04 April 2008

Congratulations!

I'm hardly the blog of record for stuff like this, but since I just heard this, I thought I would offer congratulations to Kaija Saariaho, the latest recipient of the Nemmers Composition Prize.

The press release says this was announced April 2, but I haven't heard anything about it. From the release:

"Saariaho was cited by the selection committee for 'transforming avant-garde techniques into a world of luminous, shifting color and emotional depth, mirroring the human experience.'"

Saariaho's response was, ". . . I was especially happy to read the prize citation because it indicates that I have been successful in reaching some of my musical goals."

She will be in residence at Northwestern University's School of Music next year, and during the 2009-2010 season the Chicago Symphony will perform one of her works. We can start placing bets (such as, when the little demons buy themselves little iceskates) on when L'Amour de Loin or Adriana Mater will show up at the Opera House. But the Symphony will probably come through for us, eventually.

11 comments:

Lisa Hirsch said...

Monotonous Forest picked this up the day it was announced - such great news.

The Symphony told me a couple of weeks ago that they have already performed some Saariaho, but they didn't say when or what. Time to check SFCV, obviously.

Lisa Hirsch said...

It was Du cristal, and here is the SFCV review.

Patrick J. Vaz said...

Hi Lisa,
Monotonous Forest is a new one for me -- I'll have to check them out, if only because I like the title so much. Way back when I lived in Boston I would see phonepole flyers for a group called Relentless Cookout -- I never heard them, but the name stuck with me.
Thanks also for the SFCV link; I'll check it out.
Maybe we should both finally watch our L'Amour de Loin DVDs in honor of Ms. Saariaho!

Lisa Hirsch said...

Hell, yes! And I'm all alone this weekend, too. Maybe tonight, though I have two sets lent to me by a colleague and I've been thinking about listening to Fanciulla.

Monotonous Forest is here.

Patrick J. Vaz said...

Thanks! I was about to swing over to Iron Tongue to see if it was on your blogroll, though I could probably also just have googled it without getting too much irrelevant stuff. Interesting site -- I see he got to hear The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit. It was done in LA a year or two ago, and I didn't get to hear it but it sounded so interesting that I bought the recording. I can dig that out and add it to my weekend.

Lisa Hirsch said...

I read a review or two of that piece and thought it sounded fascinating. Recording, you say? Oooo.

Patrick J. Vaz said...

Yeah, I know. I guess I shouldn't be so quick to compare fund-hungry arts groups to crack whores when I can barely restrain myself. I made the mistake of going to Amazon and searching for the composer, and found not only that the recording of Triumph etc was still available, but that there were several other works available as well. I quickly exited, but I know it's going to haunt my dreams until, by my peculiar method of budgeting, I've wanted something long enough so that I feel justified in buying it, regardless of whether I actually have the money to hand.
Oh, and thanks for the link to the review of Du Cristal -- sounds like an interesting piece, and I thought the review was interesting and fair -- reservations were expressed in such a way that I was still curious to hear the music.

Lisa Hirsch said...

I have a couple of Saariaho CDs, including Du Cristal, ....a la fumee, and Graal Theatre (her violin concerto, with Gidon Kremer, a fantastic piece. If you want to borrow them...

Henry Holland said...

Since I get so much of my post-war opera/orchestral music from music theft sites like SoulSeek, I don't know if it has been "legally" released as a recording, but Ms. Saariaho's piece Orion is pretty damn amazing.

I'm still kicking myself for not living on cat food for six months so I could save the money to go to Santa Fe a few years ago for L'amour de Loin. I'm better off financially now, but I still had to choose between Adriana Mater (plus Billy Budd) in Santa Fe or Szymanowski's glorious King Roger, one of my very favorite operas, at Bard College in upstate New York. Since I wasn't crazy about Adriana Mater the two times I've listened to it, Bard College it was.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Music theft sites!

I not only missed L'amour de loin in Santa Fe, I arrived in London one year twenty-four hours after the UK premiere.

I think that was the visit when I saw the marathon Coast of Utopia, however, which was reasonable compensation. It sort of hallucinatory considering that I was at the theater from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and was damn jet-lagged.

Patrick J. Vaz said...

Henry, I have heard that Adriana Mater has changed quite a bit since its premiere, but I don't know for sure if it's the staging or the music that changed. I don't think you're going wrong by picking King Roger, anyway, since I believe you've mentioned your dislike for Peter Sellars. I can't really afford cat food right now, at least the good stuff, but your mention did get me thinking again about my lunch-at-work dilemma -- it's an obvious place to look to cut costs, but it's so difficult, for me anyway, to come up with something that's portable, that I like, that is cheap and healthy, etc -- so I was thinking, hmm, cat food -- it comes in a handy tin, there are many flavors, it will probably give me a glossy coat, and best of all, everyone will avoid me the rest of the afternoon. . . .

Lisa, I'm envious you got to see Coast of Utopia. I'll go chew on some kitty dry food now.