River Stretches Through the Heat

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River Streches Through the Heat
for flute, guitar and viola
Requested by Patrik Kleemola
Fbp: Erica Nygård: flute, Patrik Kleemola: guitar, Torsten Tiebout: viola
28th April 2021, Sibelius Museum, Turku, Finland
Broadcasting by Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE
CD: Pertti Jalava – And I left the Door Open (Pilfink Records)

I composed the trio River Stretches Through the Heat at the suggestion of guitarist Patrik Kleemola. During one of our joint working sessions in my study, Patrik said that the atmosphere of the work reminded him of Joseph Conrad's novel "Heart of Darkness". In the novel, a man takes a ship along the Congo River deep into the Congo, ruled and plundered by King Leopold II of Belgium with extreme brutality, to meet the mysterious ivory merchant Kurtz. While reading the book, I found that the drowsy gliding in a dense and somewhat oppressive mood matched the atmosphere of the book to such an extent that I could no longer see the events of my composition elsewhere than on the grinding river. The three movements of this work are played without a break. The last part is the shortest and most moving, as if the events on the river were caught up in an inexorable and fatal vortex.