#2869: New Music from Estonia

A small Baltic country with a big impact on the world of new music, Estonia has become a hot spot for choral music especially. We'll hear works by Arvo Pärt, Veljo Tormis, Toivo Tulev, Erkki-Sven Tüür, and more.  Estonian composer Arvo Pärt has immersed himself in the tradition of religious music of the Russian Orthodox Church, and for this New Sounds, we’ll hear some of his Stabat Mater. 

After Arvo Part, Veljo Tormis is probably Estonia's most important living composer.  He writes a lot of pieces based on traditional Estonian folklore, integrating this rich cultural inheritance by combining original choral passages and with ancient folk tunes.  Listen for something from Tormis, along with a work from Erkki-Sven Tüür.   Tüür describes his compositional process as being open to both minimalism and more dissonant modernist techniques, while playing with relational amounts of emotional and intellectual energy.  Plus, we’ll hear mesmerizingly atmospheric work from Toivo Tulev, another composer who works with a liturgically based, “holy minimalist” approach, and more.

PROGRAM # 2869, New Music From Estonia (First aired on Mon., 11/17/08)