Personalities | Kaija Saariaho | Contemporary | Classical
(Kär-ya Särre-a-ho) b. 1952
Finnish composer
Saariaho studied at the Sibelius Academy and the Freiburg Conservatory before moving to Paris, where she worked at IRCAM, the centre for electroacoustic music established by Boulez. A lot of her early works explored the potential of live electronics and computer-assisted composition. Key to the latter was the analysis of instrumental sound spectra, which Saariaho (like other so-called ‘spectral’ composers) used as the basis of the form and harmonic structure of her music, with highly atmospheric results. She has turned increasingly to the human voice, notably in the song cycle Château de l’âme (‘Castle of the Soul’, 1996) and the operas L’amour de loin (‘The Love from Afar’, Salzburg Festival, 2000) and Adriana Mater (Paris Opéra, 2006).
Recommended Recording:
L’amour de loin, soloists, Deutsches SO, Berlin (cond) Kent Nagano (Harmonia Mundi)
Introduction | Contemporary | Classical
Personalities | Aulis Sallinen | Contemporary | Classical
AUTHORITATIVE
An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
CURATED
Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.