Eduard Tubin (1905-82)

[Mirror Image]

It's actually called Kratt. Kraft is a great work by Magnus Lindberg!

Right you are. I must be thinking about good ol' Lindberg. Speaking of Lindberg, I need to give his early works a listen very soon. Kraft is on my list of works to rediscover.

[lescamil]

Finally giving Tubin's complete ballet Kratt a spin. I had not listened to it since tasting that suite on the Järvi set, and that was some time ago. I'm such a sucker for Stravinsky-tinged scores such as this. Really enjoying this so far.

[Brian]

Today's eClassical Deal of the Day has a note from BIS CEO Robert von Bahr that I find unbearably sad.

"When I first got to know Neeme Järvi, in the beginning of the '80:s when we were discussing the Sibelius cycle, he tested me by playing a cassette tape for me, asking: well, Robert, who is this? I listened and listened. No, of course not Sibelius. Something towards Shostakovich, but I know his music and this wasn't among it. So I had to give up. Neeme told me: Eduard Tubin. Aha, and who's that? Turned out to be a man, refugee from Estonia, living less than 1 km from me 10 years ago, when I started BIS. A composer of 10 symphonies, concerti, anything, eking out an existence by being a music copier for other composers. Great music. So Neeme and I took a decision at that moment: we should record everything Tubin had composed. We kept very silent about it - the pieces were obviously performed, but Tubin knew nothing of the recording plans. We expected to go to his home and present him with the first 2 records and tell him the good news as soon as they were released. And then he dies!! So he never got to know the plans, he couldn't listen to the recordings, and I never met him. I learned something there, and this mistake will not be repeated. Anyway, we have done it, the records are there, and Tubin has got the place among Music's greats that he so richly deserves. This is as good an intro as any - the S2 is really great!"

This blurb will only be online today, and so will the 50% off download discount (MP3 or FLAC for $4.72)

[Mirror Image]

Today's eClassical Deal of the Day has a note from BIS CEO Robert von Bahr that I find unbearably sad.

"When I first got to know Neeme Järvi, in the beginning of the '80:s when we were discussing the Sibelius cycle, he tested me by playing a cassette tape for me, asking: well, Robert, who is this? I listened and listened. No, of course not Sibelius. Something towards Shostakovich, but I know his music and this wasn't among it. So I had to give up. Neeme told me: Eduard Tubin. Aha, and who's that? Turned out to be a man, refugee from Estonia, living less than 1 km from me 10 years ago, when I started BIS. A composer of 10 symphonies, concerti, anything, eking out an existence by being a music copier for other composers. Great music. So Neeme and I took a decision at that moment: we should record everything Tubin had composed. We kept very silent about it - the pieces were obviously performed, but Tubin knew nothing of the recording plans. We expected to go to his home and present him with the first 2 records and tell him the good news as soon as they were released. And then he dies!! So he never got to know the plans, he couldn't listen to the recordings, and I never met him. I learned something there, and this mistake will not be repeated. Anyway, we have done it, the records are there, and Tubin has got the place among Music's greats that he so richly deserves. This is as good an intro as any - the S2 is really great!"

Certainly is a sad, but I don't think it wasn't a 'mistake' to surprise Tubin with the recordings. Their heart was certainly in the right. I don't think Jarvi nor Bahr could have foreseen something like this happening. You just never know what's going on. I still think so highly Tubin's music and this series with Jarvi is absolutely incredible in every way.

Here's a response I wrote on Amazon to someone who was saying that Tubin was nothing more than a Shostakovich clone and that Tubin's life experiences were nothing compared to Shostakovich's (as if this is some twisted competition of who's life is the most morbid):

"I think it's sad when a reviewer pretends to know something about a composer when they clearly don't understand the history that surrounds the composer. You seriously think Tubin sat cozily in Sweden? He fled to Sweden because of the Soviet Union, which took over Estonia after the country had just gained it's independence. Tubin might not have had the same kind of problems a composer like Shostakovich had, but this doesn't make his experiences any less tragic. There's a desperation, sadness, and feeling of longing that runs through much of Tubin's music much the same way Martinu longed for the Czech Republic when he lived in United States or the way Vaughan Williams experienced WWI and knowing that the England as he knew it was never going to be the same. These are real experiences and ones that changed these composer's lives.

You can continue to bad mouth the music all you want to and it's fine that you do, you're not obligated to like the music, but I think you do need to get your facts straight before you attempt to fool people into believing you know the composer's history when it's evident that you never bothered."

[vandermolen]

Yes, I think that it is very sad too about Tubin - the first CD I bought was of his second and sixth symphonies on BIS and he remains one of my favourite composers.

[Christo]

I think I heard - from Harri Kiisk - or otherwise read that Tubin actually was there, in person, at the performance of the Fourth Symphony, 'Lirica', at 5 November 1981 in Bergen in Norway, the only live recording in Neeme Järvi's cycle. So at least he witnessed the start of the cycle.

[vandermolen]

I think I heard - from Harri Kiisk - or otherwise read that Tubin actually was there, in person, at the performance of the Fourth Symphony, 'Lirica', at 5 November 1981 in Bergen in Norway, the only live recording in Neeme Järvi's cycle. So at least he witnessed the start of the cycle.

