The Barbican honours Kaija Saariaho with an intensive day

Anssi Karttunen

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra

By Mark Valencia, 09 May 2023

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“now glistening with shimmering glissandi, now scything away like chainsaws”

Reviewed at Barbican Hall, London on 7 May 2023

Saariaho, Du cristal... à la fumée

Saariaho, Notes on light, violoncello concerto

Saariaho, Saarikoski Songs (orchestral version) (UK premiere)

Anu Komsi, Soprano

Anssi Karttunen, Cello

Sakari Oramo, Conductor

BBC Symphony Orchestra

BBC Singers

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Reviewed at Guildhall School of Music & Drama: Milton Court Concert Hall, London on 7 May 2023

Saariaho, Reconnaissance (Rusty Mirror Madrigal) (UK premiere)

Saariaho, Nuits, Adieux

Saariaho, Tag des Jahrs, for chorus and electronics

Heininen, Poetiikka, Op.56b

Krista Audere, Conductor

BBC Singers

Sakari Oramo, Yeol Eum Son and the BBC Symphony in Seoul

SangKwon Lee, 26th March

Yeol Eum Son’s Britten Piano Concerto formed the evening’s centre of gravity, played with lucid line, structural command and sudden fire. In Brahms’ Second Symphony, Sakari Oramo found conviction, proportion and a warmth that felt earned rather than applied.

****1

Sakari Oramo and Yeol Eum Son summon up vivid landscapes

Christopher Woodley, 13th March

Yeol Eum Son's superb performances of Bartók and Finzi are matched by intense and heady readings of Stravinsky and Weir by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo.

****1

From snow to sludge: Icelandic music at the Barbican Centre

Marat Ingeldeev, 22nd February

A bewildering evening at the Barbican, where ambitious Icelandic programming collapses under its lofty ambition of defying genres and making music more appealing to a wide variety of audiences.

**111

Fine Lindberg and Stravinsky double bill from the BBC Symphony

Roy Westbrook, 6th February

After a performance of Magnus Lindberg’s First Violin Concerto by Lisa Batiashvili at the Barbican, Stravinsky’s Perséphone stands the test of time.

****1

UK premiere of Julia Wolfe’s unEarth impresses on scale, not substance

Susannah Moody, 23rd January

Wolfe's climate-change oratorio, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, already feels out of date.

**111

Sir James MacMillan delights with his Christmas Oratorio

David Karlin, 19th December

MacMillan's large scale choral work offers a rich variety of texts and musical ideas, the composer conducts the BBC Symphony with unerring precision.

*****

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Mark Valencia

Mark has worked in arts journalism for four decades, both as a writer and as a French-English translator. Nowadays he focuses his energies on reviewing opera and music. Mark also writes for Opera magazine and for Musical America as a correspondent for Europe and the UK.

Total Immersion: the Barbican honours Kaija Saariaho with an intensive day