The Finnish composer based in Paris, at one time named the greatest living composer by the BBC, and first woman in over a century to have an opera performed at the Met
Born Kaija Laakkonen in Helsinki in 1952 – Saariaho is the name of her second husband – she was always fascinated by the distinction between music, and noise. Music that includes the sounds of nature and is beautiful, and noise that is unpleasant and that is all. She played a few instruments growing up, excelling at none of them, and studied graphic art as well as music briefly thinking she might be an architect. And then came a crisis – already married and divorced at 22, she decided she would be a village organist and applied to the early music program at the Sibelius academy. But they rejected her – because you had to be able to sing, and she opened her mouth and nothing came out.
And that turned out to be the beginning. Realising that conventional music wasn’t going to be her thing, she just kept looking and kept studying, and two years later was accepted into the Academy’s composition class – the only woman. And from there it was on to the serialism at Darmstadt. That wasn’t the answer either. But she did meet Boulez who invited her to IRCAM in Paris and it was there, studying computer music and everything they could do to analyse sound, that she discovered George Grisey and Spectralism, And she was off.
Spectralism îs the actual spectral map that maps the physical timbre of an instrument or voice. She used that as a springboard to build with overtones and electronics, achieving magical washes of textures and harmony. “The idea is to have a kind of cloud of color,” she said. “Listen to your colors”
Kaija Saariaho (1952 – 2023)
MUSIC: Amers (I: Libero, Dolce, Misterioso)
Finnish Radio Symphony /Esa-Pekka Salonen
Presented by Anna Clyne
Written and produced by Charlotte Wilson for WMHT
