Tõnu Kõrvits (b. 1969)
The sound of wings (2022)
Sunday wish (2020, arr. 2022)
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Tallinn Chamber Orchestra/Risto Joost
rec. 2022, United Methodist Church, Tallinn, Estonia
Texts and translations included
Ondine ODE1417-2 [54]
I first encountered Tõnu Kõrvits at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival back in 2015, when one of his pieces was included in a concert given in Cardiff by the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. I remarked then on the singular beauty of that 2007 work – Elegies of Thule – both in its evident relish for clear melodic outlines and its control of atmosphere, and expressed a wish that we could hear more of his music. And indeed Ondine have over the intervening years issued a collection of representative CDs, with The sound of wings is the latest instalment in their lists.
The work itself starts from the not very promising historical background of the pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart, who went off course during a flight in the Pacific during 1937 and was never heard of again (giving rise, inevitably, to all varieties of exotic speculations). But on this basis Estonian poet Doris Kareva has erected a whole cycle of poems which explore the themes of love and loss, with only oblique and marginal reference to the original inspiration; and Kõrvits has expanded these into a series of choral and vocal settings which place the movements into an atmospheric depiction of solitary flight (with a solo viola, lyrically played by Laur Eensalu, keening across delicately etched string arpeggios).
The ability of Kõrvits to construct a truly memorable melodic line, and to couch this in harmonic treatments that reflect the atmosphere of the words, reaches here towards transcendent heights. There are eight poem settings, which are ostensibly independent movements although the music moves without any sense of discontinuity from one to the next. The fifth movement has a superbly sustained sense of ecstasy, which then moves into a canon for four solo voices laid out over a choral harmony; it all sounds so simple and inevitable, but at the same time the stillness and the calm remains undisturbed. The balance between strings and chorus is superbly judged, and in the final movement the solo soprano line of Yena Choi rises towards the stratosphere.
The other work here, Sunday wish, is described as a Christmas carol, and is comparatively short. It would be easy to underestimate the music, a simple and melodically wayward line repeated over two verses; but the tune itself, once the ear has become accustomed to its wry modulations, has a haunting flavour that will remain with the listener for days (Mariliis Tiiter contributes a beautiful soprano solo). It is often more difficult to write a short piece than a long one – I should know! – and the fact that Kõrvits has this rare ability marks him out as a composer of real insight. Even so, I would now very much like to hear him writing something on a larger and more ambitious scale, where I am sure he could rise to even greater heights.
As with all the previous issues of his music, this performance is given by artists with whom the composer has clearly formed a close alliance over the years; indeed the self-same orchestra were responsible for my first encounter with Kõrvits’s work back in 2015. They, and the 28-strong Estonian choir who also featured in that Vale of Glamorgan Festival series of concerts, both clearly have affection with and sympathy for the music, which is recorded with exceptional clarity and atmosphere. Booklet notes come in English only, but texts are provided both in the original Estonian and English translation.
Highly and urgently recommended.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
Previous reviews: Rob Barnett (July 2023) ~ Hubert Culot (August 2023)
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