Kaspars Putnins, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir – Ülo Krigul: Liquid Turns (2022)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:05:49 minutes | 2,6 GB | Genre: Classical
Source: SACD | Artwork: Front cover | © BIS
“Ülo Krigul studied in Tallinn and Vienna, and has written music in a wide variety of genres. Three works on the present disc – And the Sea Arose, Aga vaata aina üles (‘But Look Always Up’) and liquid turns – were completed in 2019–20 when Krigul was composer-in-residence with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. Linked by a common concept and the recycling of musical material, the three form a triptych-like set, here preceded by Vesi ise (‘Water Is’) from 2015. The latter is the first piece that Krigul wrote for the choir and its conductor Kaspars Putniņš and includes ideas that has been carried over into their later collaboration. If Vesi ise here functions as a prelude, liquid turns is to an extent a summation of the programme: the composer has sampled text and music from the two preceding works and random phrases interact and emerge as a new whole. Krigul has chosen his texts from the New Testament, the writings of the philosopher Uku Masing and the sound poetry of Ilmar Laaban.”
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Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir – Arvo Pärt: Tractus (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:08 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM New Series
Tractus emphasizes Arvo Pärt compositions that blend the timbres of choir and string orchestra. New versions predominate, with focused performances from the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under Tõnu Kaljuste’s direction that invite alert and concentrated listening. From the opening composition Littlemore Tractus, which takes as its starting point consoling reflections from a sermon by John Henry Newman, the idea of change, transfiguration and renewal resonates, setting a tone for a recording whose character is one of summing up, looking inward, and reconciling with the past. Compositions included are Littlemore Tractus, Greater Antiphons, Cantique des degrés, Sequentia, L’abbé Agathon, These Words… and Veni creator. An evocative reworking of Vater unser for choir, strings and piano concludes this album. Recorded in Tallinn last year and produced by Manfred Eicher, Tractus extends the line of definitive Arvo Pärt albums begun on ECM New Series with the epochal Tabula rasa in 1984.
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Robin Blaze, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Paul Hillier – Tiovo Tulev: Songs (2008)
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 3,31 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 1,07 GB | Full Artwork
Label/Cat#: Hamronia Mundi USA # HMU 807452 | Country/Year: Europe 2008 | 3% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical, Sacred | Style: Present 21th Century, Vocal
For me, one of the highlights of the 2008 Edinburgh Festival was a concert given by the Esthonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, directed by Paul Hillier in their core repertoire of Baltic music. Many will be familiar with the choir from their series of Baltic Voices discs, and their reputation for precision, virtuosity and a uniquely vibrant timbre was amply displayed at that concert – as it is on this recording.
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Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir & Tõnu Kaljuste – Veljo Tormis: Reminiscentiae (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:23 minutes | 1,19 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM New Series
The elemental power of ancient folk music is the lifeforce that drives the compositions of Veljo Tormis (1930-2017). As the great Estonian composer famously said, “I do not use folk song. It is folk song that uses me.” This sentiment is echoed in definitive performances by the Estonian Philharmonic Choir and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Tõnu Kaljuste, for decades one of Tormis’s closest musical associates. Four orchestral cycles celebrate the changing seasons: Autumn Landscapes, Winter Patterns, Spring Sketches, Summer Motifs. And three pieces – Worry Breaks The Spirit, Hamlet’s Songs and Herding Calls – feature new arrangements by Tõnu Kaljuste, continuing and commemorating Tormis’s work. The album opens with The Tower Bell In My Village which Kaljuste commissioned 45 years ago. It sets words by Fernando Pessoa that seem entirely pertinent in the context of this tribute. “Oh death, it’s a bend in the road/You can’t be seen when you’ve passed by/But still your steps continue…” Reminiscentiae was recorded at Tallinn’s Methodist Church in October and November 2020.
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Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Paul Hillier – Rachmaninov: All-Night Vigil (2005)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 53:58 minutes | 885 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
World renowned conductor Paul Hillier leads the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir through Rachmaninov’s magnificent All-Night Vigil, often regarded as the capstone of Orthodox Church music. The breathtaking reading builds on a serene affirmation of religious faith, adding an array of timbral and harmonic effects and virtuosic techniques.
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Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Risto Joost – Tõnu Kõrvits: The Sound of Wings (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 54:30 minutes | 906 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ondine
Estonian composer Tõnu Kõrvits (b. 1969) belongs to his country’s most prominent composers. His works are rich with delicate atmosphere possessing a particularly Northern feel combined with a romantic and Impressionistic touch. This new album by the award-winning Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and conductor Risto Joost is the final volume in a trilogy of works for choir and orchestra.
