#219 The Smell of Celestial Blue

The landscape of this song unwinds slowly, heavenly, and it never stops. There's no place to stop, no borders, it shines in all directions.

Upshaw is walking in the landscape. Dignified, humble. Always, always...

Composer: Kaija Saariaho
Work: Château de l'âme, II. A la terre
Recording: Dawn Upshaw, Schoenberg Choir, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen

#151 The Smell of Bitter Waves

Big shapes, big areas. Grand harmonies. It's really chorus-like orchestral sound. The waves are coming from and disappearing to nowhere. It is calm and it is bitter.

Sharp string echoes, and the smell is returning again and again, pulsing bitterness. Forget about Beethoven: At 10'37'', this is the fate knocking on the door, this is the tempest. After that, sky is clear. All conflicts are gone.

Composer: Arvo Pärt
Work: Symphony No 4, II. Affannoso
Recording: Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen

#88 The Smell of Eternity

It's very easy to love Credo. The heavenly choir parts, the fight with eternal fires, the primitive and subtle and humble piano line, so clean and pure it goes to heaven in the finale.

Here Pärt reaches the same eternity Bach does: the shivering, the light, the magic touch of something not coming from this world. It is easy to love Credo: it's about love.

Composer: Arvo Pärt
Work: Credo
Recording: Hélène Grimaud, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Esa-Pekka Salonen

#85 The Smell of Answered Desires

It's amazing how true this concert is, how good it is in answering question, pleas and desires. The assuring piano line against the doubts in strings like at 4'15''... Positive, self-assured music. It knows exactly where it's going.

Bronfman and Salonen understand each other, and it's always a pleasure to hear them together. Salonen wrote his piano concerto at the end of his LAP tenure, and he would like to focus more on composing now. Good for him, good for us.

Composer: Esa-Pekka Salonen
Work: Piano Concerto, Movement II
Recording: Yefim Bronfman, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen