Veljo Tormis
LITANY TO THUNDER

ECM 1687 CD 465 223-2


Cover photo The record has got an annual prise "Diapason d'or de l'année, palmarès 2000" of a french classical music magazine "Diapason" in the category of choral music.
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Un aperçu varié et passionnant sur une musique d'une étonnante vitalité, d'une grande énergie, authentiquement folk, empreinte de magie et de surnaturel.
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DIAPASON / FR - Novembre 2000

 

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A choral work like almost everything in Tormis's sizeable oeuvre, Litany bears the clear imprint of his researches into Estonian folk music with its hypnotically repetitive "runo-songs" and shamanistic incantations. There are echoes of Bartok and Kodaly here in Tormis's search for his roots, and of Britten in his reliance on an essentially simple musical language. The debt to minimalism is equally clear. But the work has a primal power all of its own. Unadorned folk melodies, baleful chanting, guttural shouts and other vocal effects and, not least, the terrifying rhythmic beating of the shamanic drum, combine to produce an experience unlike anything else in contemporary Western music.
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THE INDEPENDENT / UK - November 4, 1999 / Paul Richardson

 

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Estonian composer Veljo Tormis's second ECM disc is a remarkable achievment, a varied selection of choral works from Sixties to the present day whose very simplicity forces the listener to consider what's going on 'behind' the music.
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The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir gives immaculate, often breathtakingly beautyful performances throughout the disk in a close but resonant acoustic.

BBC MUSIC MAGASINE - December 1999 / David Kettle

 

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This second ECM release features the same highly capable performers as before.
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Tormis argues that he writes "classical choral music" that tries to preserve the authenticity of the material, and he give sources for his songs. However, it's also been claimed that much of the Estonian choral tradition is German in origin. But if Tormis himself contributes to the invention of folk tradition, the results are justified by their musical beauty and purity.

CLASSIC CD / UK - Christmas 1999 / Andy Hamilton

 

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The music on this CD is strikingly beautiful, and fresh and challenging like a stiff Baltic breeze. The Estonian choir performs with incredible virtuosity, and the soloists, mostly taken from the choir, sing with discipline while retaining a natural, non-operatic quality. The engineering is superb; this CD was recorded in the Estonian Concert Hall in Talinn. Strike up another unusual and artistically thought-provoking disc from Manfred Eicher and his team at ECM New Series.

CLASSICAL NET / http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/e/ecm65223a.html / Raymond Tuttle.

 


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