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Cover: Kaija Saariaho – Quatre instants (2002) · Terra memoria for String Orchestra · Émilie Suite

Kaija Saariaho

Quatre instants (2002)

Terra memoria for String Orchestra · Émilie Suite

Karen Vourc'h, soprano
Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg
Marko Letonja, conductor

ODE 1255-2 · CD · January 2015

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Track listing

10 tracks · 70:46

Listen to samples on selected tracks.

Kaija Saariaho

  1. Quatre instants (2002) (Orchestral version) 20:11
  2. 1 I Attente ? Longing 5:28
  3. 2 II Douleur ? Torment 5:03
  4. 3 III Parfum de l?instant ? Perfume of the instant 3:40
  5. 4 IV Résonances ? Echoes 6:00
  6. 5 Terra Memoria for String Orchestra (2009) 17:49
  7. Émilie Suite 32:46
  8. 6 I Pressentiments ? Forebodings 8:13
  9. 7 II Interlude I 4:08
  10. 8 III Principia ? Principia 7:44
  11. 9 IV Interlude II 2:59
  12. 10 V Contre l?oubli ? Against Oblivion 9:42

About this recording

Ondine new release includes works written in the last decade by one of the most important Finnish contemporary composers, Kaija Saariaho (b. 1958). Two of the works, the orchestral version of Quatre instants and Émilie Suite, feature the award-winning soprano Karen Vourc'h. Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg is conducted by the orchestra's new Music Director, Marko Letonja.

Émilie Suite is a 25-minute work based on Saariaho's 80-minute monodrama Opera Émilie. The Opera tells the dramatic story of a true historical character, Marquise Émilie du Châtelet (1706-1749), one of the earliest woman scientists, who was also a mathematician and a physician. The suite includes three songs and two orchestral interludes from the Opera.

Quatre instants is one of Saariaho's vocal masterpieces, a song cycle in four movements, originally written for voice and piano, but soon adapted into an orchestral version by the composer. The songs which are based on texts written by Amin Maalouf for Kaija Saariaho reflect the various dimensions of love.

Terra Memoria is a work for string orchestra, originally commissioned by the Emerson String Quartet. This meditative work is dedicated "for those departed".

Features

Sleeve notes in English, French and Finnish. Original French lyrics incuded with English translations.

Press

Excellent new Ondine release (...). Ondine's recording, engineered by Arnaud Houpert and Dennis Fenninger, is superb.

Guy Rickards, Gramophone, April 2015

The artists

Marko Letonja

Since 2012, the Slovene Marko Letonja has been Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orchestre national, as well as Artistic Director of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. He studied piano and conducting with Professor Anton Nanut at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, and was a student of Professor Otmar Suitner at the Vienna Academy of Music, from which he graduated in 1989.

Full biography