Mirage , the latest work by Kaija Saariaho for soprano Karita Mattila and ‘cellist Anssi Karttunen receives its UK premiere with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Jiri Belohlavek, at the Barbican on Wednesday March 19. The text for Mirage is by Maria Sabina, a Mazatec healer and Shaman. Of the title Saariaho tells us …”maybe it has to do with the orchestral textures more than the whole. Maybe that is a kind of Mirage.” Of the solo roles she says “Well, there are not very clear divisions. Sometimes they express at the same time the same material. Sometimes the cello is developing the soprano material. In the beginning and in the middle there are two important passages which are only with cello and orchestra. So they are quite intertwined but of course each is doing things that the other cannot do.’ Mattila and Karttunen have collaborated many times with Saariaho on new work. Mirage promises to deliver something quite extraordinary as she brings them together for the first time.
