ECM-Special: Das BALTIKUM in der zeitgenössischen Musik

		Gidon Kremer / Kremerata Baltica: Mieczysław Weinberg The music of Mieczysław Weinberg is finally beginning to get the hearing it has long deserved. Weinberg’s lifetime spanned the 20th century: born 1919 in Warsaw, he died 1996 in Moscow, in semi-obscurity. Along the way, his allies and supporters had included Dmitri Shostakovich, who considered him one of the great composers of the age. This double album with the Kremerata Baltica, recorded in Neuhardenberg and Lockenhaus, makes a good case for that claim. Effectively a portrait album, it begins with Weinberg’s extraordinary Violin Sonata No. 3, brilliantly performed by Gidon Kremer, and proceeds from chamber music works (the Sonatina op. 46, the Trio op. 48) to strikingly-contrasting compositions for string orchestra, the graceful Concertino op. 42 inspired by the late-romantic idiom, and the adventurous Symphony no 10, bringing12-tone rows and chordal structure into unexpected juxtapositions.
		Helena Tulve: Arboles Iloran por lluvia Recorded in churches in Tallinn as well as the Estonian Concert Hall, the five compositions heard on “Arboles lloran por lluvia” (Trees cry for rain) give deeper insight into the unique sound-world of Helena Tulve, into music which is nourished by both contemporary and ancient currents. Tulve draws upon a wide-range of inspirational sources. She explores the raw fabric of sound and the nature of timbre in both analytical and instinctive ways, in compositions that are unmistakably her own, yet her work is inclusive – here incorporating aspects of Gregorian chant, melody from Yemenite Jewish tradition, and texts from Sufi, Sephardic and Christian mystic poetry. Strong performances by the soloists, above all Arianna Savall – featured on “silences/larmes”, “L’Équinoxe de l’âme” and the title track – and the choral, chamber and orchestral forces marshalled by Jaan-Eik Tulve and Olari Elts make Helena Tulve’s second ECM New Series recording a most impressive successor to the critically-acclaimed “Lijnen”.
		Erkki-Sven Tüür: Symphony No.7 / Piano Concerto Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Seventh Symphony (2009), dedicated to the Dalai Lama, is a choral symphony like no other. It is a powerful vector-based work in Tüür’s new compositional mode, in which the orchestra only intermittently frames and supports the voices. The texts that the NDR Choir sings include words of the Buddha from theDhammapada but also utterances of more contemporary visionaries, from Gandhi to Mother Theresa. The Piano Concerto, like the symphony, was composed for the Hessischer Rundfunk and given its premiere at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, one of this album’s recording locations. As Paul Griffiths notes, “The concerto is also music on two planes, now orchestra and piano, though this time both are continuous and continually in the process of meeting.” Finnish pianist Laura Mikkola gives an exceptional performance, responding to the surging waves of the orchestra and the inspired direction of Paavo Järvi.