Lepo Sumera (1950–2000)
Symphony No. 1 (1981)
Symphony No. 6 (2000)
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra/Olari Elts
rec. 2023, Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn
Reviewed as a download
Ondine ODE1449-2 [53]
Estonian composer Lepo Sumera died too young. He studied under Veljo Tormis and even the great Heino Eller (he must have been one of his last pupils). Sumera was highly respected amongst his peers and his knowledge of world contemporary music from the later 1970s onwards was immense, even though he was domiciled on the Eastern side of the Iron Curtain. In the late 80s, he was appointed Minister of Culture in Estonia and after independence in 1991, he continued his mentorship of a new generation of Baltic composers at the Academy of Music.
Sumera’s six symphonies (and much else besides) have been recorded before by BIS. In those records Paavo Järvi conducted the Malmö SO and in the sixth, the Estonian National SO. Those recordings are wonderful, but I am hopeful this new series begun here by Ondine will bring them to the attention of a new public. Conductor Olari Elts made the record in Tallinn with the Estonian National SO. It is engineered marvellously by Sumera’s own son Tammo, a highly skilled musical practitioner himself. Ondine don’t signpost this fact in their documentation at all; I had to do a little detective work to put the pieces together.
As well as being influenced by his teacher Tormis and his compatriot Arvo Pärt, Sumera would, I am sure, have had his ear to the clandestine radio too and must have heard the minimalist composers Reich, Glass and the upcoming John Adams. His music has elements of all these voices, yet Sumera’s symphonies are no mere copycat works. They are carefully constructed edifices building on the symphonic tradition of the past as well as incorporating new ideas and methods of composition.
Symphony No. 1 dates from 1981 when Sumera was thirty years old. It is written in two large movements and has a total timing of just over thirty minutes. The first movement uses themes first heard in the brass as a four-note bell-like tolling and a contrasting cell begun on celesta that is repeated and developed in variation form through the span of the movement. Sumera uses echo and inversion effects, oscillation and his writing lets the music swell and dilate as it reverberates around the orchestra. There is a rising in dynamics and tension accompanied by timpani and tam-tam and an apex to the movement at 11:00, from where things gradually die down to pianissimo, cells still repeating. The ending to this first section is meditative and calming. Harp and cello take the final closing pages.
There are some more obvious nods to other composers in the second movement. It begins with a chromatic scale in the strings played very quietly, then develops with wind band embellishments in a way that puts me in mind of Smetana’s Vltava.There is then a Corelli inspired section in strings and brass. There is plenty of excitement in the orchestra as we swing from one musical style to another. The music even takes in the circus ring in an out-of-tune wild dance that builds and swells as we heard in the first movement but eventually everything settles again to the long pedal and those mysterious bells in the celesta. Themes from the symphony re-appear as if in a dream before the gentle wood-block rhythm based on the opening motif brings everything to a close.
Symphony No. 6 is from the very end of Sumera’s life. His final work is like the earlier symphony also constructed over two movements and there are many links. It was a good idea to couple them together on this record. The outset reminds me of Bartók in introduction but when the fury is unleashed at 2:15 we are in uncharted waters. The music is very original and alive. It almost feels as if it was written for a film, such is its imagery and evocation. The Estonian strings are particularly impressive as they shimmer and twinkle in their long lines in the quieter eerie passages Sumera writes for them. As in Symphony No. 1, Sumera is using variation form to develop his themes here. The sense of unease and tension doesn’t ever leave us, though. The second movement follows without a break. Beginning calmly with an almost Mahlerian sigh, we soon embark on one enormous orchestral crescendo. This ratcheting up of dynamics and drama is masterfully achieved by Sumera and Olari Elts’ fine orchestra. Sumera’s expert handling of the symphonic architecture has clearly developed since 1981. What music would he have gone on to compose had his life not been brought to a premature end, when he was only fifty years old? After the climax of the movement, those earlier shades of Mahler return in the final dreamy string writing with a harp thrown in for good measure, just in case we were struggling to remember the reference.
If you don’t know Sumera’s music, you cannot do better than to start here. It is a generation since the last recordings were made, and this should be a series to savour. Notes are provided by the excellent Kerri Kotta. Olari Eltsis is no novice. He has already recorded some fine discs of Eller, Tüür and Tulve and several records of non-Estonian composers, too, as well as conducting a fair bit in the UK. I look forward to the next symphonic coupling from impressive partnership.
Philip Harrison
Previous review: Nick Barnard (June 2025)
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