Loading details…
Artist
Kaija Saariaho
12+ albums
contemporary classicalAvant-GardeClassicalfinnishcomposers
about
Kaija Saariaho (* 14. October 1952 in Helsinki; † 2. June 2023 in Paris) was a Finnish composer. For 13 years Saariaho attended the Helsinki Rudolf Steiner School, a school with a strong arts and music curriculum, and studied violin and piano at the Sibelius Academy. She later studied composition in Freiburg (under Brian Ferneyhough and Klaus Huber) and at IRCAM in Paris, where she has lived since 1982. Saariaho was influenced by post-serialism, but she grew to find it too restrictive: "You were not allowed to have pulse, or tonally oriented harmonies, or melodies. I don't want to write music through negations. Everything is permissible as long as it's done in good taste." Most critics cite spectral music composers Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail as her largest influences. Her studies and research at IRCAM have had a major influence on her music and her characteristically luxuriant and mysterious textures are often created by combining live music and electronics. Her work in the 1980s and 1990s is marked by its emphasis on timbre and use of electronics alongside traditional instruments; Nymphéa (Jardin secret III) (1987), for example, is for string quartet and live electronics. It contains an additional vocal element: the musicians whispering the words to a poem by Tarkovsky. She won the Prix Italia and, in 1989, the Prix Ars Electronica; received commissions from Lincoln Center for the Kronos Quartet and from IRCAM for the Ensemble Intercontemporain; and has been the s
top songs
1
Petals
10,05627 Papillons: No. 5. —
6,26837 Papillons: No. 2. —
5,7994Spins and Spells
2,8135Six Japanese Gardens for percussion and electronics- Many Pleasures (Garden of the Kinkaku-ji)
2,7506Six Japanese Gardens for percussion and electronics- Tenju-an Garden of Nanzen-ji Temple
2,5487Pres for cello and electronics- II
2,5218Six Japanese Gardens for percussion and electronics- Dry Mountain Stream
2,51297 Papillons: No. 7. —
2,46510Asteroid 4179 - Toutatis
2,427albums
Saariaho: Du cristal - …à la fumée - 7 Papillons - Nymphéa
Private Gardens
Chamber Music
Kaija Saariaho: L'Amour de loin
Saariaho: Verblendungen / Jardin Secret I / Noanoa
Saariaho: L'oeuvre pour violoncelle - Complete Cello Works - Musiikkia sellolle
Saariaho, K.: Notes On Light / Orion / Mirage
Saariaho: D'Om Le Vrai Sens - Laterna Magica - Leino Songs
▥
Holst: The Planets
Saariaho: L'amour de loin
Saariaho, K.: Graal Theatre / Solar / Lichtbogen
Saariaho: Works for Orchestra