Ultimate recording. Deep concern for the fate of my tiny homeland, my people and our culture have keyed my creative work. I hope this CD succeeds in expressing those feelings. (Veljo Tormis)
Tõnu Kaljuste
ECM Records (ECM 1687)
Recorded August 1998 Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn
Tonmeister: Teije van Geest
Sarjas ECM New Series
2 bukletti (48 lk ja 6 lk)
Photos: Tõnu Tormis
Design: Sascha Kleis
Produced by Manfred Eicher
CD info
DiscogsLitany to thunder on Spotify
SpotifyCD info
MusicBrainzWhat a fascinating CD this is /---/ 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. (Raymond Tuttle, 2000)
Classical NetThe stylistic range of the other pieces varies from plainchant-style melodies and tangy, quartal harmonies straight out of Machaut to the arresting, 10-minute Curse Upon Iron in which the text is whispered, spoken, and intoned to the driving drum accompaniment of a shamanistic, pre-Christian ritual. Throughout, the music has an urgency to communicate that’s sometimes lacking in Pärt, and an emotional honesty the Bulgarian Women’s Choir misses in its more self-consciously exotic moments. (David Patrick Stearns 2000-01-02)
Classics TodayEstonian composer Veljo Tormis’s second ECM disc is a remarkable achievement, a varied selection of choral works from the Sixties to the present day whose very simplicity forces the listener to consider what’s going on ‘behind’ the music. The menacing Curse Upon Iron and the dramatic Litany to Thunder both invoke magic, the former a shamanistic spell communicating knowledge to the metal in order to gain power over it... (David Kettle)
Classical MusicCD info
RateYourMusic.There is nothing else in contemporary choral music that can be compared with "Curse Upon Iron", where the fierce declamations of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir are underpinned by the pounding pulse of a shaman's drum.
Singers.comCD info
ArkivMusicCD info
AllMusicAlbumi kirjeldus Eesti raamatukogude ühiskataloogis
ester.eeUnder Tõnu Kaljuste’s brilliant direction, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir explore the elemental character of the music: it often seems as much a force of nature as the storms, shipwrecks, and skies full of geese that crowd the song-texts. (ECM promotional materials, 1999)
ECM Records HomepageTormis’s vitality and aesthetic properties connect the peoples of this music as the shore connects land and sea, establishing a fluid relationship between fields of geography and tradition. Images transcend linguistic barriers. In so being heard, they live anew. (Tyran Grillo, 2012-11-13)
ECM ReviewsWhat a fascinating CD this is /---/ 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. (Raymond Tuttle, 2000)
Classical NetThe stylistic range of the other pieces varies from plainchant-style melodies and tangy, quartal harmonies straight out of Machaut to the arresting, 10-minute Curse Upon Iron in which the text is whispered, spoken, and intoned to the driving drum accompaniment of a shamanistic, pre-Christian ritual. Throughout, the music has an urgency to communicate that’s sometimes lacking in Pärt, and an emotional honesty the Bulgarian Women’s Choir misses in its more self-consciously exotic moments. (David Patrick Stearns 2000-01-02)
Classics TodayEstonian composer Veljo Tormis’s second ECM disc is a remarkable achievement, a varied selection of choral works from the Sixties to the present day whose very simplicity forces the listener to consider what’s going on ‘behind’ the music. The menacing Curse Upon Iron and the dramatic Litany to Thunder both invoke magic, the former a shamanistic spell communicating knowledge to the metal in order to gain power over it... (David Kettle)
Classical MusicThere is nothing else in contemporary choral music that can be compared with "Curse Upon Iron", where the fierce declamations of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir are underpinned by the pounding pulse of a shaman's drum.
Singers.comTormis’s vitality and aesthetic properties connect the peoples of this music as the shore connects land and sea, establishing a fluid relationship between fields of geography and tradition. Images transcend linguistic barriers. In so being heard, they live anew. (Tyran Grillo, 2012-11-13)
ECM ReviewsCD info
DiscogsCD info
MusicBrainzCD info
RateYourMusic.CD info
ArkivMusicCD info
AllMusicAlbumi kirjeldus Eesti raamatukogude ühiskataloogis
ester.ee