Baltic Voices - The Choir - Sunday 5th May

[ardcarp]

Composer Gabriel Jackson on the choral sounds of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.

It is good to hear choral traditions other than our own. Some of these NE European countries have enviable choirs and some quite special repertoire. Looking forward to it.

[DracoM]

Good range of composers, good to hear Baltic choirs in situ, interesting comparison between Baltic and Brit choirs singing Baltic music.

I hope one of GJ's friends in the Baltic didn't mind having his music described as 'a bit cheesy' and 'OTT'? But all praise for calling a spade a spade? Maybe it was just in-jokes and joshing between mates?

[decantor]

My only complaint about this edition of The Choir was that it afforded little opportunity to emigrate to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. The music, so far as I could tell, all emanated from the last 30 years, and so spoke a language that was easy to understand - fresh, honest, direct, engaging. Most performances glowed with the rich sonority of Baltic sopranos, entirely unreliant on vibrato, and with the easy blend of those who have long experience of making choral music together. The reputation of the Baltic choirs was confirmed by what we heard. GJ's matter-of-fact, informative presentation - thankfully not devoid of personal opinion - added to the pleasure of listening.

I was surprised twice: the Miskinis Magnificat contained more Rutter-esque riffs than was strictly decent; and GJ's introduction to the final item (in the Riga Dom) implied that we were about to hear Praulins' wonderful Missa Rigensis when in fact we heard a Dubra supra-Berlioz Te Deum. No problem - it was an heroic accompaniment to tea-making.

In sum, I liked this Choir show. It delivered what it said on the tin, and gave us a glimpse of what we hear all too rarely.

[ardcarp]

I would like to thank Gabriel for a most enjoyable edition of the choir. He gave us insights into Latvian culture in relation to its music (enviable), and having set the scene, presented a great selection of composers and choirs. I thought his presentation style was great too, relaxed, informal, and unafraid of expressing some personal views! This was such a good programme I feel moved to copy its content here:

Traditional
Put Vejini
Conductor: Maris Sirmais Arranger: Imants Ramins Performer: Sanita Sinkevica Performer: State Choir Latvija

Evija Skuke
Moon Vocalise
Performer: Janis Liepins Performer: Kamer

Peteris Plakidis
Nolemtiva (Destiny) IV. The Convincing
Conductor: Umants Kokars Performer: Riga Chamber Choir

Peteris Plakidis
Nolemtiva (Destiny) V. The Earth
Conductor: Umants Kokars Performer: Riga Chamber Choir

Gabriel Jackson
A Ship with unfurled sails for chorus
Conductor: Maris Sirmais Performer: State Choir Latvija

Toivo Tulev
Summer Rain
Performer: Jann-eik Tulve Performer: Ensemble Vox Clamantis

Urmas Sisask
Gracias Agimus Deo Nostro
Conductor: Aarne Saluveer Performer: Estonian TV Girls Choir

Galina Grigoryeva
Svjatki
Conductor: Kaspars Putnins Performer: BBC Singers

Tonu Korvits
Kreegi vihik [Kreek's notebook] for chorus and orchestra
Conductor: Rupert Gough Performer: Britten Sinfonia Performer: Royal Holloway Choir, University of London

Algirdas Martinaitis
Five Invocations To Saint Francis: II. Karati Simcha Adaonai Mibor Tanhijot
Conductor: Vaclovas Augustinas Performer: Vilnius City Municipal Choir

Vytautas Miškinis
Magnificat
Conductor: Salvinija Jautakaite Performer: Bernardas Vasiliaukas Performer: Dileta Kubiliene Performer: Giesme Choir of Kaunas Sacred Music School

Rihards Dubra
Te Deum
Performer: Kristine Adamaite Performer: Balsis Youth Choir Performer: Kamer Youth Choir Performer: Riga Dom Boys Choir Performer: Riga Dom Girls Choir


I was especially struck by Kamer, Vox Clamantis and by, of course, The Latvian State Choir. I've heard your piece, Gabriel, A ship with unfurled sails before. It would surely be hard to beat the LSC's performance of it....quite magical. You yourself referred to the 'clean' sound of these Baltic choirs even singling out the different way tenors sing (unsaid....they blend and don't stick out!). You must admit the ensemble of this professional choir would be hard to find in a similar institution over here?

I agree wholly with Decantor about this current 'guest presenter' format of the choir. Thanks for a good one, GJ.

[W.Kearns]

Thanks so much for the list, Ardcarp. It's much appreciated.

GJ - I really enjoyed the programme. Many thanks!

[Gabriel Jackson]

I would like to thank Gabriel for a most enjoyable edition of the choir. He gave us insights into Latvian culture in relation to its music (enviable), and having set the scene, presented a great selection of composers and choirs. I thought his presentation style was great too, relaxed, informal, and unafraid of expressing some personal views!

I was especially struck by Kamer, Vox Clamantis and by, of course, The Latvian State Choir. I've heard your piece, Gabriel, A ship with unfurled sails before. It would surely be hard to beat the LSC's performance of it....quite magical. You yourself referred to the 'clean' sound of these Baltic choirs even singling out the different way tenors sing (unsaid....they blend and don't stick out!). You must admit the ensemble of this professional choir would be hard to find in a similar institution over here?

I agree wholly with Decantor about this current 'guest presenter' format of the choir. Thanks for a good one, GJ.

Thanks very much for this. I'm glad it was interesting - there's so much more fantastic music from that part of the world that we didn't have time for, but I was pleased to be able to present so many less-familiar composers and choirs.

Just to be pedantic, the BBC website contains from whence your listing comes has some mistakes in it. The Plakidis piece is called Nolemtiba (I'm not trying to do diacritics here either!) and Vox Clamantis's conductor is Jan-Eik Tulve. In case this is useful to anyone, apart from the BBC Singers' performance of the Grigorjeva and the Toivo Tulev piece (which is on an Estonian Music Information Centre promotional CD) all the other performances are from commercial CDs, though mostly not available in the UK (checking out new stuff in Upe in Riga and Pika Jala Muusikaäri in Tallinn is always productive!). (There are also CD recordings of the Grigorjeva and the Plakidis by a British choir...).

I think Kamer... are an incredible group of young people. That Skuke recording is from "Moon Songs", their first project under new conductor Janis Liepins. For many years their conductor (and founder...I think) was the great Maris Sirmais.

My comment about the light-voiced tenors was just that - an observation. I was thrilled by the State Choir's "A ship with unfurled sails" (indeed by the whole disc) and I think I mentioned that particular understanding they brought to the piece. Any country that can boast a group like the State Choir AND the awesome Latvian Radio Choir is incredibly fortunate!

[Stephen Smith]

Can the thread title be corrected? I was annoyed with myself to have missed this - Baltic choral music and choirs are very interesting. I was out of the country on 5 May, so I'm relieved to find I can still catch this on iPlayer !

[french frank]

Can the thread title be corrected? I was annoyed with myself to have missed this - Baltic choral music and choirs are very interesting. I was out of the country on 5 May, so I'm relieved to find I can still catch this on iPlayer !

Thanks. Done!

[antongould]

Caught it on iplayer - enjoyed it very much IMHO some wonderful music.

[Gabriel Jackson]

I was fortunate enough to be present at the final concert of the Latvian Song & Dance Celebration on July 7th. It was a quite extraordinary cultural, social and musical experience - over 15000 singers on stage, 20000 in the audience. The concert lasted six hours, and after the formal event had finished, many in the audience and many performers remained in the amphitheatre for an after-party of more singing and dancing which only ended when the security guards threw them out at 7am. Here's Pūt, vējiņi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlNsm1Mza4o