Saariaho’s daughter strikes up Beethoven’s 9th
OrchestrasThe budding conductor Aliisa Neige Barriere, daughter of the late composer Kaija Saariaho, gets the biggest opportuinity of her career this weekend.
Designated Young Artist of the Year at the Mikkeli Festival in Finland, Aliisa will conduct Beethoven’s 9th symphony, following a new work for chorus and orchestra by her contemporary composer Luukas Hiltunen, who is 27.
One of the good things that has come of the Russo-Ukraine War is that Gergiev is no longer hogging the Mikkeli Festival and it has allowed others to be seen and heard.
Sorry, Save the MET. You should do your homework. During his regime Gergiev “allowed” Salonen, Saraste, Noseda, Heine, Revzen (to name only few) to conduct the Mariinsky Orchestra. Contrary to that the Saariaho daughter will not conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra London, but a local ensemble.
He conducted the bulk of the concerts none-the-less, thus hogging the festival. Go back and look at the number of times he conducted versus others year by year.
I remember quite well the number of concerts, conducted by Gergiev. The main reason for that was the fact, that the festival had problems to sell the performances, conducted by others. It was always problematic, when he wanted to have a day-off.
Hiltunen belongs to the younger generation who want to begin anew after the last century that was musically filled with so much ugliness and sterile, anti-audience rationality:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOBHzM1pLGg
It shows that it is very hard to get ‘into’ tradition again and acquire some sophistication.
But the contrast with Saariaho is almost grotesque.