"The silence that follows Notes on Light is one of the most precious moments that a musician can ever experience. I am very fortunate to have heard that silence so many times,” says Anssi Karttunen of the work, which he premiered in 2007 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste. He has performed it over 50 times since then, including with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Orchestre de Paris and the New World Symphony.
The work, described by its dedicatee Anssi Karttunen as “a rich voyage that could well lead us into the very heart of light”, is now on the programme at the Philharmonie Berlin. On 29 April, it will be performed in a concert by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, which, under the baton of Sakari Oramo, will also perform works by Sibelius and Dvořák.
"Like a painter with his brush, Anssi Karttunen uses his bow like a true colourist, adding fine strokes or vast areas of colour to the shimmering iridescences that Kaija Saariaho uses so well", wrote the online music magazine Bachtrack in its review of Anssi Karttunen’s performance of Notes on Light at the Philharmonie de Paris during a memorial concert for the composer, who passed away in 2023. The cellist was a close friend of Kaija Saariaho and also premiered numerous other works by her.
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
