Kaija Saariaho: Leino Songs (Komsi, Oramo, FRSO)

LEINO SONGS (orchestra version, 2007)
Anu Komsi, soprano
Sakari Oramo, conductor
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Finlandia Hall, Helsinki, October 24, 2008 (European premiere)
Published by Chester Music Ltd
www.wisemusicc...
TEXTS BY EINO LEINO (1878-1926):
I. I WATCH YOU
I watch you with dazzled eyes
like I would a beautiful rainbow,
I close my eyes to remember you like
the sea wanderer the luxuriant island.
I look at you with quiet breath
like I would at an image of my mother dear,
and I believe the angels of childhood
must be floating somewhere near.
(from the collection Yökehrääjä, 1897)
II. MY HEART
I.
My heart, what are you sawing?
Are you sawing planks,
four of them for me,
for me to lie down in,
to lie down in and be glad?
It is iron I am sawing,
it is chains I am breaking,
for your soul
to be free,
your sorrowful soul.
II.
My heart, what are you whispering?
Are you whispering the wondrous
path of the days,
the trail through the rocks,
to the stars in the sky?
What I am whispering is the dark
poem of the underworld,
the gorges, the ailments
beyond words,
the beatitude of the prideful.
(from the collection Talviyö, 1905)
III. PEACE
What are these scents around me?
What is this quietness?
What does it foretell, this peace in my heart,
so grand, so strange, so new?
I can hear the wildflowers growing
and in the forest the trees talking.
This could be when they bloom, my dreams
and my hopes and everything I sowed.
Everything is so quiet around me,
everything is so gentle and good.
Great flowers are opening in my heart
and their scent is that of deepest peace.
(from the collection Sata ja yksi laulua, 1898)
IV. EVENING PRAYER
Sleep, sleep, sleep,
into slumber deep.
Snow, snow, snow,
over the black earth.
Night, night, night,
is when the night birds fly.
Work, work, work
is where the torments can rest.
Fly, fly, fly,
rumination of man!
Go, go, go
lie down, for it is time.
(from the collection Sata ja yksi laulua, 1898)
Texts by Eino Leino
Translations by Aleksi Barrière