Esa-Pekka Salonen

YTA III

Esa-Pekka Salonen's YTA III for solo Cello. This work was written for Anssi Karttunen, who gave the first performance at the Musiikin aika Festival, Viitasaari, Finland, on 23rd July 1987. ' I began to work on the YTA series in 1982. The first piece was for solo alto flute, the second for pianoand the third for cello. The title, 'Yta', is a Swedish word meaning 'surface'. I wanted to write verydemanding virtuoso music, where the surface is extremely busy, but the formal process, partly hiddenbehind the frenetic stream of fast gestures, is considerably slower. I tried to imagine what happens to the famous moth that circles around a lamp in Skryabin's Versla flamme, after the wings have finally touched the flame. A series of gestures is introduced in thebeginning. Each gesture undergoes an individual development, culminating in spasms before dyingaway. YTA III is a study of the death of an organism; the music is violent and ugly. ' - Esa-Pekka Salonen