“Immaculate performances, flawless sound.” Independent

“The performances were so fine that they left you feeling like an ingrate, greedily hungry for more.” The New York Times

The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir is lauded as one of the most famous a cappella groups in the world. Their challenging repertoire ranges from Gregorian chant and late Baroque to 20th century music. The choir delivers works by Bach and contemporary composers, as well as Estonian choral music, that mesmerize audiences. The comportment of the choir, as well as its musicality, also underscores the general aesthetic of Russian Orthodox choral music. The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Chorus evokes that quality of devotion.

Music by Estonian master Arvo Pärt has shared a very special place in the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir repertoire for many years. His spare harmonies and hypnotic textures have made him one of the most important living composers today. In 2007, the choir won the Grammy award for Best Choral Performance at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards for their recording of Arvo Pärt’s Da Pacem.

The choir devotes an evening to religious works in a church programme that celebrates the 200th anniversary of Mendelssohn’s birth and triumphs with songs composed by the legendary Pärt. In the concert hall, the choir’s beautiful singing showcases Estonian and Scandinavian masterpieces.

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir - Open Rehearsal
26 Feb 2009

11:30am - 1:30pm

In English
By invitation only

The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, under the direction of Stephen Layton, offers an unprecedented opportunity of seeing them practice.

Co-presented with Department of Creative Arts & Physical Education (Music Division), The Hong Kong Institute of Education

The Singing Revolution
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir

by Dennis Kiddy

Being asked to pinpoint the location of Estonia is a challenge that would probably stump most people. With a population of only 1.3 million, it’s one of the smallest countries in the Eastern European bloc, but it punches well above its weight by boasting one of the most phenomenally talented choirs in the world – the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (EPCC).

Founded in 1981 by Tõnu Kaljuste, the ensemble gives around 70 concerts each year and tours regularly to Europe, America, Canada, Australia and Japan. Extending this itinerary to appear at the 2009 Hong Kong Arts Festival offers a rare chance to hear the group’s stunning vocal artistry, which has gained a particular reputation for the performance of music by Estonia’s most famous composer, Arvo Pärt. Any survey of the choir and Pärt’s music, however, has to be seen in the context of Estonia’s choppy recent history.

After 700 years of foreign rule, the last 200 years as part of the Russian Empire, Estonia declared independence in 1918. Ensuing hostilities secured a short-lived period of emancipation from 1920 until 1940, when the country was occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union in World War II before being overtaken by German forces in 1941 and subsequently reoccupied by the Soviets in 1944.

It was only in 1991 that the country regained its independence, and in the most extraordinary manner – through a Singing Revolution. Starting at open-air concerts in 1987, this was a four-year assault against the country’s oppressors by using nothing more than hundreds of thousands of voices in massed musical and political harmony to eventually win back Estonia’s freedom, without bloodshed.

Thinking of the EPCC’s bedrock as a distillation of those million patriotic voices gives an indication of why Estonia’s choral music thrives in general, and this choir in particular. A major part of the group’s success naturally stems from the quality of the men who have filled the roles of chief conductor and artistic director: Tõnu Kaljuste occupied the position for 20 years until 2001, when he was succeeded by the acclaimed British conductor, Paul Hillier, founder of the renowned Hilliard Ensemble.

Hillier remained at the helm until last year, widening the choir’s perspectives and notching up notable successes in the recording field. Eight of the choir’s CDs from this period were nominated for Grammy Awards, with Da Pacem, a collection of works by Pärt, winning the award for Best Choral Performance in 2007. It attracted critical acclaim for “music-making of heart-stopping beauty … a prodigious control of tonal colour and dynamics.” Time Out New York.

Dutch conductor Daniel Reuss takes over as artistic director in September 2008, ending a year’s interregnum in which the EPCC has worked with a number of outstanding choral directors; it will be British conductor Stephen Layton who leads the choir in Hong Kong.

Formerly Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Choir, Layton now holds a number of posts, including Chief Guest Conductor of the Danish Radio Choir and Director of Music at Trinity College, Cambridge. In addition to his affinity for the music of Pärt and John Tavener, Layton has gained wide recognition for his Grammy-nominated recordings of music by other contemporary composers, including Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre, who are represented in the second of the EPCC’s two HKAF programmes.

The choir’s versatility crosses just about every frontier. Being equally at home with plainsong and Schoenberg, each season finds the choir in an eclectic mix of masterpieces from pre-Baroque to cutting-edge modernity. The group is also no stranger to the world of opera, with past performances ranging from Mozart’s Idomeneo, to Puccini’s La Bohème and John Adams’s Nixon in China.

It’s the music of Pärt, however, that figures larger than that of any other composer in the choir’s extensive repertoire. Paul Hillier was Pärt’s biographer which reflects an unusually close rapport between the composer and the performers who have done more than anyone to introduce his music to a global audience.

Pärt’s early works used a range of severe styles, including twelve-tone technique and serialism, which fell foul of the Soviet authorities. When the works were banned, Pärt turned inward to pursue a reflective study of plainsong and other early music. Hillier remarks in his biography that Pärt “had reached a position of complete despair in which the composition of music appeared to be the most futile of gestures, and he lacked the musical faith and willpower to write even a single note.”

This artistic turning point led to the style for which Pärt is now recognised and widely appreciated, and it’s worth noting that there are few modern composers who have achieved such acceptance during their lifetime. This new, simplistic idiom is a form of minimalism which Pärt describes as tintinnabuli – like ringing bells – where the tempo is uniform, the rhythm uncomplicated and the text usually sacred.

The American minimalist composer Steve Reich is generous in his acknowledgement of Pärt’s international standing. “I love his music, and I love the fact that he is such a brave, talented man,” he says. “He became involved in the Russian Orthodox Church at a time when that was dangerous, and he has written religious music for ensembles that might have existed in the Middle Ages. He’s completely out of step with the zeitgeist and yet he’s enormously popular, which is so inspiring. His music fulfils a deep human need that has nothing to do with fashion.”

The EPCC’s concert hall programme will showcase Pärt’s music and also focus on 20th-century choral music including compositions by Veljo Tormis, John Tavener and Jean Sibelius. The programme performed at St. John’s Cathedral is devoted solely to compositions by Pärt and Mendelssohn. The works are unified both by religious texts and an expectation that they will be performed outside the church’s liturgical structures. The question arises: does the listener approach such an occasion in a purely aesthetic frame of mind, or from some level of religious susceptibility? Whatever your standpoint, audiences at performances of Pärt’s music usually prepare themselves for a memorable experience in spiritual transportation.

Dennis Kiddy is a freelance writer and music instructor based in Hong Kong.