The late Kaija Saariaho's Mirage (2007) will open Friday evening's prom given by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The 12 minute work is a hypnotic snapshot of womanhood, and will feature soprano Silja Aalto and cellist Anssi Karttunen as soloists. The work was originally written for Karttunen to perform alongside Karita Mattila.
This extraordinary work draws on the situation found by those who went to southern Mexico in the 1960s to witness the trance states that Marla Sabina - a shaman of the Mazatec people - would attain with the aid of what she called 'holy children', but which became known more widely as 'magic mushrooms'. Also important to her practice were chants, which were recorded and translated into English. Saariaho sets one of these here, fusing the figures of soprano and shaman, with the cello perhaps as her instigator, questioner and interpreter.
Sakari Oramo will conduct the performance, which is to be followed by Seong-Jin Cho at the keys for Mozart's charming Piano Concerto No. 9, with the immense force of Strauss' Alpine Symphony after the interval.
