Tulev: Magnificat
Latvian Radio Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Kaspars Putniņš
The Latvian Radio Choir are featured on four pieces, bracketing the disc with the glorious Suvine Vihm (‘Summer Rain’) and the long, closing Magnificat, which restores something of the giddy...
Tulev: Magnificat
Latvian Radio Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Kaspars Putniņš
Purchase product
The Latvian Radio Choir are featured on four pieces, bracketing the disc with the glorious Suvine Vihm (‘Summer Rain’) and the long, closing Magnificat, which restores something of the giddy...
About
The Estonian composer Toivo Tulev has forged a unique sound world. His music, with its almost obsessive focus on religious mysticism, can be sensual and emotional but also cerebral and technically demanding. Tulev often takes inspiration from his extensive travels, in particular from the city of Istanbul which, like his vocal music, bridges East and West. His meditation on the words of Sufi mystic Mansur Al-Hallaj, I said, Who are You? – He said, You, conjures up a transcendent atmosphere, while his Magnificat departs from the text’s traditionally solemn setting with its stratospherically high string writing and wild percussion solos.
Contents and tracklist
- Heigo Rosin (percussion)
- Ka Bo Chan (countertenor), Virgo Veldi (alto saxophone), Age Juurikas (positive organ)
- Tallinn Chamber Orchestra
- Kaspars Putniņš
- Ieva Ezeriete (soprano), Inga Martinsone (soprano), Heigo Rosin (percussion), Vambola Krigul (percussion)
- Latvian Radio Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra
- Kaspars Putniņš
Awards and reviews
January 2019
The Latvian Radio Choir are featured on four pieces, bracketing the disc with the glorious Suvine Vihm (‘Summer Rain’) and the long, closing Magnificat, which restores something of the giddy excitement that belongs to that Marian text, but which usually gets buried in solemnity. By contrast, there is the weightless Tanto gentile, a modal/ microtonal piece written for Putniņš and the LRC, and the starkly declamatory Flow My Tears. A truly remarkable recording, and yes, soulfully done.
November 2018
Tulev’s work is frequently dramatic and stylistically plural, though I do not mean by this that there is any lack of a personal voice. It is rather that his music often ranges through expressive extremes…The stars of the recording are of course the Latvian Radio Choir and their conductor Kaspars Putniņš, who just seem to get better and better.
