Estonian Premieres
Works by Tauno Aints, Tõnu Kōrvits, Ülo Krigul, Lepo Sumera and Helena Tulve
Estonian Festival Orchestra/Paavo Järvi
Alpha Classics ALPHA 863 58:35 mins
Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi has long championed his homeland’s orchestral composers, and the combination of his tautly expressive Estonian Festival Orchestra (EFO) and the five creatively diverse voices here is captivating. All are aged between 44 and 53 – except for the much-missed Lepo Sumera (1950-2000), whose Olympic Music I makes a poignant album close. Written for a 1980 Moscow Olympics opening ceremony, its intriguing contrasts helped lay the groundwork for the robust, surging soundscapes of younger peers while looking forward to his own six symphonies to come.
Sumera’s Olympic Music I makes a poignant album close
Tauno Aints (b1978) is more overtly muscular in his 2014 Ouverture Estonia, composed for the Pärnu Music Festival which had birthed Järvi’s EFO three years before. Yet the celebration is initially overcast by clouds which only slowly dissipate. The ‘shadow behind you’ becomes a starting point for Helena Tulve (b1972), in whose L’ombre derrière toi a flickering, undulating string orchestra supports and envelops a resonant solo trio of viola and two cellos (Máté Szücs, Indrek Leivategija and Marius Järvi).
Two works by Ülo Krigul (b1978) colourfully explore ambiguities of title and sound: – chords, accord, a string – and – string-playing, a physical gesture of acknowledgement. Most striking and affecting, Tõnu Kõrvits (b1969) offers an exquisite paean . Written as a lockdown ‘Three Blues for Symphony Orchestra’, his smudged harmonies and melting textures fashion melancholy into something
