ERKKI-SVEN TÜÜR (b.1959): Symphony No. 9 “Mythos”, Incantation of Tempest, Sow the Wind…

Description: Tüür's 9th Symphony is an immensely impressive and imposing piece, for none of the reasons commonly associated with the '9th Symphony problem', which doesn’t seem to have occurred to the composer when approaching the commission, which was for the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia. Tüür drew on the idea of creation myths for the work, especially those of the Northern tribes of pre-history. The 35-minute single span surges with evolving energy throughout - energetic transformation is a key characteristic of Tüür's music, for which the terms 'retiring' or ‘undemonstrative' are never applicable - and as usual, the music is not conventionally tonal, but is never unrelated to tonality. The symphony begins in primordial chaos, from which forms gradually emerge, especially an oscillating string figuration that unavoidably brings Tapiola to mind. This kind of dark, brooding, primeval landscape is typical of the opening section of the symphony. The core of the work is a kind of extended development section in which leaping scalar or arpeggiated figures - strangely reminiscent of Pettersson, though without the relentless, crushing effect - dominate the action. There is a strong sense of vast shapes emerging into solid, concrete form, islands forcing their way to the surface, volcanoes erupting - some sort of violent spasms of creation, anyway. This exhilarating, exhausting turbulence leads to a climactic 'big bang' - perhaps this is the actual moment of creation and everything that preceded it was the gathering of pent-up cosmic energy? - and in the final ethereal, suspended section the perspective seems to shift to a view from astronomical distances, as though withdrawing from the newly created world into space. Incantation of Tempest is a high-energy curtain-raising concert overture or encore (commissioned as the latter), as stormy as its title suggests, and very tonal. One of the most terrifyingly apocalyptic passages in the Bible, Hosea 8, which has given us one of the most memorable statements of divine warning in the literature, is treated to a suitably cataclysmic depiction by Tüür. The large tone poem seems to follow the contour of the entire chapter, not just the verse invoked in the title, as it begins with harsh fanfares followed by pestilence and famine. Which is to say, a brash, declamatory opening is followed by tense, looming, minatory gathering storm clouds overshadowing swirling gestures which gradually gather intensity, recede and resume, ever more threatening. Eventually the catastrophe is unleashed, and the final quarter of the piece does, indeed reap the whirlwind, as graphically as one could ever wish. Estonian Festival Orchestra; Paavo Järvi.