Susanna Mälkki remembers composer Kaija Saariaho

When celebrated Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho died last year of brain cancer at age 70, it was an especially big blow to conductor Susanna Mälkki, a fellow countryman and a close friend and collaborator.

“This was a devastating loss in so many ways,” said Mälkki, who like Saariaho has lived in Paris for many years. “She didn’t want people to know that she was severely ill, but I was among those who knew, so I was kind of accompanying her during those couple of years, and we became even closer.”

The conductor, who will lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a set of concerts March 21-24, called herself “an admirer but also a trusted collaborator and kind of a confidante.” Mälkki led several debuts of Saariaho’s works, including the 2021 world premiere of Vista. The work was a co-commission of the Helsinki, Berlin, Oslo and Los Angeles philharmonics.

“It was a fantastic to have a close person in the business,” Mälkki said of the composer. “We could speak about many things, so we became friends as well.”

“It was a fantastic to have a close person in the business,” Mälkki said of the composer. “We could speak about many things, so we became friends as well.”

Although she wrote in a variety of instrumental forms, Saariaho has had a particularly important impact on the operatic world, especially her first effort in that realm, L’Amour de loin (Love from Afar).

The mythical love story debuted at the Salzburg Opera in 2000 and was an immediate success. Three years later, it received its American premiere at the Santa Fe Opera and earned Saariaho the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. 

In 2016, L’Amour became only the second opera by a female composer to be staged at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Mälkki was in the pit for the milestone, becoming just the fourth female conductor to lead a production at the company.

The conductor was “much more than people yet realize” an innovator in bringing new aural elements to the symphonic and opera worlds, exploring music vs. noise and sound vs. silence and all the gray areas in between.

“Her tonal language was very original, and it’s almost in a philosophical, phenomenological way that her music makes us listen differently,” Mälkki said. “I think she really, truly renewed the way an orchestra can sound. She can show the influences of spectral music and [include] modernist elements, but she really made everything her own. She had her own style from very early on.”

“I think she really, truly renewed the way an orchestra can sound. She can show the influences of spectral music and [include] modernist elements, but she really made everything her own. She had her own style from very early on.”

Mälkki believes Saariaho will be one of the composing names that is remembered from our time. “The history of music is always a history of strong individuals,” she said, “and when we speak about different styles, we remember those who created them, whether it would be Ligeti or Stockhausen. The great people have their own very, very specific fingerprint, and Kaija definitely had that.”

Works by Kaija Saariaho performed by the Chicago Symphony:

• Du cristal, Feb. 21-23, 2002, Orchestra Hall, Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
• Aile du songe, July 6, 2002, Ravinia Festival, Camila Hoitenga, flute, Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
• Cinq reflets de L’amour de Loin, June 28, 2023, Ravinia Festival, Heidi Grant Murphy, soprano, Brett Polegato, baritone, Robert Spano, conductor
• Orion, 25-27 and March 2, 2010, Orchestra Hall, Gianandrea Noseda, conductor