Some
time ago, I found a copy of the superb
ECM recording of Tormis’ large-scale
cycle Forgotten Peoples
(ECM 1459/60); and from then on, I have
been completely hooked. A recent re-issue
of an earlier Finlandia disc with some
more choral works (APEX 0927 49871-2)
consolidated my first impressions, so
that I was delighted to be able to listen
to the present release offering more
hitherto unrecorded works, which all
make for some highly enjoyable listening.
Contrary to the other
records, this one includes some original
works such as the Two Songs after
Ernst Enno composed some fifty
years apart, in 1948 (the composer was
then 18!) and in 1998 respectively.
There is little, if any, noteworthy
stylistic difference between the two
pieces, which says much for the real
quality of the earlier setting. The
first song is dedicated "to [my]
youthful dream" and the second
to the composer’s wife after nearly
fifty years of happy marriage. The Three
Songs from the Estonian epos "Kalevipoeg"
were written in memory of the composer’s
mother who died while he was studying
in Moscow. The first song was completed
in 1954 whereas the other songs were
added some time later.
With the other works,
we are back on more familiar ground.
All are based on Estonian folk songs,
in turn serious, dreamy, meditative
and humorous, as in the delightful Estonian
Children Songs. Just listen
to the third song Tihane (the
tomtit) [track 15] or the sixth song
on a text imitating a cat’s purring
[track 17]. The remarkable thing about
Tormis’ folk song settings is the composer’s
imagination in varying the original
tunes with much subtlety (and, by so
doing, proving Constant Lambert entirely
wrong!).
These performances
by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber
Choir conducted by Kaljuste are all
highly idiomatic, superbly sung with
much tonal variety. If you know any
of the aforementioned recordings, you
may safely look for this one and be
ready for much musical pleasure. If
you do not, then you might start either
with this one or with the APEX re-issue,
although the ECM recording of Forgotten
Peoples is the best possible
introduction to Tormis’ music. Now,
I hope that Kaljuste will soon record
some of Tormis’ large-scale choral-orchestral
works still conspicuously absent from
his present discography.
Hubert Culot
see also review
by Rob Barnett
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir/Tōnu
Kaljuste 
