Wednesday’s concert in the RBA was a challenging programme of song by contemporary women composers presented by soprano Ariane Cossette and pianist Brian Cho. Kaija Saariaho’s Quatre instants sets four related poems by Amin Maalouf. In some ways it’s in the same sort of psychological space as their L’amour de loin; love at a distance, love requited and unrequited, love sensual and quasi-spiritual, but musically it’s very different. It’s much more abrasive and (mostly) less lyrical. Sometimes its really busy and quite angry. It’s also very, very complex and often quite loud, demanding great skill and stamina from both performers. The piano part features loads of trills and arpeggiation and the vocal line has awkward intervals and even screaming. It was handled really well.
operaramblings 