Mihkel KEREM (b.1981)
Symphony no.3 'For the Victims of Communism' (2003) [26:48]
Lamento, for solo viola and strings (2008/2009) [8:54]
String Sextet (2004) [29:33]
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra/Mikk Murdvee
Tallinn Chamber Orchestra/Mikk Murdvee (viola) (Lamento)
Tallinn Ensemble (Sextet)
rec. Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn, 11-12 January 2012 (Symphony); 29 February
2012 (Lamento); Fraternity Hall, House of Blackheads, Tallinn, 2 March 2012
(Sextet). DDD.
TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC 0173 [65:16]
Mihkel Kerem is an Estonian violinist and composer, and in the latter capacity
he made his debut on a Toccata recording released early last year, a collection
of his marvellously mature early violin sonatas (TOCC 0140, review).
This equally excellent follow-up gives music lovers the opportunity to hear
Kerem's skill and imagination applied on the symphonic scale, as well
as in a pair of larger-scale chamber works, all in premiere recordings.
Kerem's symphony title is naively provocative, to put it mildly, a
controversy added to by the cover photo depicting concentration camp inmates.
For Kerem this work attempts "to remind people of the dangers of autocracy
and its ideologies", particularly with regard to "the dangerous
downside of selective amnesia" over "what went on in the Soviet
Union". Yet surely the only victims of communism are ideological ones,
those in thrall to its doctrines and dogmas? Communism is a political idea;
it takes an organisation or state to start incarcerating, torturing and killing.
Kerem also clearly conflates soviet communism and autocracy - Putin's
capitalist Russia is in many ways as autocratic as it was post Stalin.
At any rate, the music is provocative too, in the sense that it pushes the
tonally attuned listener into uncomfortable places at times, whilst the relentlessly
repeated motif towards the end of the first movement veers towards film-score
minimalism. Yet this is all part of the attraction of Kerem's music
- a highly expressive blend of two parts traditional tonality, one part modernism
and one part postmodernism, sounding in the symphony not unlike Shostakovich
in ironic mode, though sometimes reminiscent of a contemporary version of
Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. In his notes, in fact, Kerem admits to
adapting Shostakovich's style as the only way to get into the writing
of the work.
Whatever it sounds like, though, it is an outstanding work, sure to leave
the listener wondering if Toccata have any plans for Kerem's first
two symphonies. The Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, though little
known outside eastern Europe, can boast a fifty-year association with Neeme
Järvi and a sizeable discography championing many regional composers. Under
Mikk Murdvee's direction the listener finds them here in compelling
form.
The remaining items are for smaller forces and strings only. Lamento certainly
lives up to its title, a mournful, desolate work darkening the atmosphere
still further after the symphony. The viola (in the original scoring a cello)
represents "a lone human voice in a world of disappointment", though
it is easy to imagine the piece as another threnody for the war dead. Murdvee
is back again to conduct, but also as soloist. He went to school with Kerem,
and a lasting friendship has seen him give the premiere as dedicatee of many
of Kerem's works, including the more recent violin sonata no.3 and
the sonata for solo violin. Needless to say, Murdvee was soloist on TOCC 0140.
He is also a fine violist, as evidenced by his searing performance of the
Lamento.
The string sextet offers some respite from the gloominess, originating in
Kerem's mind as a kind of 'prequel' to Schoenberg's
Verklärte Nacht, imagining the woman in question in a state of emotional
turmoil the night before she takes the moonlit walk to confess her pregnancy.
Appropriating some of Schoenberg's material as the work does, the listener
must accept numerous pages of extreme chromaticism, although the ending is
firmly in the key of D major, expressive of sunrise and sweet sleep at last.
The Tallinn Ensemble - including Murdvee now on violin! - have the
technique and endurance for a persuasive reading of this imposing addition
to the string sextet repertoire.
Sound quality is very good throughout. The accompanying booklet is rather
slim, but Kerem's own notes are informative. In short, this is another
hugely impressive entry in Toccata's continuing series devoted to 20th
and 21st century Baltic music, hitherto undeservedly neglected. Other revelations
include Peteris Plakidis (review),
Vytautas Bacevicius (review,
review),
Ester Mägi (review),
Veljo Tormis (review)
and Heino Eller (review).
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
Another hugely impressive entry in Toccata's continuing series devoted
to 20th and 21st century Baltic music, hitherto undeservedly neglected.
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this disc through MusicWeb
for £10.50 postage paid world-wide.
