1999
CD
Germany
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)
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Eesti Filharmoonia Kammerkoor
Tõnu Kaljuste
ECM Records's credit of Label on Litany To Thunder (1999) (ECM 1687)
Sarjas ECM New Series
2 bukletti (48 lk ja 6 lk)
Photos: Tõnu Tormis
Design: Sascha Kleis
Produced by Manfred Eicher
Recorded August 1998 Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn
Tonmeister: Teije van Geest
Veljo Tormis
for two sopranos and piano
Eve Härma, Kadri Ratt (sopranid), Marrit Gerretz-Traksmann (klaver)
ISRC: DEB339868701
Veljo Tormis
for contralto and mixed choir
Karin Salumäe (kontraalt)
ISRC: DEB339868702
Veljo Tormis
for tenor, bass, mixed choir and shaman drum
Mati Turi (tenor), Allan Vurma (bass), Toivo Kivi (shamaani trumm)
ISRC: DEB339868703
Veljo Tormis
for soprano and female choir
Raili Jaanson (sopran)
ISRC: DEB339868704
Veljo Tormis
for tenor and male choir
Mati Turi (tenor)
ISRC: DEB339868705
Veljo Tormis
for countertenor, two tenors and male choir
Kaia Urb (sopran), Mikk Üleoja, Tiit Kogerman (tenor)
ISRC: DEB339868706
Veljo Tormis
for tenor, bass, male choir and bass drum
Mati Turi (tenor), Allan Vurma (bass), Madis Metsamart (basstrumm)
ISRC: DEB339868707
Veljo Tormis
for two sopranos and piano
Eve Härma, Kadri Ratt (sopranid), Marrit Gerretz-Traksmann (klaver)
ISRC: DEB339868708
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Albumi kirjeldus Eesti raamatukogude ühiskataloogis
ester.ee
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What 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 Net
en_US
The 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 Today
en_US
Estonian 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 Music
en_US
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.com
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Tormis’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 Reviews