Thursday, September 8, 2022

CCCLXXII. KŌRVITS, Tōnu: Labyrinths

CCCLXXII. KŌRVITS, Tōnu (1969-       )

Labyrinths (2010)
1. labyrinth I (3:11)
2. labyrinth II (1:41)
3. labyrinth III (2:15)
4. labyrinth IV (2:31)
5. labyrinth V (2:42)
6. labyrinth VI (2:31)
7. labyrinth VII (4:35)
Tallinn Chamber Orchestra
Tōnu Kaljuste, cond.



When Arvo Pärt departs (he'll be 87 on Saturday), the Estonian music scene will be in good hands with Kōrvits.

From Paul Griffiths's liner notes:

"Kōrvits's labyrinths are harmonic, loops that circle back or spiral on through seven movements, each specific in its character.

The first, and simplest, feaatures harmonics on D and A strings throughout, a constant but varying sky of the perfect fifth or fourth, against which come chromatic clouds, until one of these chords (E-Flat - B-Flat) becomes a substitute sky.

The second is a tapestry of pizzicato triplet motifs falling in canon over a bowed song.

The third is a sway of garlands again largely in triplets within and beyond a sul ponticello frame.

The fourth is another rotating canon, this time reaching a plateau on a reiterated F-sharp but achieving its destination on D.

The fifth begins and ends with strong chords, often rising in large intervals from the almost omnipresent D, the vocal metaphor here powerful -- though less so in the central episode of scintillant harmonics, the violins and violas divided.

Oscillatory and mostly soft, the sixth seems like a holding back.

The seventh -- the last and longest -- is an adagio of resumption and recollection. But however appropriate the close, there is the invitation to return through the cycle and discover how each movement contains all the others in palimpsest, the whole a labyrinth of labyrinths."


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