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

Album review

This programme offers an immersion into Kaija Saariaho’s magical and poetic world, with three works that were recently recorded for the very first time. The Paris-based Finnish composer is among the most prominent names on the music scene today. Born in 1952, Saariaho has successfully crafted her own musical universe, with unique colours and whispers, drawing inspiration from the great spectacle of nature as well as her own mental landscapes, imagined from her dreams, philosophy and international literature.

Although they were all composed within the same era (between 2013 and 2015), these three captivating pieces offer three different perspectives on her orchestral music. Ciel d’hiver is a rearrangement for orchestra only, True Fire is a song cycle, and Trans a harp concerto.
Ciel d’hiver is a transposition for small orchestra of the central movement of Orion, a triptych composed in 2002 for a giant orchestra. Inspired by Greek mythology, it joins a series of works inspired by the infinity and mystery of sky and space.

True Fire was commissioned by four orchestras (Los Angeles, Hamburg, Paris [Orchestre National de France], and London [BBC]) for baritone Gerald Finley. It is a cycle of six songs written from poems of various authors. Saariaho’s goal was to explore the singer’s unique vocal range by allowing him to deploy the full scope of his expressiveness.
And with Trans, the composer first and foremost explores the “depths of the instrument’s soul” − the harp − without sacrificing virtuosity. Written in three movements, this concert uses a relatively small orchestra, with a translucent writing in which the harp converses with an instrument, or an entire section. This way, the harp becomes the driving force of the music, and its main protagonist. © François Hudry/Qobuz