Tonight, January 30, the LA Phil led by Susanna Mälkki present the US premiere of Kaija Saariaho's HUSH, a trumpet concerto written for the evenings soloist, Verneri Pohjola.
Saariaho completed HUSH, her self-proclaimed “journey to silence,” during her final months with terminal brain cancer in 2023. Dedicated to jazz trumpeter Verneri Pohjola, Saariaho’s concerto features the trumpet growling from its lowest register and gliding downward like a ghost among the orchestra.
Following a moving UK premiere last week, the work is now to be performed twice in LA, once tonight and again on February 2. The programme will open with Schubert’s chilling yet charming two-movement symphony, nicknamed the “Unfinished,” and will close with Strauss' own musical exploration of what lies beyond life itself with Death and Transfiguration which illustrates, with stunning harmonies and masterful orchestration, a man’s physiological and psychological deterioration.