"Lohn" By Kaija Saariaho

[galamb_borong]

A rather surreal vocal work from Saariaho ( sung by Valérie Gabail ).

I have no idea what this is about, and honestly, I'm not sure I want to - it's beautiful enough as abstract art.

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My presentation this term is going to be on Magnus Lindberg's clarinet concerto, so I'm exploring the Finnish modernist scene in general

Comments

[rozk]

I agree, this is quite wonderful, but then almost all the Saariaho I have heard is, including her comparatively MOR violin concerto. Finland has had an amazing century as far as music goes - especially given the smallness of the country and its difficult geographical placing.

On the other hand, I suspect that you cannot just forget Sibelius. He has a role in the lives of these composers and quite a remarkable one at that not least because he made it possible to think of Finland as a musical culture. More importantly still, he made Finnish a language in which people thought of singing - the opening movement of this is in a very different idiom, but I think it would remind me of Luonnotar even if I did not know the natinoality of the composer.

[galamb_borong]

I hope it didn't come across as an attempt to discredit Sibelius as a composer. I like his music and appreciate his pioneer status. I think it's more the idea of him being the be-all and end-all of Finland's classical music scene that bothers me. Sibelius is certainly the first big name in Finnish classical music - I'd just hate for him to be seen as the last, especially when Finland is so alive and thriving as it is at this moment.

[rozk]

I don't think we are disagreeing in any significant way - it's just that he has become for most important Finnish musicians the ancestor on whose achievements one builds rather than the father one has to kill, and that interests me about him and them...