Finnish composer Outi Tarkiainen continues to share her music with major orchestras across the United States, with new commissions from the San Francisco Symphony and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
From January 22-24, San Francisco Symphony presents the US Premiere of Tarkiainen’s The Rapids of Life, which was composed in 2023, shortly after the composer gave birth to her third child. “The form of the work imitates the physiological delivery and its different stages,” notes Tarkiainen, “carried along by the ever-shifting waves.” The Rapids of Life is co-commissioned by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Radio 3, Göteborg Symfoniker, and Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. It is the composer’s second commission from the San Francisco Symphony following the english horn concerto Milky Ways.
“While I was composing the piece,” she continues, “the news reached me of the death of Kaija Saariaho...The composition began to reflect her as a person; a little flash of her cello concerto slipped into the cello solo at the beginning, and many of the instruments that meant a lot to her appeared to bear the flame of life along. The piece ends with birth and a great new beginning.”
These San Francisco Symphony performances also mark Finnish conductor John Storgårds’ debut with the orchestra. He is the conductor who has almost singlehandedly introduced Tarkiainen’s music to the American orchestral community.
Read an interview with Storgårds’ on his relationship with Outi Tarkiainen and her music.
In his 2024 debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Storgårds’ programmed Tarkiainen’s Midnight Sun Variations, one of her best-known works. Two years later, the Boston Symphony presents the US Premiere of Day Night Day from April 2-4 and again April 8. All performances are conducted by Andris Nelsons, with an additional performance taking place at Carnegie Hall on April 10.
Day Night Day is co-commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Its soft quietude encapsulates the quality of icy winter light in Northern Finland, where Outi Tarkiainen currently resides. Its musical material is drawn from the composer’s forthcoming opera Day of Night, jointly commissioned by Aalto Musiktheater Essen and Finnish National Opera and Ballet.
Elsewhere in the states, The Ring of Fire and Love is performed by the Atlanta Symphony from February 26-28 with Nicholas Collon conducting, and by the Colorado Springs Philharmonic on March 14-15 with Michele di Russo conducting.
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