International HELIjaKEEL Saariaho festival PLAY

HELIjaKEEL Saariaho Festival
PLAY. Kaija Saariaho, Helena Tulve
14.02.2016 at 7 pm Kanuti Gildi SAAL, Tallinn

The 2015-2016 season of HELIjaKEEL (SOUNDandLANGUAGE) led by Kammermuusikud, in addition to its usual mandate of juxtaposing music and poetry, focuses more on different musical styles.
The final concert of the HELIjaKEEL Saariaho Festival – PLAY will juxtapose music by Kaija Saariaho and Helena Tulve.

Program:
Kaija Saariaho: Dolce Tormento (2004)
Helena Tulve: Laula mulle õitsvast puust (2013)
Kaija Saariaho: Duft (2012)
Helena Tulve: Pulss, mõõn ja voolamine (2012)
Helena Tulve: Sinna otsime teed tagasi (2014)
Kaija Saariaho: Tocar (2010/2012)
Helena Tulve: L’Équinoxe de l’âme (2008)

Performers:
Arianna Savall (soprano, baroque harp, Spain); Kadri Tegelmann (mezzo soprano); Camilla Hoitenga (flute, USA); Toomas Vavilov (clarinet); Harry Traksmann, Olga Voronova, Triin Ruubel, Egert Leinsaar (violin); Andres Kaljuste, Laur Eensalu (viola); Leho Karin, Theodor Sink (cello); Taavi Kerikmäe, Diana Liiv (piano)

Kaija Saariaho is a prominent member of a group of Finnish composers and performers who are now, in mid-career, making a worldwide impact. She studied at the Sibelius Academy and continued her studies in Freiburg and from 1982, at the IRCAM research institute in Paris – the city which has been most of the time her home ever since. At IRCAM, Saariaho developed techniques of computer-assisted composition and acquired fluency in working on tape and with live electronics. Before coming to work at IRCAM, Saariaho learned to know the French ‘spectralist’ composers, whose techniques are based on computer analysis of the sound-spectrum. This analytical approach inspired her to develop her own method for creating harmonic structures, as well as the detailed notation using harmonics, microtonaly and detailed continuum of sound extending from pure tone to unpitched noise. (retrieved from www.saariaho.org)

The music of Helena Tulve is characterized by a process of unceasing change in time and space, and the transforming of energies. Her works do attest to the richness and variety of her musical experiences and interests: the French spectral music, IRCAM’s experimentalism, Saariaho and Scelsi, Gregorian chant and exotic melody-designs. Helena Tulve has studied composition at the Estonian Academy of Music with Erkki-Sven Tüür, being the latter’s sole student of composition thus far. She furthered her training in Paris with Jacques Charpentier at the Conservatoire supérieur from which she graduated in 1994 with the Premier Prix. In addition, she attended an electronic music course at IRCAM in 2001.
In 2000, Helena Tulve began teaching composition at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, becoming a professor in 2011 and vice dean in 2012. From 2015, she is also artistic director of the Estonian Music Days Festival. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including first prize at the 2004 International Composers Rostrum in Paris for her orchestral piece Sula. Of Kaija Saariaho’s music, Helena Tulve has said: Her music tends to move between states very slowly, and is very much centred around the process. Her pieces can be very airy and dreamlike, but in her early works one can also find density and power. All in all, her music is like a picture from a dream.

Singer and harpist Arianna Savall (Spain) was born in Basle into a family of Catalan musicians. 2002 saw her debut in the Barcelona opera house in a production of Claudio Monteverdi’s Orfeo directed by her father Jordi Savall, in which she took the role of Eurydice. Critics praised the production as one of the most beautiful and magical versions of Orfeo. Her passion for early music and for improvisation has led her to the other extreme: contemporary music. In June 2006 she performed as a singer in the work by Helena Tulve Lijnen in Tallinn, which was also later recorded by ECM with the group Nyyd Ensemble, conducted by Olari Elts, with whom she also performed at the Rennes Opera, singing Quatre Instants by K. Saariaho. She has undertaken several projects with Helena Tulve which premiered at the Monaco Opera with Vox Clamantis with Jaan-Eik Tulve conducting. In 2008 she sang L’abbé Agathon by Arvo Pärt with the Amsterdam Cello Octet. In 2010, she performed at several festivals dedicated to the music of Arvo Pärt, including the Nargen Festival (Estonia), which celebrated the 75th birthday of the Estonian composer.
It is as if the beauty of Arianna’s voice were truly the voice of a fairy. (El 9 Nou, MMVV 2010, M. Rius) The critics also refer to her as The fairy of the harp. (retrieved from www.ariannasavall.com)

Flutist Camilla Hoitenga (USA) is at home on stages all over the world. Her repertoire ranges from pre-Bach to post-Stockhausen, from concertos to music for flute alone from state-of-the art pieces for live video and electronics and interdisciplinary projects. Her recordings, in particular those with Kaija Saariaho, have won awards in France, Great Britain and in North America. She has performed concertos written for her by composers such as Kaija Saariaho, Péter Köszeghy, Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi and Raminta Serksnyte and worked with conductors like Marin Alsop, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Susanna Mälkki, Alan Gilbert and Vladimir Jurowski in concert halls and important festivals all over the world. A frequent guest in Japan, and with a great interest in Japanese culture, she has also premiered dozens of pieces written for her by Japanese composers. (retrieved from www.hoitenga.com)

www.saariaho.org
www.hoitenga.com
www.ariannasavall.com

Tickets: 12.-, 15.-, 30.-