SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Sibelius, Saariaho: Karita Mattila (soprano), Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor), Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.  Barbican Hall, London, 10.11.2007 (AO)


Surprisingly, Sibelius’s most “exciting” symphonies aren’t necessarily the best way to assess conductors and orchestras-  because they are so dramatic in themselves.  That’s why I wanted to hear the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd in this Salonen/LAPO series, because what performers do with these symphonies reveals more of what they really understand about Sibelius’s idiom.  So far, what I’ve heard indicates that Salonen is emerging as one of the more challenging Sibelius conductors.

Simon Parmet, still one of the most astute commentators, firmly believed that one of the basic factors in Sibelius’s symphonic music was its “architectural unity” of overall flow. “The task of musical interpretation is to construct a house….and the composer in his score has only given a blueprint”. It’s important then, “to know how the elementary construction behind the blueprint has come into being (even if) it lies completely hidden behind the completed building”.  This is where Salonen excels.  Coming late to the composer, he carries no baggage from force of habit.  Instead, years of experience with modern music seems to have inspired in him a fresh perspective on the fundamental structure of Sibelius’s music and how it supports his powerful ideas.

To illustrate, Salonen delineates how cleanly Sibelius builds up the Third Symphony towards what Parmet calls “one of the freest, if not the freest, of all of the symphonic movements in all Sibelius. At a single, bold stroke he abandons strict classical form”. In the Allegro moderato, themes appear fleetingly, some developed more than others, but each clearly defined.  Tempi shift rapidly, with “punctuation marks” at pivotal points. Sometimes these are clear, sharp pauses before a change of direction, sometimes simply by details like a single chord on harp. From small, whirling small figures, the string sections build up dense, accelerating textures, while vigorous ostinato marks emphasis.  In the second movement, the horn theme was ravishingly played, woodwinds and brass elaborating the haunting motif.  The final movement seems to grow organically from this background of whirling, incessantly developing themes, as if at last they can emerge into full focus, free and liberated. The orchestral playing was so punchy and energetic, that the Salonen’s lively dynamics worked very well indeed, This was an excellent Sibelius Third  It was utterly convincing, propelled by an intelligent musical logic that grows, as Parmet would have said, from “understanding the blueprint” that underpins the architecture in this music.

The programme notes for the concert make much of the “Tchaikovsky” influences on Sibelius’s First Symphony, but for Salonen, it’s much more emergent Sibelius.  Rather than smoothing the lines to present the symphony as Romantic, he emphasises its wilder, rough-hewn qualities. It is transitional from Kullervo to the abstraction of the later work, after all.  Salonen showed a feel for the symphony’s inner structure, connecting the first two movements so they presage the last, with its echoes of Finlandia and hints of what is to come.

It was also musically intelligent to pair Sibelius’s Third Symphony with Kaija Saariaho’s Quatre Instants, because the song cycle, too, grows from rapidly moving smaller units.  In her own way, Saariaho’s shimmering textures reflect the susurating figures in Sibelius.  Quatre Instants was written for Karita Mattila.  “Knowing the vastly expressive spectrum of her voice”, says Saariaho, “I imagined a whole section of music built of contrasting images, sub-sections of which would be compressed into short but powerful moments”.

Although the cycle was conceived for voice and piano, this orchestral version allows Mattila’s voice more space.  Her voice is big enough that it sounds well against the bigger sound palette offered by winds and strings. Indeed, one of the beauties of this version is the flute, which winds itself around the voice, like the elusive, invisible lover in the text.  Furthermore, it brings out a deep, exotic level in Mattila’s voice : at times she sounds almost like a wind instrument. It’s hard to explain but it’s ravishing, adding intensity to what Saariaho calls the “fragrance” of the music.  You can vividly imagine the drifting ship sounding its horn, calling out to the distant lover.  “J’ai déployé toutes les voiles pour l’amant me voie”, she sings, stretching the last words as if they were being blown across the seas, searching.  Mattila, in full sail, is a force of nature.

This music oscillates, up and down the scales, and phrases are broken into smaller units, repeated again and again. This expresses the sense of movement and stasis that runs throughout the cycle. At first, the mood is becalmed, only the gentle lapping of waves shaking the stillness. Then there are instants of agitation and of passion, before once more, the protagonist is cast adrift and passive.   “Et le vent est  tombé”, Mattila repeats several times before lapsing into silence. Meanwhile a solo violin takes up the expansive, “searching” motif heard earlier.  For all its nebulous, dream-like quality, this cycle is as meticulously structured as a symphony, the first and last songs framing the two inner sections.

There was yet further proof of the musical knowledge and intelligence of Salonen’s programming in the encore.  He chose a rarely heard movement from Ligeti’s Concert românesc from 1951. It’s very early indeed.  Like Sibelius in his youth, Ligeti experiments with folklore in the process of which he gradually finds his own voice.  It’s a fun piece to end an evening, but also one to make us think about how composers find themselves slowly and don‘t spring out fully formed.


Anne Ozorio

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