Joonas Kokkonen

The Hades of the Birds

Piano reduction available for the first time! Joonas Kokkonen's The Hades of the Birds consists of three songs, two shorter ones framing a longer middle one. The chosen poems were by P. Mustapää (alias Martti Haavio, 1899-1973), and their appeal lay for him in their 'simply unique mysticism'. The music merges seamlessly with the moods of the poems, closely reacting to the textual nuances.

The original Hades of the Birds was scored for orchestra. Kokkonen did not make a piano version as such because he had always conceived of it as orchestral. The importance of the orchestral element should not, however, be overemphasised, because this is a work painted in clear, delicate, water-colours, not in heavy, colourful brush-strokes. For colour was, he said, always only a secondary factor for him. Hence the piano version also seeks to bring out the essential musical substance of the work.