Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Notes on Light, for cello and orchestra (2006)
I. Translucent, Secret
II. On Fire [4:47]
III. Awakening [8:09]
IV. Eclipse [16:01]
V. Heart of Light [20:40]
Anssi Karttunen, cello
Orchestre de Paris
Christoph Eschenbach
On the last page of the score Saariaho has included a quote from T. S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land:
"... I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence."
Kaija Saariaho’s works are not narrative in the sense that they would describe a specific event or tell a story. Nevertheless, through the musical textures and also through their titles they tend to evoke the listener’s imagination and provoke emotions. The title of the cello concerto, Notes on Light, gives a visual stimulus which is emphasized by the headings of the five movements. The piece starts ’Translucent, secret’ and the imaginary journey ends with ’Heart of Light’. The only direct litetary reference in the work is the quotation from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land on last page of the score, as the composer’s guiding post scriptum after the music has finished.
It is more fruitful to see Notes on Light in the context of Kaija Saariaho’s own œuvre than in the historical line of the concerto tradition. Before starting to write she studied the cello concerto repertoire, especially the conertos of Elgar, Dvorák and Schumann, but finally there is practically nothing that has been filtered to Notes on Light. The key elements of the great romantic concertos, virtuosic cello writing and expressive melodic lines on the A string, are absent in Saariaho’s aesthetics.
Kaija Saariaho’s music is born from a contact with musicians. Of her two previous concertos the first, Graal théâtre, 1994, was written for Gidon Kremer, whose playing inspired her to dedicate a work for him. Camilla Hoitenga was the solist designed for the flute concerto, Aile du songe in 2001.
If one would name one performer who has accompanied Kaija Saariaho most faithfully throughout her career, it is Anssi Karttunen, who has worked very closely with her since the last 25 years or so. According to the composer, it is Karttunen’s personality that inspires her most while writing for the cello. ”Through his playing, Anssi can create magical atmospheres like no one else” she confirms, and adds that in fact, the collaboration most often starts only when the piece is written. Then, Anssi may propose technical adjustments to certain details after trying them out. For Karttunen Kaija Saariaho is able to write very delicate, even fragmentary textures, yet he is able to make the music carry up to the audience.
Although Notes on Light is Saariaho’s first cello concerto in the traditional sense of the word, she has proposed other works where cello plays a central role, like ...à la fumée (1990) for flute, cello, orchestra and electronics, and Amers (1992) for cello, chamber ensemble and electronics, both naturally for Karttunen. Notes on Light is clearly a synthesis of all the music for cello Kaija Saariaho has written so far, both musically and technically.
As regards the form, Notes on Light may mark an endpoint in Saariaho’s production. The two previous concertos were divided into two main movements, whereas the most recent one is set in five separate parts. The pieces that have followed the concerto, Mirage (2007) for soprano, cello (again!) and orchestra and Laterna magica (2008) for orchestra, to be premiered by the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2009, are in one continuous movement. In Notes on Light the five movements allow the composer to play on contrasting elements, juxtaposing different characters abrubtly. The material from where the music derives from is, as Anssi Karttunen analyzes in his note, seemingly simple, but Kaija Saariaho is able to put it in different guises and to light it from different angles, showing the richness of the underlying structure.
The orchestra, deprived of other brass instruments except the horns, is always transparent, leaving the cello to be heard even in the very quiet passages. Energy is not created through making a lot of noice but through more subtle means. Yet, at times, especially in the second movement, the music achieves an almost violent driving force. The relationship of cello and orchestra is not as if a hero was having a battle with a crowd, as in the traditional concerto, but more a picture of an object seen in different lights. Every turn of the kaleidoscope gives a new image, another note on light. When you come to the end, all that is left is silence, the other side of sound. Or darkness, the heart of light. --Risto Nieminen
Art by Santiago Rusiñol
Notes on Light, for cello and orchestra (2006)
I. Translucent, Secret
II. On Fire [4:47]
III. Awakening [8:09]
IV. Eclipse [16:01]
V. Heart of Light [20:40]
Anssi Karttunen, cello
Orchestre de Paris
Christoph Eschenbach
On the last page of the score Saariaho has included a quote from T. S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land:
"... I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence."
Kaija Saariaho’s works are not narrative in the sense that they would describe a specific event or tell a story. Nevertheless, through the musical textures and also through their titles they tend to evoke the listener’s imagination and provoke emotions. The title of the cello concerto, Notes on Light, gives a visual stimulus which is emphasized by the headings of the five movements. The piece starts ’Translucent, secret’ and the imaginary journey ends with ’Heart of Light’. The only direct litetary reference in the work is the quotation from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land on last page of the score, as the composer’s guiding post scriptum after the music has finished.
It is more fruitful to see Notes on Light in the context of Kaija Saariaho’s own œuvre than in the historical line of the concerto tradition. Before starting to write she studied the cello concerto repertoire, especially the conertos of Elgar, Dvorák and Schumann, but finally there is practically nothing that has been filtered to Notes on Light. The key elements of the great romantic concertos, virtuosic cello writing and expressive melodic lines on the A string, are absent in Saariaho’s aesthetics.
Kaija Saariaho’s music is born from a contact with musicians. Of her two previous concertos the first, Graal théâtre, 1994, was written for Gidon Kremer, whose playing inspired her to dedicate a work for him. Camilla Hoitenga was the solist designed for the flute concerto, Aile du songe in 2001.
If one would name one performer who has accompanied Kaija Saariaho most faithfully throughout her career, it is Anssi Karttunen, who has worked very closely with her since the last 25 years or so. According to the composer, it is Karttunen’s personality that inspires her most while writing for the cello. ”Through his playing, Anssi can create magical atmospheres like no one else” she confirms, and adds that in fact, the collaboration most often starts only when the piece is written. Then, Anssi may propose technical adjustments to certain details after trying them out. For Karttunen Kaija Saariaho is able to write very delicate, even fragmentary textures, yet he is able to make the music carry up to the audience.
Although Notes on Light is Saariaho’s first cello concerto in the traditional sense of the word, she has proposed other works where cello plays a central role, like ...à la fumée (1990) for flute, cello, orchestra and electronics, and Amers (1992) for cello, chamber ensemble and electronics, both naturally for Karttunen. Notes on Light is clearly a synthesis of all the music for cello Kaija Saariaho has written so far, both musically and technically.
As regards the form, Notes on Light may mark an endpoint in Saariaho’s production. The two previous concertos were divided into two main movements, whereas the most recent one is set in five separate parts. The pieces that have followed the concerto, Mirage (2007) for soprano, cello (again!) and orchestra and Laterna magica (2008) for orchestra, to be premiered by the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2009, are in one continuous movement. In Notes on Light the five movements allow the composer to play on contrasting elements, juxtaposing different characters abrubtly. The material from where the music derives from is, as Anssi Karttunen analyzes in his note, seemingly simple, but Kaija Saariaho is able to put it in different guises and to light it from different angles, showing the richness of the underlying structure.
The orchestra, deprived of other brass instruments except the horns, is always transparent, leaving the cello to be heard even in the very quiet passages. Energy is not created through making a lot of noice but through more subtle means. Yet, at times, especially in the second movement, the music achieves an almost violent driving force. The relationship of cello and orchestra is not as if a hero was having a battle with a crowd, as in the traditional concerto, but more a picture of an object seen in different lights. Every turn of the kaleidoscope gives a new image, another note on light. When you come to the end, all that is left is silence, the other side of sound. Or darkness, the heart of light. --Risto Nieminen
Art by Santiago Rusiñol
