Concert review | A fruitful and inspiring partnership was born between the new organ of the music hall and the orchestra – just as Kaija Saariaho had hoped

Classic

Helsinki City Orchestra at Musiikkitalo 10.1. Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor, Jan Lehtola, organ. – Messiaen, Saariaho, Mahler.

Woodwind chords, string chords, brass chords. When Jan Lehtola played Musiikkitalo's new super organ Kaija Saariaho in the work Shadows of the Earth for organ and orchestra, one could not be entirely sure whether these chords came from the organ or Jukka-Pekka Sarasteen from the Helsinki City Orchestra, led by

In this work, the organ is an orchestral instrument that blends perfectly with the timbres of the symphony orchestra. Kaija Saariaho did not want to do a duel of decibels in this work, and she did not consider it an organ concerto, but she wanted a fruitful and inspiring partnership between the orchestra and the organ.

Jan Lehtola has been involved in the design and construction phases of the Musiikkitalo organ from the beginning, and he certainly knows the features and possibilities of the new organ best.

Kaija Saariaho chose the title of his work to honor the memory of his late father. Title Shadows of the Earth is derived from an English poet By Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) from the poem Adonais, whose second verse reads like this: “One remains where the rest changes and dies, the light of heaven shines forever, the shadows of the earth flee”. He dedicated his work to the deceased French composer in 2013 by Henri Dutilleux (1916–2013) in memory.

Shadows of the Earth is a joint order of three orchestras. The organs in the concert halls of these orchestras set their own limits for Saariaho's work. The modern spectral and microtonal effects favored by Saariaho, made possible by the new organs of the Musiikkitalo, were probably not within the reach of Saariaho's work.

In the shadows of the earth Saariaho uses the organ in the spirit of the colorful French romantic orchestral organ tradition. The position of the audience undoubtedly depended on how clearly the organ playing stood out from the orchestra. From my place, in front of the orchestra from the sixth door, a fascinating illusion was created, where the organ and the orchestra often completely blended into each other. You could be pretty sure of the source of the sound only from the clatter of the percussion instruments.

In the shadows of the earth the direction of the music was usually upward, towards transcendental heights. The shadows fled towards the upper air in the first part, in the second Dome– movement had a choral-like devotion, in the third movement a massive rumbling sound came from the organ, but it also rose to quiet heights at the end.

The balance and understanding of the
orchestra and organ was perfect, neither overshadowed the other. Due to the distinctiveness of the acoustics, the organ is an excellent instrument for the visions of contemporary composers.

Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) spiritual work Les Offrandes OubliéesForgotten sacrifices, was a good introduction to Saariaho's work with its synesthetic timbres.

The second of Messiaen's work, Sin-part was an aggressive plunge into hell that led Mahler's sixth, A tragic symphony to a desperate struggle for life. Saraste led its painful marching rhythms and caricature-like dance rhythms with merciless heaviness and grinding, a master of a clear dynamic sense of form.