Roso
Roso is a 10-minute, single-movement piece for flute, clarinet, baritone saxophone, and piano. It was premiered at the Club Ny concert in Helsinki on January 4th, 2023, and the video above is of a performance at the Ung Nordisk Musik festival in Örebro, Sweden, where it was chosen as one of the works to represent Finland in August 2024.
The piece got its initial spark when my student colleagues Livia Schweizer, Iines Kiuru, Anna-Sofia Anttonen, and Niina Ranta held a concert in October 2019 with this ensemble. The theme of the concert was decadence, and the program featured works that were considered decadent in their own era. The concert was capped off with a singalong of the Vera Telenius schlager "Miljoona ruusua" ('A million roses'). The attitude of the group, the visibly sparkling play, and the quirks of the program inspired me to write them a piece which carries the karaoke earworm along all the way. The title "Roso" ('rough surface') simultaneously refers to roses and the non-smooth surfaces in the piece, abundantly provided by riffs from the baritone saxophone and the low register of the piano.