Helena TULVE (b. 1972)
Reyah hadas'ala (2005) [14:10] a
silences/larmes (2006) [11:06] b
L'Equinoxe de l'âme (2008) [11:19] c
Arboles lloran por lluvia (2006) [12:22] d
Extinction des choses vues (2007) [11:51] e
Charles Barbier (counter-tenor)a; Taniel Kirikal (counter-tenor)ad; Vox Clamantisad; Ensemble Hortus Musicusa; Jaan-Eik Tulveacd; Arianna Savall (soprano)bcd; Marco Ambrosini (nyckelharpa)d; NYYD Quartetc; Estonian National Symphony Orchestra/Olari Eltsd
rec. St. Nicholas Church, Tallinn, October 2009 (Reyah hadas'ala); Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn, May 2010 (Extinction des choses vues) and Church of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, Tallinn, August and September 2001 (other works)
Texts and translation included
ECM NEW SERIES 2243 [61:13]
Helena Tulve's music was known to me by just one short
piece Traces (2001) so I welcomed the
opportunity to hear more. Incidentally this turned out to be the
second ECM disc entirely devoted to her music and I realised that
I still have to listen to the earlier one.
Things being what they are, this CD provides a fair portrait in
that these five pieces are clearly different in character while
obviously from the same pen and mind. This says much for Helena
Tulve's musical personality. All five were composed within
a fairly short time-span from 2005 to 2008.
Reyah hadas'ala is a setting
for voices and early music consort of a text by Shalom Shabazi
- a Yemenite poet, rabbi and mystic in the 17th century.
I derived this information from the often detailed though not
always useful insert notes by Kristina Kõrver. Tulve is
not the only Estonian composer to have composed for Ensemble Hortus
Musicus. Among the others are Lepo Sumera, Erkki-Sven Tüür
and Galina Grigorjeva whose Con misterio
(2001) is particularly beautiful. The short text is repeated several
times in different guises although Gregorian chant is a prominent
characteristic of the music that definitely does not aim at imitating
the oriental. The result is beautiful and quite moving and I have
returned to this piece repeatedly.
The next work silences/larmes is a setting
of five very short texts by Mother Immaculata Astré, the
current Abbess of Le Pesquié in France. The musical setting
for soprano, oboe, glasses and wind chimes (the latter played
by the composer) neatly reflects the utter brevity of the texts.
However, Tulve's imagination has it that these epigrammatic
settings are packed with invention and suggest much in spite,
or because, of their concision. The fourth of these haiku is whispered
just at the verge of inaudibility - what the notes describe as
“the quiet climax”. Emphasis is put on the purity
of the sung lines and Arianna Savall's delivery is just
marvellous, her voice sometimes suggesting some mysterious instrument
– for example, the ondes Martenot. She deploys supple, wide-leaping
melodic lines.
L'Equinoxe de l'âme
for soprano, triple harp and string quartet is different again
although it shares some features with silences/larmes,
particularly so in the vocal part. The source is a text by a 12th
century Sufi mystic but heard here in a French translation. The
text is about the Simurgh, a mythical bird who feeds on fire and
whose nest is on the borderline between the visible and invisible
worlds. Savall who also plays the triple harp's part is
again superb in this very fine work that also repays repeated
hearings. It actually needs them because some parts of this setting
are not as straightforward as one might think.
Arboles lloran por lluvia (“Trees
cry for rain”) which gives this release its title is a setting
for soprano, nyckelharpa and voices of a traditional poetic text
of Sephardic Jews. Although the opening and the coda suggest drops
of rain, the main body is a love song: “Trees cry for rain/and
so the mountains for air./And so my eyes cry/for you, my beloved”.
This beautiful setting is probably the most straightforward work
in this release, which does not mean that it is easy to sing but
the way it is done is immediately perceived for what it is: a
deeply moving love-song. Now, I hear someone ask : what's
a nyckelharpa? I had to check this myself and it turns out that
it is a Scandinavian fiddle. This may be the only drawback concerning
this beautiful work in that one is not likely to find a nyckelharpa
player everywhere in the world. The part may probably be substituted
by a viola which – to me at least – sounds more or
less the same.
I have always been and still am taken aback by the variety of
sources often quoted by contemporary composers when commenting
on their music or their works. Helena Tulve mentions that the
musical ideas of Extinction des choses vues
are derived from a text by the Jesuit thinker Michel de Certeau.
Well, maybe, maybe not. I am not quite sure how far this helps
in getting any further insight into a splendid orchestral work
whose structure is fairly clear. The music opens in complete ambiguity
and progressively settles, then gains further momentum by adding
layer upon layer until reaching an almost chaotic climax. This
is followed by an eerie, static episode providing a completely
inconclusive close: the extinction of things seen/heard? This
is yet another very fine work that shows that Tulve has a fine
ear for telling instrumental and orchestral gestures.
I have listened repeatedly to this superb release for the expressive
strength of the music, the excellent performances apparently all
in the composer's presence and the very fine recording
of the kind one has come to expect from ECM. The often detailed
insert notes deserve to be mentioned too although – as is
often the case with this label – they tend to be a bit too
high flown while omitting basic information that the average music-lover
would like to have: composition dates and information on some
unusual instruments that may be at play in the music.
Make no mistake: this is one of the finest discs to have come
my way recently.
Hubert Culot
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