Quatre Instants (orchestral version) (2002)

Of the three works played last night, this cycle of four songs–turned into a monodrama which could rival Schoenberg’s Erwartung in style–was the most stunning and unexpected work on the program. [...]

In an evening which promised to be “an enjoyable one”, Quatre Instants was an ecstasy that transcended mere enjoyment. Turning the ephemera of music into (I foresee) an everlasting memory.

Their dramatic power over exquisite orchestral backdrops seems perfectly tailored to Mattila's histrionic abilities.

It was a bold statement of intent to start the [BBCSO] season with the British premiere of the orchestral version of Saariaho's song cycle … The first of the four songs suspended Brewer's voice in a fluid orchestral texture, a musical metaphor for the image of a lover as a 'boat adrift' on the sea. There was a sharper sense of drama in the second, Torment, as Brewer submitted to the desires of her lover. The final songs returned to the ambiguity of the opening song, evocations of intimacy and despair brilliantly realised by Brewer. Saraste has become Saariaho's most sympathetic interpreter, and he coaxed a diaphanous soundworld from the BBCSO.

[Christine] Brewer is impressive and impassive in equal measure … the orchestral arrangement was all gain, with Saariaho summoning up a lush, fascinating soundscape, sensuously charged in the way a piano could never evoke. Saraste again showed his special feeling for Saariaho's music.

Finland is probably one of the least musically elitist countries in the world. The evidence for this is the country’s recent enthusiasm with contemporary music in the past few years. 'As at the time of Sibelius, people come from their home towns just to hear new compositions, because they think that they might miss something of great importance if they fail to attend the premiere of a piece.' This happened with the performance of the new version of Quatre Instants, by Kaija Saariaho. Of course this was intensified by the fact that the soloist was the great Karita Mattila, the Finnish diva who is not often heard in her own country. In commissioning Kaija Saariaho for the chamber orchestra version of Quatre Instants, Jukka-Pekka Saraste managed to create the summer event of Finland. The original vocal cycle was performed in April in Paris by Karita Mattila with pianist Tuija Hakkila.

Finnish soloists were the driving force of the fourth Ekenäs Festival...The soprano [Karita Mattila] has revealed herself to be irresistible in any genre. When she appeared at the world premiere with the orchestra of Quatre Instants by Kaija Saariaho, dressed in a roman style, in captivating red, she seemed surrounded by an aura of mythology. In reality she managed to immerse herself with body and soul into a wave of intense sensuality.
'Je suis la barque qui derive' (I am the small boat who drifts), she [Karita Mattila] says in perfect French reciting poems by Amin Maalouf, and everyone is ready to 'keel over' with her. This vocal cycle will surely become a core work within the repertoire of the 21st century. It [Quatre Instants] represents an important evolution in Saariaho’s lyricism after her opera, L’Amour de loin, written from a libretto by the same author. The music ceases to be subliminal and becomes the transmission of real-life.