Search - Ester Magi, Arvo Volmer, Mihkel Kütson :: Ester Mägi: Orchestral Music

Smash hit for unknown composer

Jerry Finrow | Seattle, Washington USA | 12/02/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I read about this CD in Gramaphone and decided to check it out. This is remarkably good music by a virtually unknown composer who should be more well known. Estonian music is getting a broad hearing these days but do not overlook Ester Magi, a true gem, I highly recommend it. The production values are also very good, excellent clarity and, as you would expect, a superb orchestral effort."

A highly welcoming album of Estonia's unique persona. Now o

David A. Hollingsworth | Washington, DC USA | 12/27/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ester Mägi (born in 1922) is very much a revered musical persona in her native Estonia and is becoming more recognized abroad. A composition student of Vissarion Shebalin at the Moscow Conservatory of Music, here emerges from his class quite an unique, individualistic voice; one not so much a bandwagoner as one very much accustomed in setting one's course (like Boris Tchaikovsky or Tubin, or even Eshpai to name just a few). And this disc simply shows just how distinctive her music is: tonal, folk music driven, colourful, inventive, experimental, and, as far as I could tell, unlike anything I've heard before.



Composed in 1953, her Piano Concerto is a clear case in point. Of course, being on safe grounds under Soviet rule was on everyone's minds during that time (even after Stalin's death in March of that year). Yet, her concerto, at least in a sense, belies the Socialist Realism requirements upon musical artists, for the piece has quite an unrelenting creative spirit about it. It is accessible yet experimental while not all too yielding. And in terms of colour, resourcefulness, and grace (the slow middle movement), it evokes the piano concerto of Lydia Auster (1912-1993), another significant yet overlooked Estonian composer. The Auster concerto of 1952 (sort of a lullaby of a piece) have more gracefulness, lyrical warmth, and colour (more or less in a Tchaikovskian mode) than the concerto here. But then again, the resourcefulness is of abundance and while the use of folk materials in Mägi's concerto draws parallelisms with Tubin's use of them in his Suite on Estonian Dances (1938), as Urve Lippus aptly points out in her well informative booklet essay, the molding of those ideas into a strikingly harmonious, tuneful whole brings to mind Auster (who also studied composition with Shebalin).



And like Boris Tchaikovsky, Mägi felt no need to just follow musical trends of the past decades simply for the sake of doing so. Her symphony (1968), for example, is a forceful, somewhat desolate work, rhythmically tense & protesting, and with a language & style not far from Tubin's compositions of the time (the first movement calls to mind Shostakovich's 11th Symphony). It's definitely a modern, not so avant-gardish of a piece, even though her work educed controversy (simply because it was written by a woman). But where Bukoolika (1983) and Variations (1972) show her musical ingenuity and keen distinctiveness (the former is especially attractive), her Vesper to me stands out. Originally for violin & piano (or organ) and revised later for strings, Vesper strikes me as one of more resplendent of pieces coming out her country's rich musical traditions (think of Eller's Elegia, Sumera's In Memoriam, or Pärt's Cantus). There's something otherworldly beautiful about it that's dignified and captivatingly restrained. It is just simply amazing that this work is barely known.



That said, the performances by all involved did Mägi's music full justice & the original Eesti Raadio recordings (made between 1992 and 2002) have been extremely well mastered by Raphael Mouterde. I do hope, however, that this disc will be a wake up call for the Estonians (and quite frankly, the Ukrainians, the Latvians, & others of the former satellite countries) to be more active in promoting their music. For instance, Eesti Raadio (along with Melodiya and a few others) had made some marvelous recordings & reissues during the Soviet days of the music of Auster, the Kapps (Artur, Eugen, & Villem), Lemba, Tubin, Raats, Eller, and so forth. Listening to some of those recordings still proves to be enriching. So, what's the problem now? Where's the flow of some of the great examples of music yet to enter our collective consciousness?



With this gem of an album now available, will this company (or others) turn its attention in reissuing recordings of Lydia Auster's music (her piano concerto in particular) as well as music of the other aforementioned luminaries of Estonia's rich musical culture? Will the Estonians do more in recording the hidden musical treasures of the past challenged by Estonia's strife for cultural independence and identity?



We'll see.

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