Events

Kajana Pačko, cello
Danijel Detoni, piano

 

Kaija Saariaho: Sept papillons, za violončelo
Dubravko Detoni: Assonance 1, za violončelo i klavir
Kaija Saariaho: Balada, za klavir
Tibor Szirovicza: Alchemist, za violončelo i elektroniku 
Vjekoslav Nježić: As the Time, za klavir
Philip Glass: Tissue No. 7, za violončelo i klavir
Kaija Saariaho: Im traume, za violončelo i klavir

 

Sept Papillons is dedicated to cellist Anssi Karttunen, one of the most famous Finnish musicians and a longtime friend of Kaija Saariaho. She composed these seven miniatures after and during rehearsals for the opera L'Amour de loin. In contrast to the themes in the opera that explore eternal love and death, Kaija turns to the butterfly as a symbol of ephemerality.

 

Im traume commingles two textures: the more stable harmonic foundations and elements that constantly change colours and textures. The interplay of sound and noise produces melodies, bigger structures and phrases that define the dynamics of the piece. More abstractly, the noise becomes dissonance, while smoother sounds become consonance. Inspired by the music of Finnish composer Erik Bergman, the composition attempts, in Kaija’s words, to “capture the logic of dreams”.

 

Kaija wrote Ballade at the behest of pianist Emanuel Ax, who wanted a composition precisely of that title. She said that: “In this short piece, I wanted to create a melody that emerges from the texture and then descends into it again, a piece constantly oscillating between a complex, multi-layered texture, to focused, simple lines, and back again.”

 

In Assonance 1, Dubravko Detoni explores the overtones, echoes, and the reaction of silence to interrupted sounding, as well as the relationship between unsynchronised, incomplete lines that complement each other through their dissonance. Although the score is fixed, different tonal and noise possibilities give the impression of freedom of improvisation. A dozen different parts of the composition fit effortlessly into a whole, discovering new possibilities and the limits of instrumental virtuosity.

 

Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho was one of the most important contemporary composers, known for her innovative fusion of acoustic and electronic music and expressive, textural compositions.

 

Dubravko Detoni is an award-winning composer, writer, and musician. In 1971, he founded the first specialised ensemble devoted to contemporary music in Croatia, the Ensemble of the Center for New Tendencies Zagreb (ACEZANTEZ).

 

Cellist Kajana Pačko and pianist Danijel Detoni have been playing music together for over 10 years. Together they recorded two LPs, the Journey Through Europe and a compilation album for the label Le Chant de Linos. Kajana was born in Split, and studied in Zagreb, Berlin and Salzburg. She teaches at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theater in Leipzig. She is a member of the Gewandhaus orchestra and the artistic director of the ZAGREBplus festival. Danijel started his musical education in Zagreb and went on to study in Budapest and Paris. He teaches piano and chamber music at the Academy of Music in Zagreb.