Soprano Karita Mattila and female composer Kaija Saariaho share not only popular star status in the classical musical world but also a fruitful musical collaboration and friendship. Their latest is Mirage, the setting of a tranceinduced incantation text by the Mexican healer María Sabína (1894-1985). This recording features the work's world premiere performance in Paris on March 13, 2008. The ecstatic 15-minute piece is written for the unique combination of soprano, cello and orchestra, featuring cellist Anssi Karttunen and the Orchestre de Paris under its music director Christoph Eschenbach. "Few singers other than Mattila will be able to hurl the voice into such high ecstasy, bend its tones and express the entire transformation in such racked yet exultant body language. (...) this is a small but important work in Saariaho's increasingly fruitful development."--The Times Anssi Karttunen performs also in Notes on Light, a cello concerto which Saariaho wrote for him in 2006. The CD also includes Orion, the largest orchestral work Saariaho has written to date.

帕斯卡．杜沙品（1955年生）是目前法國最當紅的現代音樂作曲家，2003年2月巴黎巴士底歌劇院不但首演其最新歌劇作品，整場演出還贏得評論家大獎。他是現代音樂巨擘顯納吉斯的門生，曾任里昂國家管弦樂團駐團作曲家，1995年獲頒法國文化部的國家音樂大獎，曲風深受多元文化影響（包括文學、哲學、詩篇等等），此外也蘊藏著對現代生活的關注。本輯收錄杜沙品分別以四位鋼琴家（包括來過台北的魯狄）為對象的《七首鋼琴練習曲》，以及應德國波昂委託為紀念貝多芬逝世175週年所寫的《鋼琴協奏曲》。後者有一個拉丁文標題《因為（a quia）》，此字義相當耐人尋味，它意指中世紀學術詰問之時，被問的一方答不出來，只能喃喃說道：「因為....因為....」，所以此曲獨奏鋼琴和管弦樂團的關係跟傳統協奏曲大相逕庭。英國鋼琴家伊安．佩斯出身牛津皇后學院和紐約朱麗亞音樂院，主要師事巴爾托克的門生山多教授，曾首演超過百首現代音樂作品。本輯另附一張DVD，拍攝作曲家杜沙品的訪談以及排練場景，整體可謂有史以來最精緻的現代音樂企劃。
ian pace piano
orchestre de paris
christoph eschenbach