Tüür: Illuminatio, Whistles and Whispers from Uluru & Symphony No. 8 Lawrence Power, Genevieve Lacey, Tapiola Sinfonietta & Olari Elts

• Erkki-Sven Tüür (1959 - ): Viola Concerto "Illuminatio":
• 1 Viola Concerto "Illuminatio": I. — 09:07
• 2 Viola Concerto "Illuminatio": II. — 04:06
• 3 Viola Concerto "Illuminatio": III. — 04:12
• 4 Viola Concerto "Illuminatio": IV. — 06:19
• Whistles and Whispers from Uluru:
• 5 Whistles and Whispers from Uluru 13:57
• Symphony No. 8:
• 6 Symphony No. 8: I. — 14:03
• 7 Symphony No. 8: II. — 05:50
• 8 Symphony No. 8: III. — 05:39
• Total Runtime 01:03:13

Info zu Tüür: Illuminatio, Whistles and Whispers from Uluru & Symphony No. 8

Erkki-Sven Tüür (b. 1959) is one of the most outstanding voices in contemporary music today and regarded by many as one of the foremost living symphonists. This new album by Tapiola Sinfonietta and conductor Olari Elts includes world première recordings of two concertante works featuring violist Lawrence Power and recorder soloist Genevieve Lacey together with a late masterpiece, Symphony No. 8.

Tüür describes his viola concerto Illuminatio (2008) is 'a pilgrimage towards eternal light'. The work opens with a mysterious soundscape. As the work progresses, the music develops and grows, and the relationships between the soloist and the orchestra is in a constant change. The very final pages bring the work to a magical conclusion shimmering with delicate light.

Whistles and Whispers from Uluru (2007) was written to a commission from the Australian Chamber Orchestra for recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey. When the composer was writing the work at his summer residence in the island of Hiiumaa in Estonia, it was spring and the air was full of birdsong. In his mind, he connected Uluru, the sacred mountain of the Australian Aborigines, to his northern surroundings, and the two impulses fused. The soloist goes through multiple members of the recorder family, from sopranino down through treble, alto and tenor to bass, and then back to the heights of the sopranino. An electronic soundtrack augments the texture at times.

Symphony No. 8 was commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and was completed in 2010. Tüür scored the work for a sinfonietta-type ensemble instead of a large symphony orchestra, and as a result the music has at times a chamber music feel. The movements are not separated in the score, but the tripartite division is very clear. On the other hand, the music is characterised by a strong sense of continuity and direction: 'the constant sense of ‘being on the road’, organic development and fluidity [are] crucial for this music', says Tüür.

"It is exactly a year ago that I made my first acquaintance on disc with Erkki-Sven Tüür, an Estonian and one of today’s interesting and innovative Baltic composers. In that review, I related that he had passed through a period heading a famous Rock group, and had now returned to his training in the world of classical music. The present disc contains three scores composed in this century, Illuminatio, being a latter-day concerto for viola and orchestra in four movements, the notes that come with the disc relating the scenario Tüür is setting to music. Without that explanation you will discover a score where a modern extension to melodic invention largely rests with the soloist, while the orchestra provide a backdrop of interesting sounds that at times submerge and integrate with the solo viola. It does not offer the soloist a virtuoso part in the usual sense of that word, though I guess it is very difficult to perform. Particularly engaging is the rhythmic complexity of the second movement, which, in old-fashioned terms, is the work’s ‘scherzo’. A quiet and slow moving third movement, gives way to a violent finale which evaporates into stillness. Whistles and Whispers from Uluru is, by contrast, a short piece for recorder and string orchestra, its title taken from the sounds Tuur relates to the sacred mountain of the Australian Aborigines. Written for the disc’s soloist, Genevieve Lacey, it explores the technical possibilities of the recorder family in the mode of birdsong. The Eighth, of the nine symphonies written to date, was completed in 2010, and is scored for chamber orchestra. In three movements, and by far the most conventional score on the disc, it is still full of interesting sonorities, many created by percussion instruments, the work as a whole marrying shimmering hues with explosive outbursts. The performances from the Tapiola Sinfonietta and Olari Elts have that feel of commitment and authenticity you require to introduce new music. The recording is superb." (David Denton, David’s Review Corner)

Lawrence Power, viola
Genevieve Lacey, recorders
Tapiola Sinfonietta
Olari Elts, conductor

Lawrence Power
is one of today’s foremost violists, in demand worldwide as a recitalist, soloist and chamber music partner. Over the past decade, he became a regular guest with orchestras such as Chicago and Boston Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Stockholm, Bergen Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Scottish Symphony and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. In addition, with the Melbourne and Adelaide Symphony orchestras, he established a strong presence in Australia where he returns in 2018 to ‘play direct’ at the Australian National Academy of Music. Highlights in 2017-18 include his debut with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Staatsoper Kassel, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with Daniel Hope at the Zurich Chamber Orchestra opening concert, recitals in Dresden Music Festival, USA Savannah Festival and a concert series at London’s Kings Place.

