Kaija Saariaho: L'Amour de Loin

The Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho combines influences ranging from those of her teacher Brian Ferneyhough—the English composer famed for his musical complexity—to the inwardness of Japanese Buddhism. Her opera L’Amour de Loin (Love From Afar), inspired by the poetry of the 12th-century French troubadour Jaufré Rudel, tells a story of courtly love. In it, Jaufré travels from afar to meet the object of his love (who he has never met), only to expire almost as soon as he and his beloved Clémence declare their feelings for each other. The opera, to a libretto by Amin Maalouf and premiered at the 2000 Salzburg Festival, won the 2003 Grawemeyer Award for composition, and this recording was made in Berlin in 2006 and 2008. The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, under Kent Nagano, reveals every detail in this sombre, glistening, otherworldly score. The baritone Daniel Belcher as Jaufré Rudel and Ekaterina Lekhina as Clémence give magical performances.