Kaija Saariaho wrote surprisingly little music for solo piano or harpsichord.  Over her 40+ year composing career it amounts to a little under an hour of music and it has now been recorded by Tuija Hakkila who had an association with the composer dating back to 1982.  The disk, Touches, contains eight pieces.  Five are actually for solo piano with one piece for piano and cello (Anssi Karttunen) and two for harpsichord and electronics.

Most of the solo piano music is quite meditative though with a rhythmic flexibility that kind of comes and goes.  It’s complex but not in your face.  Arabesques et adages though is a bit different.  It was composed as a set piece for a piano competition and so, as you would expect, it’s got lots of technical challenges.  It’s fast and complex and louder than much of the other music.

Im Traume; which is the piece with cello, is also a bit different.  The cello uses just about every technique possible and the piano is “prepared” though played entirely on the keyboard.  It’s still mostly a fairly quiet, thoughtful place despite the sometimes odd range of sounds from the cello. though it does get more abrasive a couple of times.

The two harpsichord pieces were the ones I found most interesting.  Fall uses live electronics; delay, reverb and spatialization, added to a generally high, rather ethereal part for the harpsichord though with some very loud crashes and bangs thrown in.  I rather like live electronics.  It makes the piece seem more “alive”.  Jardin secret II uses a pre-recorded tape of the composer’s voice and breathing noises plus some recorded harpsichord elements.  The live harpsichord part is mostly a kind of manic chattering with surprising atonal crescendi.  Most interesting.

It was recorded at Järvenpää Hall and Organo Hall at the Helsinki Music Centre in 2024 ad has a pretty natural sound.  The electronics sound pretty much as I imagine they would sound live.  It’s available as a physical CD, MP3 and WAV/ALAC/FLAC in 44.1kHz/16bit and 96kHz/24bit.  I listened to the high resolution version.  There’s a booklet with comprehensive notes by Hakkila.

I guess this is a bit of a byway in terms of Saariaho’s output but I think it’s of interest to anyone who has heard and enjoyed her music for other forces.

Catalogue information: Ondine Records ODE 1469_2