Utwory na płycie:

• Tormis: Kaks laulu Ernst Enno sonadele - #1 Noore suve muinasjutt
• Tormis: Kaks laulu Ernst Enno sonadele - #2 Kuulmata kuskil kumiseb kodu
• Tormis: Kolm eesti mangulaulu - #1 Kasikivimang
• Tormis: Kolm eesti mangulaulu - #2 Sormemahkimismang
• Tormis: Kolm eesti mangulaulu - #3 Laevamang
• Tormis: Kolm laulu eeposest 'Kalevipoeg' - #1 Oh, mu hella eidekene
• Tormis: Kolm laulu eeposest 'Kalevipoeg' - #2 Murueide tutred
• Tormis: Kolm laulu eeposest 'Kalevipoeg' - #3 Laine veereb
• Tormis: Liivlaste parandus - #1 Lindude aratamine
• Tormis: Liivlaste parandus - #2 Karjametsas
• Tormis: Liivlaste parandus - #3 Vastlad
• Tormis: Liivlaste parandus - #4 Unehiireke
• Tormis: Liivlaste parandus - #5 Laulis isa, laulis poega
• Tormis: Laevas lauldakse
• Tormis: Sugismaastikud - #1 On hilissuvi
• Tormis: Sugismaastikud - #2 Ule taeva jooksevad pilved
• Tormis: Sugismaastikud - #3 Kahvatu valgus
• Tormis: Sugismaastikud - #4 Valusalt punased lehed
• Tormis: Sugismaastikud - #5 Tuul konnumaa kohal
• Tormis: Sugismaastikud - #6 Kulm sugisoo
• Tormis: Sugismaastikud - #7 Kanarbik
• Tormis: Neli eesti hallilaulu - #1 Laulan lapsele
• Tormis: Neli eesti hallilaulu - #2 Marjal aega magada
• Tormis: Neli eesti hallilaulu - #3 Lase kiik kaia!
• Tormis: Neli eesti hallilaulu - #4 Aiutus
• Tormis: Helletused

Two songs to words by Ernst Enno
Three Estonian game songs
Three songs from the epic ‘Kalev’s Son’
Livonian heritage
Singing aboard ship
Autumn landscapes
Four Estonian lullabies
Childhood memory (Herding calls)

The Holst Singers are acclaimed as one of England’s greatest amateur choirs. The talent and commitment of the individual singers and the leadership of their mercurial conductor, Stephen Layton, ensure that their performances are always of the very highest standards.

Veljo Tormis is along with Arvo Pärt Estonia’s most famous living composer, holding an almost mystic status in his home country. He is also the passionate and practical torch-bearer for folk-singing revival, and the integration of an ancient cultural inheritance into thoroughly modern, post-Soviet lives. Interestingly, he trained at the Moscow conservatoire and was steeped in Soviet instruction during his early musical life. His music is almost all written for choirs; few composers have ever been so committed to one genre. Tormis’s choral specialism marks him out from Bartók, Kodály, Vaughan Williams and Grainger, whose pioneering interest in folksong was ultimately less purist given their use of the tunes alone in instrumental or orchestral works: for Tormis, the words and the music are inseparable.

The Holst Singers have recently been invited to Estonia to perform Tormis’s music a great honour, and a mark of their mastery of the repertoire.



GRAMOPHONE RECOMMENDS

'Stephen Layton and his superlative choir deliver an inspiring programme of a capella choral works by the Estonian composer. The music springs from the East European folk tradition - rhythmic underlay, biting harmonies, melodies seemingly smoothed by time. The British choristers tackle these alien sounds with conviction, precision, passion, perfect tuning across the octaves and much variety of tone colour and dynamics. Exciting moments abound: the Livonian songs are wittily profound, the final chord of Heather is a golden climax, while Childhood Memory proves that the choir harbours top soloists as well. It's hard to believe that they all have day jobs' (The Times)

'After Arvo Part, Tormis is probably Estonia's most important living composer … Here the Holst Singers under the indefatigable Stephen Layton explore this fascinating legacy, a mixture of arrangements of folk songs and original music inspired by the honesty and freshness of their idiom, in performances of characteristic spirit, atmosphere and incisiveness' (Daily Telegraph)

'These splendid performances highlight the music's elemental aspects (not just evocations of forces of nature but the spirit of the country, long suppressed by occupiers), the Holst Singers' commitment bringing out the ferocity of some passages with a quite scary intensity' (BBC Music Magazine)

'A beautifully prepared and executed compilation. Stephen Layton and his Holst Singers have a well deserved reputation as bold explorers, and their intelligence and dedication are evident here' (Gramophone)

'It is very good news that the music of Veljo Tormis has, in recent years, become the province of choirs from outside Estonia … [Holst Singers] Their musical and linguistic virtuosity is more than proof that this music travels very well indeed … This collection covers quite a wide chronological range, covering Tormis's earlier phase … and his later works, deriving their essence from the folk traditions disappearing around him and herladed here by the unforgettable, incantatory first song of the cycle Liivlaste parandus. It is this kind of writing that elicits of the Holst Singers' best work, totally involved, with a hugely impressive full-throated resonance but also capable of tremendous delicacy and poise' (International Record Review)

'These performances by the Holst Singers under Stephen Layton capture the mustical simplicity of Tormis's choral style, a touching blend of naturally-flowing tonality tinged with splashes of judiciously applied dissonance. Estonian lullabies, game songs, and othe more sulty examples of his mellifluous writing give character and variety to this colourful selection of a cappella part songs' (The Scotsman)

---

Recording details: July 2007; All Hallows, Gospel Oak, London, United Kingdom; Produced by Adrian Peacock; Engineered by Simon Eadon; Release date: April 2008;