Seasons Of Love [Concerto for Theremin by Kalevi Aho]

Clara Rockmore, in her “Theremin Method” published in 1998, defined thereminists as those who use the theremin as a voice to interpret real music, rather than a magic toy for producing strange and eerie sounds. Robert Moog once lamented that Leon Theremin invented an instrument with a unique sound, but musicians simply used it to play in existing musical styles.

I like Clara Rockmore, and I like Robert Moog. But which is better? There’s only one way to find out!

Kalevi Aho’s Theremin Concerto is a modern Modern Classical classic. I’ve heard Carolina Eyck perform it twice now, once in a streamed concert and once at the Royal Albert Hall during the 2022 BBC Proms. It bears repetition – I found the first time difficult, something I often find with modern classical, and I felt able to appreciate it much more the second time. There are eight movements, each corresponding to one of the eight seasons of the Sami – take that, Vivaldi! and there is a real sense of a cycle, with each movement a natural progression from the last.

Aho tends towards Moog’s vision for the theremin, celebrating its unique sound and properties – broad octave range, infinite legato, smooth glissando. There’s never a sense that the theremin is imitating a violin or any other instrument, in fact there are times when different sections of the orchestra often seem to be imitating the theremin. The concerto also features theremin and voice duets, Eyck’s speciality, and there are passages of abstract or perhaps magical sound as well as imitated birdsong.

Aho has described the theremin as a shamanistic instrument and its player as a magician. This is never more true than when watching Eyck’s highly expressive style of play, casting musical spells through movement. The Albert Hall was the perfect venue for a magic show. This is a performance space that feels like its’ own self-contained universe, and a universe in which it is completely normal to look up and see the inverted mushrooms floating above.

Although the focus is on the theremin, the concerto also stands out in its use of percussion, which is often subtle, but still central to every movement, and incidentally requiring a fascinating line-up of unusual percussive instruments and machines.