Anu Tali’s previous disc, reviewed here back in 2002, was highly
impressive, featuring well-known music by Sibelius and Debussy,
but also works by her Estonian compatriot Veljo Tormis. In
this latest issue, she extends her repertoire to take in the
younger generation of Estonian composers, represented by the
very talented Erkki-Sven Tüür, still in his mid-forties. The
orchestra is the same as previously, but the Estonian-Finnish
Symphony Orchestra has now been re-named, more snappily, as
the Nordic Symphony Orchestra; it remains the creature of Tali
and her sister Kadri, who is the orchestra’s manager.
Tüür’s Zeitraum (“Time-Space” might be an approximate
translation) occupies the first track on the disc. After
a rather predictably snarling opening (how many recent European
orchestral works project this sort of generalised dystopia?),
it gradually establishes a real momentum gained from the opposition
of different musical ‘movements’ – big slow-moving dissonant
piles, glittering tuned percussion, energetic string music strongly
reminiscent of Steve Reich. As so often with contemporary music,
it proceeds by a series of striking gestures, but, although
the work is too short to fully work these out, there is a sense
of culmination, and a feeling that the composer really has something
to say.
That same rather grim persona is present in parts of Action
Passion Illusion, whose three movements occupy tracks three
to five. But the more economical forces – strings only rather
than the very large orchestra for Zeitraum – and the
three-movement structure seem to have inspired the composer
to give us more variety, and to reveal more of himself in the
process. Action is, as the title would lead you to expect,
a dynamic, energetic movement, which owes much to Bartók, Stravinsky
and other modern masters of string writing. It is also clearly
tonal, though the key-centres are often obscured by clusters
of dissonance. The ‘fade-out’ ending is cunningly achieved.
The opening of Passion seems anything but passionate
– melodic phrases slowly unwinding out of mirky depths. But
Tüür is thinking long-term, and the music builds up inexorably,
again establishing definite tonal centres, which appear regularly
like landmarks through a dense mist. As the climax is reached,
the tightly controlled lines explode, or disintegrate into a
teeming cloud, which then softly resolves. A wonderful movement
this, and a fine use of the infinite potential for texture that
exists within the medium of the string orchestra.
Illusion is more conventional, and listeners will
no doubt, like me, discern influences from a variety of sources.
But that is no bad thing, indeed it’s refreshing to find a young
(ish) composer with his own distinctive voice who is yet prepared
to place himself firmly within a tradition.
The Sibelius is an early oddity about which there is little
to say, except that it betrays a certain haste in its composition;
there are long patches in the music where, frankly, very little
happens. Lovers of the Karelia Suite will instantly
recognise the authentic voice of early Sibelius in the horn-calls
of the opening, however odd the piano may sound in the background!
The music of the forest, though, as the hero Björn falls under
the spell of the Wood Nymph, is genuinely magical.
The Rachmaninov choral songs are a rather different matter.
Written in the 1920s in the USA, they seem to reflect the composer’s
unquenchable nostalgia for his native Russia. The lush orchestration
(listen to the echoes of Debussy’s Sirène at the start
of number one) and rich harmonies are in reality completely
at odds with the ingenuous and unremarkable folk verses which
form the text. The choral forces are peculiar; no sopranos
or tenors, basses only in the first song, altos only in the
second, while in the third, these two voices sing mostly in
octaves.
The producers were probably right to select Action Passion
Illusion as the title of this disc; it is the most engaging
and interesting work here. As a whole, though, I couldn’t shake
off a sense of slight disappointment in the choice of music
that makes up the programme. Nonetheless, the standard of the
performing is high – the strings of the Nordic Symphony Orchestra
are particularly impressive in their piece – though the tone
of the Latvian State Choir basses and altos does leave a little
to be desired, as does their slight tendency to sing under
the note.
Gwyn
Parry-Jones
