This 2005 double-disc compilation of Estonian orchestral music, splendidly performed by
Neeme Järvi and the Scottish National Orchestra, is a chronological survey that outlines the development of a national musical identity that only gradually became free of external influences. The Julius Caesar Overture (1896) by Rudolf Tobias, the Symphony in C sharp minor (1908) by Artur Lemba, and Heino Eller's Videvik (1917), Koit (1918), and Elegia (1931) show the slow but steady progression from slavish imitation of the Russian Romantics -- particularly Tchaikovsky -- to a fairly cosmopolitan modernism, attuned to French music of the fin de siècle and
Stravinsky's neo-Classicism. The Symphony No. 1 (1944) by Kaljo Raid, Eller's Five Pieces (1953), Veljo Tormis' Overture No. 2 (1959), and
Arvo Pärt's Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten (1977) show the rapid assimilation of twentieth century idioms and influences, but with them a growing sense of cultural and artistic independence, tied less to Soviet and European models and more to Estonian folk and religious traditions. These 1987 and 1989 performances are all solid, as might be expected from the committed
Järvi and the SNO in fine form, and Chandos has remastered the original recordings to improve clarity and depth.