{"id":13108,"date":"2018-02-01T21:39:51","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T19:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/2018\/02\/concert-review-estonian-philharmonic-chamber-choir-milton-court-ec2\/"},"modified":"2018-02-02T13:31:20","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T11:31:20","slug":"concert-review-estonian-philharmonic-chamber-choir-milton-court-ec2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/2018\/02\/concert-review-estonian-philharmonic-chamber-choir-milton-court-ec2\/","title":{"rendered":"Concert review: Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir at Milton Court, EC2"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"Article-header Theme--times2\">\n<div class=\"Article-headerContainer Article-container\">\n<p class=\"Standfirst Standfirst--article Article-standfirst\">Even when P\u00e4rt\u2019s melodic lines outstayed their welcome, we could bask in the choir\u2019s perfect intonation, dazzling tone and unanimity of attack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"Article-body Article-container Theme--times2\">\n<div class=\"Article-content \">\n<p>The dress code for the performers was rigorous black, while the repertoire initially exuded only grey and white. Yet the night still had a festive air; this was the first UK event this year to celebrate the centenary of Estonia\u2019s independence from the Russian Empire in February 1918. Estonia\u2019s prime minister, Juri Ratas, came along.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the most welcome visitors were surely the marvellous singers of the Estonian Philharmonic Choir and their conductor Kaspars Putnins. Even when Part\u2019s rising or falling melodic lines cumulatively outstayed their welcome,\u00a0<span class=\"paywall-EAB47CFD\">we could always bask in the choir\u2019s perfect intonation, dazzling clean tone and unanimity of attack. Every vocal strand had depth, not least the basses, who rooted the textures with a rounded solidity that always seems beyond British throats.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"Article-content paywall-EAB47CFD\">\n<p>Among the Part collection the early \u201choly minimalist\u201d classic\u00a0<i>Summa<\/i>was dispatched with grave beauty, while\u00a0<i>Dopo la vittoria<\/i>, composed in 1996 in homage to St Ambrose, offered a welcome increase in speed and colours just when I was beginning to feel too bleached.<\/p>\n<p>Much more variety featured in the second half. Haunting British music arrived with Jonathan Harvey\u2019s late and mesmerising\u00a0<i>Plainsongs for Peace and Light<\/i>. Estonia\u2019s folk music crept into the easy harmonies of two pieces by Cyrillus Kreek. And who could resist Veljo Tormis\u2019s\u00a0<i>Curse Upon Iron<\/i>, 11 incantatory minutes accompanied by drum thwacks, briskly spattered with the Estonian words for plutonium, saliva and, at one point, \u201cboghole\u2019s ore\u201d? Frankly I\u2019d be happy to hear Putnins\u2019s choir sing even worse words than that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even when P\u00e4rt\u2019s melodic lines outstayed their welcome, we could bask in the choir\u2019s perfect intonation, dazzling tone and unanimity of attack. The dress code for the performers was rigorous black, while the repertoire initially exuded only grey and white. Yet the night still had a festive air; this was the first UK event this [&hellip;]<\/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-13108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13108","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=13108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13108\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efk.epcc.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}