Works

Chamber music

Sensory Flashbacks (2024)

The Clarinet Quintet No. 2
clarinet, violin, viola, violoncello and piano
19'

1. Volatility
2. Swell
3. Scent
4. Skin
5. Flashbacks

Publisher: Edition Wilhelm Hansen

Time is inescapably linear. Yet our senses make it heave, float, refract. Our senses measure time in different ways: a familiar scent takes us decades back in time, and a skill once learnt can be instantly recalled. Our body also remembers things which our mind has preferred to forget.

When we moved back up north, we went to live in the house my father had built and where I grew up. In a couple of weeks, my body felt decades younger, and I began moving about like I did as a teenager. Watching my children triggered kinaesthetic memories of how the house felt to a child. Much later, my father said he still woke up in his old house every morning. His body could not believe that he was actually somewhere else. Our sensory memories are volatile – they may transport us back to a time we have lost, to those who are dear to us. The Clarinet Quintet No. 2 was commissioned by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, OUR Festival and Ensemble Temporum.

Score

Premiere: July 30, 2024
OUR Festival
Järvenpää Church, Järvenpää, Finland
Lauri Sallinen, clarinet, Elina Vähälä, violin, Riitta-Liisa Ristiluoma, viola,
Senja Rummukainen, cello and Johannes Piirto, piano

August 18, 2024 US premiere
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
Lensic Performing Arts Center, Santa Fe, USA
Todd Levy, clarinet, John Storgårds, violin,
Stephen Tenenbom, viola, Eric Kim, cello and Katia Skanavi, piano

October 21, 2024 Norwegian premiere
Cafeteateret, Oslo, Norway
Ensemble Temporum

October 23, 2024 Danish premiere
Matziussalen, Birkerød, Denmark
Ensemble Temporum

October 30, 2024 UK premiere
CCA Theatre, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Ensemble Temporum