TÕNU KÕRVITS: MOORLAND ELEGIES

Jaanika King (s), Marianne Pärna (a), Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra / Risto Joost (dir)

Ondine ODE 1306-2

 

The title might suggest Ted Hughes to English-speaking listeners, but the texts here are all by Emily Brontë, and a fine Estonian choir has perfectly captured their melancholy expressiveness and balance of masculine and feminine (in the strict phonological sense) elements. It might be interesting to hear a Yorkshire choir tackle the score, but it’s hard to imagine a better or more idiomatic reading than this. Joost maintains a human scale, especially in The Night is Darkening Round Me and Moonlight, Summer Night, which accords just fine with Brontë’s chastened but plucky humanism. First-rate singing and playing.

 

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