Nieminen, Kai: Palomar (nel giardino fantastico)

The music of Finnish composer Kai Nieminen (b. 1953) does not conform to any “isms”. He remarks: “I feel like I am a painter in music, who having seen or experienced something attempts to give that something a shape in music.” The flute concerto Palomar was written for Patrick Gallois and premiered 2001 in Milan, Italy. The idea for his Flute Concerto came to Nieminen at the Villa Lante in Rome when he was kept awake by persistent birdsong in the heat of the night. The title alludes to the last novel, Palomar, by Italo Calvino. Though Nieminen finds inspiration in literature, the visual arts and nature, he has no desire to confine the listener to any programme. The aim of the extra-musical stimuli is at most to fire his listeners' imagination and to make them savour musical visions with a mind as open as that of Calvino's Mr Palomar examining the little wonders of the world around him. The orchestral score is available for sale (ISMN 9790550096370) and the performance material for hire from Fennica Gehrman.