This Estonian Radio
disc is one of a series of four sponsored
by the Ministry of Culture of the Estonian
Republic. The site has received three
of the four volumes in the series courtesy
of Martin Anderson, one of the foremost
UK authorities on the Scandinavian/Baltic
scene. The recordings are culled from
very good quality Estonian broadcasting
tapes made and presumably broadcast
during the 1990s. Colleagues will be
reviewing the other two.
Ester Magi is
the only woman in this company. Her
Vesper has some similarities
with Hovhaness. At times the listener
will think that is going to be the Baltic
equivalent of Hovhaness's three Armenian
Rhapsodies. Unison massed strings sing
a dignified song leavened by some briefly
playful pizzicato decoration and some
quiet capricious play from the solo
violin (3.13). This was first written
for violin and piano and was arranged
for string orchestra in 1998.
Kangro's Display
IX is for wind and percussion ensemble
and bass guitar - part Kurt Weill, part
Shostakovich and part Stravinsky. This
is pawkily playful music, with hints
of Handel in collision with The Rite
of Spring, yawing trombone caterwauling
(6.53), jazzy dawn choruses and some
minimalist passages. It is all most
succinctly laid out for the ear. Stunningly
misbehaved music.
Then come Sumera's
Straussianly sumptuous Shakespeare
Sonnets. These would subsist happily
alongside Walton's Songs for the
Lord Mayor's Table, Strauss's Four
Last Songs and Nicholas Maw's Scenes
and Arias. The surprise is the role
for speaking voice and children's choir.
The writing in each case while starting
in some fairly super-heated romantic
realms becomes increasingly spare and
serene in its singable simplicity. The
words are printed in full which is helpful
because although Pirjo Levandi makes
a gorgeous sound (a natural for Rosenkavalier)
but you simply cannot hear individual
words. Sonnet 90 also sounds
positively operatic. The notes say that
these two pieces seem preparatory to
work on Sumera's 1997 opera Olivia's
Masterclass.
The ten minute Tamberg
piece is for an ensemble of flute,
clarinet, trumpet, percussion, piano
and cello. Its starts fast and furious
and draws on the sort of pawkily dissolute
humour you find in the Kangro piece.
Tulev's First
String Quartet is in three movements
lasting just over 11 minutes in total.
This is music of the contemporary ultima
thule with the instruments, groaning,
screeching, yowling and striving in
Penderecki-like torment amid moments
of Beethovenian striving (the late quartets)
and Tippett-like yearning. He is perhaps
a rather extreme version of Urmis Sisask
in his admirable devotion to seeking
that ‘ferne klang’ in some very arcane
regions.
Eespere's Glorificatio
is for soprano (Kaia Urb), smoothly
coaxing men's voices and orhcestra.
This is a sensationally serene and emotionally
affecting piece which is Rutter like
in its simplicity complete with entwining
solo violin and clarinet. This is a
superb discovery and I hope to hear
more of the works of Mr Eespere .. if
only.
Veljo Tormis has
written music for thirty films. His
music for the 1969 Kevade is
here featured in a five movement ten
minute suite. It is light as crane's
down, as melodic as Lars-Erik Larsson
and dramatic in Misadventure on Brittle
Ice. Each segment is like a miniature
atmospheric summary or delicate landscape.
This is music lucidly and accessibly
constructed and expressed - not exactly
memorable but affecting, playful and
in the final Spring Time instinct
with an arc of angelic joys somewhat
like the alleluias of the angels in
Finzi's In Terra Pax.
Like everything else
about this disc the booklet is extremely
well designed. It supplies all the essential
information in both Estonian and English.
A varied collection
in which even in the extremes of the
Tulev quartet the orientation towards
song is a common and smiling thread.
Rob Barnett
Tallinn Quartet (Tulev) 
