Secret Gardens

Kaija Saariaho made no secret of how important dreams and poetry are to her musical imagination. In Nymphéa (jardin secret III), she explores the dark depths hidden beneath lovely water lilies with impressive electronics. “Glassy is the day,” she quotes Russian poet Arseni Tarkovsky, “but there must be more.” There is also a poem behind Trois rivières, which she weaves through the percussion. And then there is Lonh (‘far away’ in Provençal), after a medieval love story. The concert Verborgen Tuinen (Hidden Gardens) is an enchanting ode to this recently deceased composer.