Kaija Saariaho Works for Cello – Petals; Spins and Spells; Près; Sept Papillons; Neiges Joanna Gutowska (cello) Dux DUX 1686 62:37 mins
Based in London, cellist Joanna Gutowska recently completed doctoral studies in Krakow on ‘new qualities of sound and expression’ in Saariaho’s cello works. In this enterprising solo album she translates the insights gained onto the instrument itself, tracing the composer’s thinking over a critical 12 years, 1988-2000.
Two of the five works here incorporate electronics, while a third – Neiges (1998) – is scored for eight (or 12) cellos, with Gutowska multitracking each part. What may be lost in the coming together of different performers is made up for in single-minded intensity, as the abstracted snow of the title falls, freezes, drips and crunches through an array of textures, now dense, now diaphanous. It’s an approach echoed in different ways across the album, whose range of colour is huge. In Petals (1988) and Près (1992), the electronics unmoor the cello in a multitude of ways while enhancing its visceral physicality – and it’s the localised tension between these poles that Gutowski most effectively captures throughout.
The scordatura of Spins and Spells (1996) adds a different resonance still. But it’s the acoustic, concert-tuned Sept papillons (2000) that prove most potent in all their fluttering, abrasive nuance; miniature in form yet vast in expressive power.
Steph Power