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4.30.2000
Back to Are You Brave
Too ? Festival
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April 30,
2000
Celloholics
Josquin Le deploration sur
la mort de Johannes Ockeghem
Anrea Yun
Erika
Pierson
Josh
Kowalsky
Eileen
Marie Brownell
Vivian
Sunnarvik
Thomas
Gregory
Music for four cellos
Thomas Gregory
Katri
Ervamaa
Vivian
Sunnarvik
Christine
Chu
Luciano Berio,
"Les Mots sont
alles"
Leo
Eguchi, cello
Kaija Saariaho
Petals for solo cello
and optional electronics (1988)
Katri Ervamaa, cello
Heitor Villa Lobos
click on picture
for more info about Villa Lobos at http://www.rdpl.red-deer.ab.ca/villa
Bachianas Brasilianas
No. 5
Emily
Benner, soprano
Cello Ensemble
Josh
Kowalsky
Andrea Yun
Eileen
Marie Brownell
Erika
Pierson
Christine
Chu
Barney
Culver
Leo
Eguchi
Laura
Bartow
Chris Younghoon Kim, conductor
Program Notes
Kaija Saariaho (1952) is one of the most celebrated Finnish composers of her generation.
While studying in the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, she was a member of the "Korvat
Auki" (Ears Open) group of young composers. Other members of the group include
such composers as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jouni Kaipainen and Magnus Lindberg, as well
as the cellist Anssi Karttunen. The strong influence they have had on each other
is evident in the numerous collaborations and continuing relationships. In 1982,
Saariaho took courses in computer music at IRCAM, Paris. Since then, the computer
has been a key element in her compositional technique. She analyzes the sounds on
the computer and breaks them apart, thus manipulating traditional sounds into new
ones. She is also known for electro-acoustic compositions, where the acoustic instruments
are amplified and manipulated by the electronics in real time. Juhani Nuorvala describes
Saariaho's music as "purist modernist." He says a "fragile, brilliant
play of colour, a sensuality, a dreamlike misterioso atmosphere, visual and poetic
associations" are the defining characters in her music. Saariaho has developed
a completely new sound of string instruments. Her sound is largely influenced by
the added element of constant vertical movement of the bow. It includes using over
or under pressure of the bow: the former creates a scraping sound, the latter a whistling
airy sound. Petals can be played either acoustically, or with the electronics. The
electronic effects used in the piece are de-tuning and reverberation. The score indicates
the percentage and the length of the use of the electronics.
"Petals (1988) for solo cello was written abruptly in a few day, but evidently
after a long unconscious preparation. The material stems directly from Nymphea for
string quartet and electronics. The name of the piece is derived from this relationship.
The opposite elements here are fragile, coloristic passages which give birth to more
energetic events with clear rhythmic and melodic character. These more sharply focused
figures pass through different transformations, and finally merge back to less dynamic
but not less intensive filigration. In bringing together these very opposite modes
of expression I aimed to force the interpreter to stretch his sensibility. Petals
was inspired by the playing of Anssi Karttunen and is dedicated to him." ----Kaija
Saariaho
The collaboration between Anssi Karttunen and Kaija Saariaho is a famous one;
Saariaho herself writes that when she composes for certain instruments, she always
associates the sounds of them with the people she composes for. She does not compose
for a cello or a violin, she composes for Anssi's cello or Gidon Kremer's violin.
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