Search - Composer: Kaija Saariaho, Performer: Wolpe Trio :: Chamber Music

Good performances, but those by the dedicatees are preferabl

Christopher Culver | 11/16/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This Kairos disc was released only just three years ago (2004), but it was never distributed in the United States, and even in Europe it is becoming scarce, so you might find it hard to come across a copy. It contains several chamber pieces by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho performed by the Wolpe Trio, three American musicians resident in Germany. These are flutist Lesley Olson, cellist Scott Roller, and pianist Susanne Achilles.



Kaija Saariaho has dedicated most of her chamber oeuvre to a small group of musicians she has worked closely with for years. Performances by this dedicatees are usually available in recordings which have a definitive sheen about them. If you are interested in any piece of Saariaho's, you would do best to listen to those first before coming to the Wolpe Trio's take.



However, this disc does have two standouts. The first is a piece which, as far as I know, is not available in any other recording, namely "Monkey Fingers, Velvet Hand" for solo piano. This is Saariaho's only solo piano piece, since as a composer influenced by the spectralist school her music is ill-suited for such a rigid instrument. The piece is even more unusual for Saariaho in that it takes inspiration from rock 'n' roll, incorporating elements of The Beatles' "Happiness is a Warm Gun" and "Come Together".



The second standout is "Cendres" for flute, cello, and piano (1991/1996) which was commisioned for the Wolpe Trio. It takes its material from Saariaho's earlier orchestral work "...a la fumee" and explores musical tension created by repeatedly bringing the three instruments together in timbre, pitch, rhythm etc. and then letting them go their own seperate ways in wisp-like sonorities. Saariaho has stated that she was unhappy with "...a la fumee", and one might assume that this trio is a more definitive statement on the form she was looking for, but I have to admit this piece pales in comparison to the orchestral one. The percussion, the cello solo, and the larger dimensions in instrumentation and length of "...a la fumee" make it stunning listening, while "Cendres" is merely okay the first time and approaches dullness thereafter.



Of the other pieces:



"NoaNoa" for flute and electronics (1992) takes its title from the Tahitian word for "odour" as was given to an engraving by Paul Gaugin. The "gimmick" of the piece is that as the flautist performs, spoken word heavily treated with electronics is laid on top, and the breathing of the speaker meets the breathing of the flautist. The piece was written in collaboration with Camilla Hoitenga, and one can find her performance on a 1998 Ondine disc. That same Ondine disc has a better performance of "Six Japanese Gardens" for percussion and electronics (1993-95), a piece inspired by places Saariaho saw during travels in Japan where the composer, in a rare turn, limits the timbral possibilities in order to emphasis a development of rhythm.



"Petals" for cello and electronics is an offshoot from Saariaho's string quartet "Nymphea", and here the composer is very interested in the boundaries between pure tone and noise. "Spins and Spells" for cello contrasts two different kinds of motifs. All of Saariaho's pieces for solo cello have been dedicated to Anssi Karttunen, and he gives definitive performances of these two pieces on the Petals label.







"Laconisme de l'aile" (1981-82) is one of Saariaho's earliest pieces. It opens with the flautist reciting an extract from Saint-John Perse's "Oiseaux" before commencing. In common with the large number of songs she wrote in this era (a genre generally neglected afterward), the music displays outright melody and simple dramatic gestures. The piece is admirable in that it has a fairly simple line while nonetheless managing to explore all manner of flute possibilities. Saariaho attempts to follow the text in having the flute imitate the nature of the consontants and vowels of Perse's poem. While certainly earlier Saariaho, it's a confident piece, and I enjoy it quite a bit. However, there is a Naive disc where Hoitenga performs, and it is coupled with her excellent recent flute concerto.



Finally, "Mirrors" for cello and flute was created for a 1998 Saariaho CD-ROM, where the listener could choose the order of the parts, though in each the cello and flute each cover the same sort of concepts, hence the title. Here it is present in two versions, one the composer considered the orignal, and another chosen by the Trio."