Estonian Chair Members Prave lireat Cultural Ambassadors lt4'USIC Estonian Philharmonic
Chamber Chair With the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. At the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Sunday. February 20
• Br DDU6£AS HUIIHBS Having fought throughout the 20th century to gain independence from hordes of foreign invaders, the small Baltic nation of Estonia has more recently struggled with equal force to establish itself as one of the most musically prodigious realms in Europe. In the last two or three decades it has turned out many remarkable conductors, instrumental soloists, vocalists, and composers whose works have won worldwide acceptance. Estonia's artistic achievements could not have been better demonstrated than they were in this phenomenal concert by its philharmonic chamber choir and chamber orchestra, both of which enliven the cultural life of Tallinn, its bustling capital city. Under the fine hand of conductor Tonu Kaljuste, the ensemble performed three motets by Johann Sebastian Bach with profound attention to detail, flawless rhythmic precision, and the kind of intense emotional commitment that revealed their composer to be more of a romantic than the starchy musical mathematician many people take him for. In the final motet-"Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied" ("Sing unto the Lord a new song")-rivers of glorious polyphonic sound spiralled ever upward to reach what I can only call an apotheosis. That may seem an exaggeration. But take my word for it: it is not. Turning to music by Estonian composers, the ensemble began with Cyrillus Kreek's setting of Psalm 1, "Omnis on inimene" ("Blessed is the man"). A pleasant enough a cappella work, it rang with an almost Elgarian Victorianism, which, I suppose, could be expected from a man who was born in 1889, and who served his country as one of its most revered teachers until his death in 1962. Estonian modernism came to the fore, however, in a short but remarkable piece by the renowned Arvo Part. Excerpted from a larger work called Kanon
Under conductor Tonu Kaljuste, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and its orchestra performed gripping renditions of old and modem works.
embraces not only religion but also the arts, sciences, and humanities. He is not so much an evangelist as a gentle conciliator who-in simple words and occasional flashes of humour, if not wit-offers wisdom and comfort to bruised spirits. When not speaking, Moore listened in rapt attention to members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the choral ensemble Music lar the Saul known as musica intima as they performed, under the direction of A Vancouver Symphony Orchestra presentation. Clyde Mitchell, a number of conAt the Chan Centre for the Performing cise works culled from the classical Arts on Friday. February 78 and romantic repertoires (including • Br DDU6£AS HU6HBS Ludwig van Beethoven's rarely That the Chan Centre was almost performed Elegy for Chorus and full for this event was not surpris- Orchestra), and others by living ing. After all, the guest soloist-if comp<)sers. Among the living were he may be called that-was Ameri- the Estonians Urmas. Sisask can theologian, composer, and and Arvo Part, and the British author Thomas Moore, whose Columbians Rodney Sharman book Care of the Soul has brought (whose choral Anthem was striking) Pokajanen (Canon of Repentance), and David Gordon "Kondakian & Ikos" Duke (whose Canticle was performed a capfor strings began somepella by the choir's Sounds both ominous gentle what amorphously, male singers. Sombre, slow, and fluid escaJie from beneath the OJien lid then melted into in tonality, it owes some rich harmonies). of a JlreJiared Jliano. Moore was represented its origin, according as a composer, too, by to Part, to Slavonic manuscripts from his poignant settings the seventh and eighth centuries solace to two million readers since of the Shaker songs "The Humble that celebrate the appearance of it appeared in 1992. His subse- Heart" and "Verdant Groves". Christ on Earth. quent and slender volumes of In his first such appearance, Next came a gripping perfor- meditations have enjoyed similar Moore seemed a tad shy. But he mance of a setting of the Requiem success with readers challenged by gained confidence as he went Mass by Erkki-Sven Tiiiir. At 41, what they view as a socially and along and earned a standing ovaTOur is one of Estonia's younger technologically byzantine society. tion when he heaped heartfelt composers. As his age indicates, he It was a simple presentation. On and well-deserved praise on the grew into musical maturity in the a stage illuminated by a large bank VSO, musica intima, and even latter half of the 20th century, of flickering white candles, Moore Vancouver itself. when he was influenced not only took his place in an overstuffed Afterward, I ran into the VSO's by classical formalism but also by leather armchair. From there, he president and general manager, rock, jazz, and odds and ends of read brief, ruminative, and often Barry McCarton. Overjoyed by the pop culture. Pulling all these entertaining passages from his success of the show, he told me strings together, he came up with a texts, citing as his sources such that he is planning to make Music stunning, sometimes biting, some- figures as Aristotle, Boethius, and for the Soul an annual event and times lyrical setting of the Mass in even Saturn-the harvest god after will invite a variety of literary perwhich key signatures, tonalities, whom the ancient Romans named sonalities to appear. and rhythmic values shift all over their annual December blowout "Next year," he said, beaming, the place but still maintain a sense known as the Saturnalia, vestiges "it's Salman Rushdie." of organization and balance. of which live on in what we celeHe could have been joshing, of course. If not, I am certain that a Strings slide, dip, shimmer, and brate as Christmas. Although he was raised a devout Rushdie audience would differ often shriek; sounds both ominous and gentle escape from beneath Catholic and spent 12 years of his vastly from a Moore audience. the open lid of a prepared piano; youth as a monk in the church's Now, try to imagine what kind of crescendos give way to sudden and Servite order, Moore now addresses music would best accommodate unexpected diminuendos (and vice his public from a perspective that readings from The Satanic Verses. • versa); and voices reverberate with both gloom and ardour as the text demands. At its conclusion, I could only think that if Giuseppe Verdi brought the 19th century to close with a setting of the Mass appropriate to the age, TOur closed the 20th century in much the same way.•
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