{"id":12311,"date":"2017-05-09T12:21:33","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T09:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/2017\/05\/tonu-korvits-moorland-elegies-2\/"},"modified":"2017-06-13T12:23:30","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T09:23:30","slug":"tonu-korvits-moorland-elegies-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/2017\/05\/tonu-korvits-moorland-elegies-2\/","title":{"rendered":"T\u00f5nu K\u00f5rvits. Moorland Elegies"},"content":{"rendered":"

K\u00d5RVITS Moreland Elegies\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>\u0097\u00a0 Risto Joost, cond; Jaanika Kilgi (s); Marianne P\u00e4rna (a); Estonian P Chamber O & Ch\u00a0 \u0097\u00a0 ONDINE 13062 (54:00 &)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In Fanfare <\/em>40:1 Raymond Tuttle reviewed with unmitigated enthusiasm an ECM recording devoted to the music of T\u00f5nu K\u00f5rvits. K\u00f5rvits is an Estonian composer born in 1969, and Tuttle\u2019s review motivated me to explore other recordings of his work. By the time I was assigned this new release I had already become an enthusiast. Moreland Elegies <\/em>only reinforces that enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

A major orchestral choral work with two soloists, Moreland Elegies <\/em>was composed in 2015 and premiered by the forces who perform it here. K\u00f5rvits sets poems of Emily Bront\u00eb, and the austere mood evoked by the author of Wuthering Heights<\/em> is perfect for his quiet, inward-looking musical personality. Certainly one feels the influence of Estonia\u2019s Arvo P\u00e4rt on K\u00f5rvits, but this music is by no means a copy, any more than Beethoven is a copy of Mozart or Haydn. K\u00f5rvits has a wider palette of colors and moods than P\u00e4rt, and he calls upon the whole range in this exploration of Bront\u00eb\u2019s fragile and intimate verse. Some of the pieces reflect utter despair and a harrowing emptiness (The Night is Darkening Around Me<\/em>, the third movement). Then for contrast there are the contrasting paeans to nature (Fall, Leaves, Fall<\/em> and The Sun Has Set<\/em>). The work\u2019s conclusion, a setting of Month After Month<\/em>, reminds me of Shostakovich\u2014not so much musically as emotionally. Much of Shostakovich\u2019s music ends in ambiguity, and so it is with K\u00f5rvits here. The final poem goes,<\/p>\n

Month after month, year after year,<\/em><\/p>\n

My harp has poured a dreary strain;<\/em><\/p>\n

At length a livelier note shall cheer<\/em><\/p>\n

And pleasure tune its chords again<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

What thought the stars and fair moonlight<\/em><\/p>\n

Are quenched in morning dull and grey?<\/em><\/p>\n

They were but tokens of the night,<\/em><\/p>\n

And this, my soul, is day<\/em><\/p>\n

The music lingers on the word \u201csoul,\u201d and we think that there is a glimmer of optimism and positivity to the music\u2019s resolution, but we also wonder if that is our own desire forcing an interpretation on the score.<\/p>\n

The settings are in Bront\u00eb\u2019s English, not in Estonian, and Ondine helpfully provides the texts. There are excellent notes about both the composer and the work. The recorded sound is spacious and reverberant, which feels appropriate for the music. Although one has no point of comparison, the performances feel ideal. This is a very, very beautiful disc.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/fanfarearchive.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

K\u00d5RVITS Moreland Elegies\u00a0 \u0097\u00a0 Risto Joost, cond; Jaanika Kilgi (s); Marianne P\u00e4rna (a); Estonian P Chamber O & Ch\u00a0 \u0097\u00a0 ONDINE 13062 (54:00 &)   In Fanfare 40:1 Raymond Tuttle reviewed with unmitigated enthusiasm an ECM recording devoted to the music of T\u00f5nu K\u00f5rvits. K\u00f5rvits is an Estonian composer born in 1969, and Tuttle\u2019s review […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}