Estonian composers, including but not just limited to her most famous composer, Arvo Pärt, have helped put Estonia on the map for music lovers in a way that does not extend to other, non-music-loving world citizens. MDG Gold's Estonia: Organ Landscape is a survey of pipe organs in a former Soviet Bloc nation for which access to the outside world remains a relatively new phenomenon. In many places once locked away behind the iron curtains, one would hope that organs of great antiquity and quality would be nestled away in some community church, ripe for rediscovery. In the case of Estonia, the antiquity part doesn't quite work out -- the oldest organs on this recording date from the early 1800s, slightly before the abolition of serfdom that eventually gave rise to the nationalistic spirit in then Tsarist Russian-dominated Estonia. The most recent organ dates from 1939, just before Estonia's annexation by Soviet Russia, the subsequent capture of Estonia by the Nazis, and their re-annexation by the Soviets in 1944. In the years that followed up until the final establishment of Estonia as an independent republic in 1991, only about 10 new organs were installed in all of Estonia.
Although officially a "Baltic" nation, by orientation Estonia is Scandinavian -- the native language is closely related to Finnish; the national epic, the Kalevipoeg, is Nordic; and an important component of the political scene in Estonia since it gained independence is increased contact with other Scandinavian nations. One positive aspect of MDG Gold's Estonia: Organ Landscape is that it contains a broader spectrum of past Estonian composers than almost any collection of its kind; outside of Rudolf Tobias and Artur Kapp, almost none of the names here will be familiar to most westerners. As in the case of Russia, the works of outsiders who came to Estonia to live and work heavily populate the early history of Estonian art music. Johann Friedrich de la Trobe, despite his unusual Franco-German-sounding name, was English, and Baltic-German nineteenth century composer Ernst Miljan takes a prominent share of the overall program. It isn't until the dawn of the twentieth century that we see a lot of music composed by native Estonians. The otherworldly, Scriabin-esque pieces by Estonia's first great native composer, Rudolf Tobias, are definitely among the highlights here, as are pieces by his contemporaries Peeter Süda and Kapp. Also well worth noting is the most recent music here, the tiny Vier minaturen (1968) by Edgar Arro.
It certainly would have benefited this collection if MDG had decided to hold back on a couple of the middleweight pieces by Ernst Miljan and made room for some Pärt or Veljo Tormis. Admittedly, the idea here is to show off the organs, not the music, and a couple of these instruments are unique sounding and impressive -- the organ in St. Michaels-Kirche in Kihelkonna (built 1805) and the chamber organ at the Dorfkirche in Käsmu (built 1813) have that arcane, mysterious quality that one hears in very old European organs. Martin Rost's playing is stable, yet flexible, to some degree conditioned by his having to adapt to the requirements of nine very different instruments. It's good playing, though not particularly inspired in most cases. MDG's recording is likewise consistent from track to track despite the many rooms in which this collection was recorded, and it wisely took advantage of the very different ambiance of the chamber organ, recording it closer up. MDG Gold's Estonia: Organ Landscape is a pleasant if somewhat uneven musical adventure; certain parts of it obviously outweigh others.
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