Kaija Saariaho

Ciel Etoile

Hypnotic Ciel Étoilé it means 'starry sky' in French uses the bass as a dark night of sound dotted with pointillist percussive sounds from the cymbals and crotales. The work is written in thirty-six bars, each one a 'star', played very slowly and at varying speeds.

Kaijai Saariaho is a contemporary Finnish composer living and working in Paris and considered to be part of the so-called 'French Spectralist' school of composition. Unlike many of her other works, Ciel Étoilé has no electronic extensions, but fully explores the multiple sonorities of the bass. She gained international renown for her first opera l'Amour du Loin and continues a prolific compositional life with a wide range of international performances.