The flute is a weirdly Janus-faced instrument. Capable of seamless refinement, it is also the most primordial member of the orchestra: almost onomatopoeic in its invocation of breath, voice, and bird-song.
Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's flute concerto, Aile du Songe (Wing of Dream) investigates this rich multi-facetedness. Conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, the London Philharmonic Orchestra (one of the work's commissioners) gave the UK premiere of the concerto with Camilla Hoitenga.
The work's title is taken from a line in Saint-John Perse's poems, Oiseaux. Inspired by Perse's imagery, the music conjures a garden of birds. The piece ends with a musical invocation of a bird orbiting the Earth, like a tiny satellite.
But there's nothing narrowly programmatic about Saariaho's music. She creates a rich musical drama built around the ever-changing relationship between the solo flute and an unusual orchestra of strings, harp, and percussion.
In the first part, Aerial, the orchestra opens up a vast musical space. The flute's intricate lines are suspended between the heights of violin harmonics and depths of double-bass drones.
But the orchestra is coaxed into song by the flute's infectious melodies. Solo instruments emerge from the accompanying texture, mimicking the flute's bird-like refrains.
The result is dazzling. Saariaho creates a stunningly sensual sound world. But there is nothing cloying or sentimental about this evocation. Moments of violence interrupt the serene, static, surface of the music.
The concerto's second part, Terrestrial, develops this earthy energy. Hoitenga led the orchestra in a vibrant, volatile dance, and relished the bizarre noises made by singing and speaking into her instrument.
But the final moments suggested an other worldly transcendence. Hoitenga's bird escaped the influence of the orchestra, and ascended into the stratosphere of the flute's highest register.
What is remarkable is that Saariaho has transformed these elemental images into a movingly human drama. Jurowski depicted a still more fantastical bird in the second half: Stravinsky's Firebird. In its original, super-abundant orchestration, the legendary characters of Stravinsky's ballet were even more dazzling than usual.
