With Guitars and Bassoons

The second world premiere at Suvisoitto comes from Tiina Myllärinen, who describes her new work as follows:

“The piece explores the rich, exceptionally beautiful, and often delicate shades of the guitar (shade referring to colour, nuance, or timbre). The process of composing it has also been enriched by my long-standing friendships with all the members of the quartet, as well as by my own relationship with the guitar, which is my instrument. These are precisely the reasons why I have especially enjoyed writing this piece.”

Wubbels’ work for three bassoons is an altarpiece dedicated to the Swedish pioneer of abstract art, Hilma af Klint (1862–1944). The bassoon is fundamentally a monophonic instrument, but through special fingerings it can produce so-called multiphonics—complex, multi-layered sonorities. Wubbels uses these sounds to create a vast and constantly shifting spectrum of colours, drawing inspiration from af Klint’s paintings. At the same time, he has created a score consisting of graphic representations of fingerings, so visually striking that individual pages could easily be framed and hung on a wall as artworks in their own right.

Together with its four guitars and three bassoons, this concert forms a small Suvisoitto series of works written for homogeneous ensembles. It is complemented by Márton Illés’ piece for six clarinets (and piano), heard in the opening concert, creating a fascinating exploration of the sonic possibilities of closely related instrumental groups.