As a fervent champion of contemporary music, Lawrence Power has developed a large repertoire of new works. He gave the UK premiere of Neuwirth’s concerto Remnants of Song at the 2012 BBC Proms, and the world premieres of scores written for him, including Salonen’s Pentatonic Étude, Turnage’s Power Play, Anderson’s Prayer, Goehr’s Hymn to Night, MacMillan’s Viola Concerto and Watkins’s Fantasy.

His recital credits include performances at Wigmore Hall, LSO St Luke’s, Lincoln Center NY. Artist in Residence with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, he has also forged a close relationship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Power’s Hyperion recordings include Bartók, Rósza, Walton and Rubbra’s concertos, Shostakovich and Brahms’ viola sonatas, and York Bowen’s complete works for viola and piano. His 3-disc Hindemith survey stands as a benchmark of the composer’s complete works for viola. His release Fin de Siècle includes among others premiere recordings of works by Büsser, Hüe and Honnoré. His next releases include Berlioz’s Harold in Italy with Bergen Philharmonic.

Genevieve Lacey
is a recorder virtuoso, serial collaborator and artistic director, with a significant recording catalogue and a career as an international soloist.

Lacey has commissioned and premiered works by composers as diverse as Erkki-Sven Tüür (Estonia), Elena Kats-Chernin (Australia), John Surman (UK), Peter Sculthorpe (Australia), Christian Fennesz (Austria), Ben Frost (Iceland), Liza Lim (Australia), Paul Grabowsky (Australia) and Nico Muhly (USA). Lacey also creates large-scale collaborative projects, recent examples including Pleasure Garden (a listening garden), 1-Infinity (a music-dance piece with Jun Tian Fang, Beijing Dance Theatre, Dance North, Gideon Obarzanek and Max de Wardener, premiering 2018), Life in Music (a 5-part series, written, composed and narrated by Lacey for ABC Radio National, 2015), Namatjira (a theatre piece, and now a feature documentary film, 2010-17).

Lacey’s wide-ranging musical interests have seen her playing for the Queen in Westminster Abbey, representing Australian culture with a performance at the Lindau International Convention of Nobel Laureates, playing as a concerto soloist in the Proms, making music in a prison in remote Western Australia, and at the opening night of the London Jazz Festival. Her repertoire spans ten centuries and collaborators include filmmakers Sophie Raymond and Marc Silver, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Danish pipe and tabor player Poul Høxbro, playwright-director Scott Rankin, and iconic Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly. Lacey has also performed as soloist with Academy of Ancient Music, English Concert, Concerto Copenhagen, Tapiola and Kymi Sinfonietta, St Petersburg Chamber Orchestra, Korean Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and all the major Australian Symphony Orchestras.

Lacey has won two ARIAs (Australian Recording Industry Awards), a Helpmann Award, Australia Council, Freedman and Churchill Fellowships and Outstanding Musician, Melbourne Prize for Music. She holds degrees (including a doctorate) in music and English literature from universities in Melbourne, Switzerland and Denmark. Genevieve Lacey is inaugural Artistic Director of FutureMakers, Musica Viva Australia’s artist leadership program, Chair of the Australian Music Centre board, guest curator and artistic advisor to UKARIA.

Olari Elts
passion for distinctive programming rich with invention has earned him much praise on the international music scene. Alongside traditional repertoire, Olari Elts has a strong commitment to vocal and choral as well as contemporary music, with close associations to his fellow Estonians, Arvo Pärt and Erkki Sven Tüür.

Olari Elts appears regularly with such orchestras as the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Hallé Orchestra Manchester, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Danish National Symphony, Norwegian Radio, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio, Orquesta Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, SWR Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, Wiener Symphoniker, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Orchestre National du Capitol de Toulouse, the Seattle and Cincinnati Symphony. In Japan, he works frequently with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. In Australia and New Zealand, he conducts the symphony orchestras in Perth, Melbourne, Hobart and Adelaide as well as the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Soloists with whom he collaborates include Jean Yves Thibaudet, Simon Trpceski, Stephen Hough, Alexander Melnikov, Christian Tetzlaff, Baiba Skride, Isabelle Faust, Viviane Hagner, Gautier Capucon, Kari Kriikku, Claire Booth, Sally Matthews, Lilli Paasikivi, Michael Nagy and Stephan Loges.

Winner of the International Sibelius Conductors' Competition in Helsinki in 2000, Olari Elts was Principal Conductor of the Latvian National Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Estonian National Orchestra as well as the Orchestre de Bretagne and most recently the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. Born in Tallinn in 1971, Olari Elts is founder of his contemporary music ensemble, NYYD Ensemble.

Booklet für Tüür: Illuminatio, Whistles and Whispers from Uluru & Symphony No. 8