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Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Tõnu Kaljuste, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir – Gesualdo (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:30 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM New Series
This absorbing project finds Australian composer Brett Dean and Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür drawing inspiration in very different ways from the music, life and times of Carlo Gesualdo and juxtaposes these reflections with Gesualdo’s own music.
The music of Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa (1566-1613) has exerted a powerful influence on composers down the ages. His highly-charged, mannerist, idiosyncratic vocal music constitutes “a gallery of dramatically-lit portraits of human emotions with a heavy emphasis on the extremes of joy and despair” (to quote former Hilliard Ensemble singer Gordon Jones).
Brett Dean’s „Carlo“ (composed 1997) begins with pure Gesualdo from the 6th Book of Madrigals, then gradually enters a very 20th century sound-world. Through use of both sampled and real-time voices as well as increasingly intense strings Dean paints an hallucinatory picture of the Prince of Verona’s state of mind as he is driven toward his violent crimes of passion (he murdered his wife and her lover when he caught them in flagrante delicto) .
Erkki Sven Tüür’s „L’Ombra di Gesualdo“ references the Gesualdo motet ‘O crux benedicta’ from the Cantiones sacrae, and Gesualdo’s piece is also heard in an arrangement for strings by Tüür. The programme is completed by Tüür’s ‘Psalmody’, which is without a Gesualdo-inspired subtext but it too cross-references older and newer music, within the narrower time-frame of Tüür’s own oeuvre.
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Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir & Kaspars Putniņš – Schnittke & Pärt: Choral Works (2) (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:00:12 minutes | 1007 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
As Alfred Schnittke and Arvo Pärt both adopted the Orthodox faith in the 1970s, Orthodox choral traditions became increasingly prominent in their work, but both composers also looked to the music of the Western church. Schnittke’s Three Sacred Hymns set three prayers, familiar in the West as “Ave Maria”, the “Jesus Prayer” and the “Lord’s Prayer”, and evoke Orthodox chant. His Choir Concerto, on the other hand, draws on Russian choral music of the 19th century and the tradition of large-scale concert works based on Orthodox choral music. The texts by the medieval Armenian poet Gregory of Narek are informed by a humanistic individualism, with the poet directly expressing his emotions and often writing in the first person.
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Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir – A New Joy: Orthodox Christmas (2006)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 55:24 minutes | 922 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
This Christmas CD includes Estonian, Russian, and Ukrainian unaccompanied liturgical music, hymns, and carols written for the Orthodox Church, which (except for the 1990 piece by Arvo Pärt, and Mykola Leontovych’s “A Song of Good Cheer,” known in the West as “Carol of the Bells”) were suppressed during the Soviet era and have only since then come to light. The music is for the most part written in a late Romantic tonal idiom in the choral tradition of Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, and Rachmaninov, and while some pieces have the Slavic gravity associated with Orthodox liturgical music, some have a simpler, folk-like flavor. Alexandr Kastalsky (1856-1926), Kirill Stetsenko (1882-1922), and Georgiy Izvekov (1874-1937) are the composers most generously represented, and their music, written for performance by church choirs rather than for professional singers, while not simple, is within the capability of many amateur groups and would be a welcome addition to the repertoire of Christmas music in Western churches.
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Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir – Ülo Krigul: Liquid Turns (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:49 minutes | 1,08 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
Ülo Krigul studied in Tallinn and Vienna, and has written music in a wide variety of genres. Three works presented here – And the Sea Arose, Aga vaata aina üles (“But Look Always Up”) and liquid turns – were completed in 2019-2020 when Krigul was composer-in-residence with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir.
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Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir & Kaspars Putniņš – Rachmaninoff: Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31 (Excerpts) (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:05 minutes | 940 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS
The music of the Russian Orthodox Church was an essential part of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s musical background. As a boy he was deeply moved by the sound of St. Petersburg’s cathedral choirs, and phrases reminiscent of liturgical chant permeate his music. His Vespers has long been admired as a summit of Russian liturgical music. It has unfortunately tended to overshadow the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, his earlier large-scale sacred composition. Named after the fourth-century Archbishop of Constantinople and Church Father, the Liturgy consists of a sequence of prayers, psalms and hymns, which are sung or chanted by the different participants in the service.
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