Sellars, at the Opéra Bastille in Paris in March 2006. Emilie, an opera and monodrama for Karita Mattila had its premiere in Lyon in March 2010.
Around the operas there have been other vocal works, notably the ravishing Château de l’âme (1996), Oltra mar (1999), and the song-cycle Quatre instants (2002). And the evening-long La Passion de Simone, portraying the life and death of the philosopher Simone Weil, formed part of Sellars’s international festival ‘New Crowned Hope’ in 2006/07.
The experience of writing for voices has led to some simplification of Saariaho’s language, with a new vein of modally oriented melody accompanied by more regular repeating patterns. This change of direction has been carried over into orchestral works including Aile du songe for flute and chamber orchestra (2001) and the stunning Orion for large orchestra (2002) , Notes on Light (2006) for ‘cellist Anssi Karttunen and the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Bergman inspired Laterna Magica (2008) for Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Most recently D’OM LE VRAI SENS, was written for the clarinetist Kari Kriikku.
In the profusion of large and small works which Saariaho has produced in recent years, two features which have marked her whole career continue to stand out. One is a close and productive association with individual artists – not least Amin Maalouf and Peter Sellars, as well as the conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, the flautist Camilla Hoitenga, the ‘cellist Anssi Karttunen, the soprano Dawn Upshaw and, the pianists Emmanuel Ax and Tuija Hakkila . The other is a concern, shown equally in her choice of subject matter and texts and in the profusion of expression marks in her scores, to make her music not a working-out of abstract processes but an urgent communication from composer to listener of ideas, images and emotions.
Saariaho has claimed the major composing awards in The Grawemeyer Award, The Wihouri Prize, The Nemmers Prize and in 2011 was awarded The Sonning Prize. In 2015 she will be the judge of the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award.
The music of Kaija Saariaho is published exclusively by Chester Music and Edition Wilhelm Hansen, part of the Music Sales Group of Companies. Anthony Burton 2006
Updated by Chester Music 2011
External Websites
Composer News
- Holland Festival
| |  | | Bryce Dessner. |
The 65th Holland Festival, taking place this year from June 1 - 28, features world premieres from two major composers – Kaija Saariaho and Bryce Dessner.
Saariaho’s Circle Map is a 25-minute work for large orchestra and electronics. The piece is based on six poems by Rumi which are recited in Persian during the performance. Rather than being used as a support for the music, the text is showcased – after long polyphonic interludes the orchestra retreats to sustained chords while the poems are recited by the electronics player. Commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Circle Map will be premiered by Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in a concert entitled ‘Out of the Box’ at the Westergasfabriek Gashouder, Amsterdam on June 22. Kraft by Magnus Lindberg is on the concert as well.
This unique performance space with its exceptional acoustics inspired the equally unique concert programme. There is an introduction by Thea Derks and an opportunity afterwards to meet the artist. For more information, and to buy tickets, please visit the Holland Festival website.
Bryce Dessner’s music infuses the emotional power of the rock and pop genres with the complexity of classical music. He has written a new work for string orchestra which will be premiered by the Amsterdam Sinfonietta on June 16 at the Muziekgebouw Aan 't Ij Amsterdam as part of the Holland Festival. Other works by Dessner included in the programme are Raphael (Dutch premiere) and St. Carolyn by the Sea, which will be performed alongside the music of Jonny Greenwood.
Tickets for this concert can be found here.
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