Search - K. Saariaho :: Saariaho Ballet Music in 7 Scenes

Saariaho's forgotten ballet

Christopher Culver | 05/27/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Kaija Saariaho's ballet "Maa" (1991) was issued on Ondine the year after its premiere, but it sadly remains out of print even as other Finnish recordings have seen re-release. That's a pity, as at over an hour "Maa" was Saariaho's longest work up until her first opera ten years later. The ballet has no story, but visual images of gates, doors, windows, and waterways are used in its seven scenes. The music is written for nine players--flute, percussion (two players), harp, harpsichord (doubling synthesizer), violin, viola and cello--plus electronics. Its sounds range from ambient "sonic environments" of tape-only sections to the direct post-spectralist expression of Saariaho's chamber and orchestral works from that era, and the two worlds meet towards the end. Flute and cello are, as always in Saariaho's music, given especially idiomatic writing. A special moment, however, comes for solo violin, when the violin responds to the sound of wind in the electronics by distortion, as if being blown off course.



"Maa" is not one of Saariaho's major works for the listener of recordings. Without the visual element, one's attention often starts to wander. Nonetheless, it provides yet another fine document of the post-serialist vein she was writing in during the late 1980s and early 1990s. If you find the disc for sale, snatch it up. In the meantime, transcriptions from the piece, such as "Fall" for solo harp (on an Ondine disc) and "New Gates" (on a Mode disc) can give one a sample of the ballet's world."