Ester Mägi (1922-2021)
Complete Songs for Female Voice
Maarja Purga (mezzo-soprano)
Sten Lassmann (piano)
Valle-Rasmus Roots (cello), Mari-Liis Vind (flute), Kirill Ogorodnikov (guitar)
rec. 2022, Arvo Pärt Centre, Lauslasmaa, Estonia
Texts and translations provided
Toccata Classics TOCC0741 [82]
At the back of the accompanying booklet here there is an advertisement encouraging us to join the Toccata Discovery Club where, it says, you can discover unknown music from the Renaissance to present day before anyone else. Toccata is a pathfinder in that area; I have made a long list of discoveries through their recordings and the music of Ester Mägi is but one of many.
Several things about Estonia are remarkable. With a population of under 1.4 million, it punches above its weight in many areas and music is without doubt one of them, with many composers down the years who have made an important contribution to the country’s cultural heritage, Arvo Pärt being the best known. Singing has a particularly important place in its culture and many readers will recall that at the time of it regaining its independence from the Soviet Union in those volatile days at the end of the 1980s, it was a powerful expression of its people’s determination for its country to be independent. To this end first, in 1988, at its singing festival held every five years, 300,000 people – almost a quarter of the entire population – gathered to wear national dress and sing patriotic songs and followed that up the next year when they were joined by people from Lithuania and Latvia, forming a human chain that stretched for 400 miles from Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital, through Riga, capital of Latvia to Estonia’s capital Tallinn, to hold hands and sing. The independence of all three countries followed soon after in 1991. Small wonder it is known as the ‘singing revolution’. For most of Estonia’s people the singing tradition became popular in the 19th century but this disc includes songs by Ester Mägi which have their roots in the Seto people of Southern Estonia, bordering Russia, whose singing tradition has been said to go back 2,000 years.
Ester Mägi was captivated by Estonian folk music and songs and they inspired these songs, which have found their way into the fabric of the country’s heritage. As is to be expected, the subject matter ranges from love and loss, to expressions of love of nature, animals and birds, wind and water, flowers, leaves, snow and so much more. Ester Mägi had a special gift in writing for voice, making these songs a complete joy to listen to. Having heard the disc several time, I find that some songs have embedded themselves on my memory, not least Words Found a Lovely Melody, which is a simple sounding song but its tune is highly memorable tune. The very next song, too, is likewise very memorable. Interestingly, the song Cheating Old Nick could be said to be the Estonian version of Aaron Copland’s I Bought Me a Cat from his Old American Songs, though there’s no wife or husband in this version. Old MacDonald Had a Farm, which is said to originate from 1706, follows the same classic pattern and has since embedded itself in the nursery rhyme history of the UK, Ireland and the USA.
A song about tennis might seem an unlikely subject but in Ester Mägi’s hands we have a really delightful song, White Ball, charting the forward and backward thrust of hitting the ball over the net while describing the trees and birds around the court – again disarmingly simple, but highly effective with a truly superb melody that remains long in the memory.
Surprisingly, the longest song on the disc is the simplest of all; entitled Herding Calls, it consists solely of the many different calls herders have for their charges, be they sheep, cattle or whatever.
The earliest song on the disc is the lovely Leaves were Falling, written in 1946 when Ester Mägi was only 24, but already her prowess in writing for the female voice is in full evidence and the remaining two songs from the 1940s confirm this.
The entire disc is a joy and it is hard to imagine one could ever hear these songs sung more beautifully than by Maarja Purga, whose soaring mezzo voice is crystalline with a diction so clear that it enabled me to follow the Estonian, though I know not a single word, and even to pick up again at any point which I find quite remarkable; all credit to her. She is more than ably accompanied by Sten Lassmann whose pianism is so complementary to, and respectful of, her voice; he is a true partner. Likewise, the cellist, flautist and guitarist deliver finely measured accompaniment. We are unlikely ever to come across a finer compendium of Ester Mägi’s songs for female voice.
Steve Arloff
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Contents
Five Romances (1963)
Two Romances (1964) No.2*
To the Swing! (1948)*
Words Found a Lovely Melody (1955)*
Leaves Were Falling (1946)*
A Snowflake (1948)*
Cheating Old Nick (1984)*
White Ball (1961)*
Two Songs to Words by Ernst Enno (1999)
Songs to Poetry by Betti Alver (1981)
Three Seto Fairytale Songs (1984)
Night Shades (2001)
Two Songs (1998)
The Marian Fern (1988)
Herding Calls (1995)
Songs from the Fields (1988/2005)
*First Recordings
