SAARIAHO Émilie Suite. Quatre Instants
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Kaija Saariaho
Genre:
Vocal
Label: Ondine
Magazine Review Date: 04/2015
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 71
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: ODE1255-2
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(4) Instants |
Kaija Saariaho, Composer
Kaija Saariaho, Composer Karen Vourc'h, Soprano Marko Letonja, Conductor Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra |
Terra Memoria for String Orchestra |
Kaija Saariaho, Composer
Kaija Saariaho, Composer Marko Letonja, Conductor Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra |
Émilie Suite |
Kaija Saariaho, Composer
Kaija Saariaho, Composer Karen Vourc'h, Soprano Marko Letonja, Conductor Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra |
Author: Guy Rickards
Saariaho’s genius as a song-writer is displayed in ravishing form in the orchestral version of Quatre Instants (2002), as with Émilie to texts by Amin Maalouf. These four musings on love combine restraint and longing as well as unleashed passion, the closing ‘Résonances’ almost Janus-faced as it inwardly closes the emotional circle while outwardly ecstatic. Here, as in the Émilie Suite, Saariaho has found a near-ideal interpreter in Karen Vourc’h – who already has the full Émilie opera as well as the oratorio La Passion de Simone in her repertoire – whose radiant tone is enchanting.
I am not overly familiar with the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra but they play with unusual fervour and refinement, relishing Saariaho’s at times opulent sound world (even when deploying small instrumental groups). This is manifest also in their vibrant performance of the string-orchestral Terra memoria, Saariaho’s 2009 arrangement of her second string quartet (2007). Ondine’s recording, engineered by Arnaud Houpert and Dennis Fenninger, is superb.
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