Disc Details

Contents

Work Title	Composer
Mirage	Kaija Saariaho	Listen
Notes on Light	Kaija Saariaho	Listen
Orion	Kaija Saariaho	Listen

Reviews

• Extremely refined yet bold orchestral texture, densely radiant continuums of sound, are Saariaho's stock in trade, epitomised here.
  Paul Driver, The Sunday Times, 01 December 2009
• Saariaho has always had an extraordinary ear for a beauty of sound, best described in terms of light. Since working with singers like Dawn Upshaw and Karita Mattila, her melodic contours have become less angular, more lyrical. The slow unfolding of the solo line in the first movement of Notes on Light- a fice-movement cello concerto- has the simple inevitability you'd expect from that movement's subtitle: 'Translucent, secret.' Anssi Karttunen is as impressive in this as he is as he is in the strongly rhythmic music which the work also contains. There's a more elemental feel in Mirage, where Mattila interprets and Karttunen comments on the ecstatic words by Maria sabina, a Mexican Shaman. It's a wild ride, as she passes between worlds in human and animal incarnations.
  The orchestra is on its own in Orion, a three-movement work exploring the two sides of the mythical figure: as a fleet-footed hunter, and as a fixed constellation in the sky. With an opening strangely reminiscent of the beginning of Part 2 of the Rite of Spring, it proceeds through an icy landscape, dominated by high winds, string and percussion, to a scherzo, full of hunting horns, whoch speeds up but becomes quieter as Orion is whirled up to his place in the heavens. The sound is clear, and performances have that extra edsge which live recording brings.
  Martin Cotton, BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE, 01 September 2008