I do hope that is true. Havergal Brian, despite living to a great age died just as interest in his work was reviving and the first recordings (recently reissued) were underway.

[cilgwyn]

After tolerating off air cassette recordings of Tubin's Second and Sixth symphonies,one of them over twenty years old,and still in gwo,I might add,I finally snapped today and ordered some Tubin cds!

[vandermolen]

After tolerating off air cassette recordings of Tubin's Second and Sixth symphonies,one of them over twenty years old,and still in gwo,I might add,I finally snapped today and ordered some Tubin cds!

You won't regret it. The Baxian No 1, the epic No 2 'Legendary' and nos 3,4,5 and 10 are my favourites.

[Scion7]

from the Grove:

Tubin, Eduard
(b Alatskivi, nr Kallaste, 18 June 1905; d Stockholm, 17 Nov 1982). Estonian composer, active in Sweden. He ranks as one of the most prominent international figures in the history of Estonian art music, the early development of which coincided with Tsar Alexander II's liberalizations of the mid-19th century. An Estonian style of composition was widely sought over the brief period of independence from Russian occupation (1918–40), a span demarcated almost exactly by Tubin's first compositions and his arrival at his mature style. Tubin studied in Tartu with Eller, and first gained attention as a composer with his Second Symphony (1937) at a time when he was making his living as an orchestral and choral conductor. Tubin fled to Sweden the day before the Soviet army reoccupied the Estonian capital in September 1944, and he remained there until his death. Some two years after his arrival in Sweden he finished the dramatic and nationalist Fifth Symphony with which Malko, Schmidt-Isserstedt and others first introduced him to audiences abroad. Tubin was able to return to Soviet Estonia several times during and after the Krushchyov period: he wrote his two operas for the Estonia Theatre in Tallinn. Several Swedish honours came to Tubin in his last decade, among them state grants, the prestigious Atterberg Prize and membership of the Royal Music Academy. The conductor Neeme Järvi began a recorded survey of Tubin's music for the BIS label shortly before the composer's death, and in 1995 the Estonian National Library acquired Tubin's manuscripts.
Tubin's career began at a time when nationalist-romantic and modernist currents overlapped in independent Estonia. As Rumessen (1986) has pointed out, Tubin's nationalism subsumed the work of three Estonian forebears: the drama and large-scale forms of Tobias, the subtle orchestral virtuosity of Eller (who, like most Estonian composers of his generation, studied in St Petersburg), and Saar's attempt to meld Estonian folklore with a nationalist concert style. As with Sibelius, however, Tubin made his international reputation with symphonies that lack folkloristic elements: although he often recalled the modality and intervallic constructions of Estonian folksong, only the Fifth of his ten completed symphonies quotes a specific Estonian tune. His work also allies itself more with French and Russian styles (Stravinsky's rhythmic intensity, Honegger's extended tonality) than with the Nordic style of Sibelius or the Germanic manner of Stenhammar.
Tubin's first three symphonies, nationalist in tone and epic in scale, . . .  reflects Tubin's interest in Skryabin as well as his debt to Eller's brand of impressionism. The radiant, lyrical and transparent Fourth Symphony – at least in its 1978 abbreviation and revision – evokes idealized, pastoral images rather than the turmoil of Estonia's occupation. Tubin's Sixth was marked by a passing interest in jazz and Latin dance rhythms, and is his most ironic and cosmopolitan work. The four remaining completed symphonies, with the exception of the expressive Eighth, are neo-classical to varying degrees. In this, they might reflect the composer's work between 1945 and 1972 in preparing performing editions of Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti and Mozart's La finta semplice for the Drottningholm Court Theatre.
Tubin, in a similar way to Nielsen, Prokofiev and Honegger, brought a narrative theatricality to concert genres. From the beginning he displayed an instinctive and impeccable grasp of polyphony and large-scale structures, yet his orientation is essentially linear and dramatic.  . . .
Tubin's harmonic language ranges from free chromaticism to mild polytonality: he professed a distaste for Schoenbergian atonality and twelve-note techniques and an inclination towards the strict voice-leading rules of the 'Palestrina style'. Tubin's taste for archaisms also manifested itself in his operas' inclination towards feudal Estonian subjects. The Reekviem langenud sõduritele ('Requiem for Fallen Soldiers') completed in 1979 stands out among his contributions to the song and choral traditions of his native country; it has no connection with the Latin mass, being based instead on Estonian wartime lyrics. The String Quartet is another late and often diatonically-orientated work, based entirely on folk dances and ending with a characteristic fugue fashioned from this material. His varied output also includes several solo concertos, orchestral and instrumental arrangements of folk tunes, chamber works for strings especially, and the folk ballet Kratt.

Chamber Music:
Pf Qt, c, 1930;
Sonata no.1, vn, pf, 1936, rev. 1969;
Süit eesti tantsuviisidest [Suite on Estonian Dance Tunes], vn, pf, 1943;
Sonata no.2, vn, pf, 1949, rev. 1976;
Sonata, a sax, pf, 1951;
Sonata, vn, 1962;
Sonata, va, pf, 1965;
Sonata, fl, pf, 1979;
Keelpillikvartett (eesti pillilugudele) [Str Qt on Estonian Motifs], 1979;
.... other works for vn, vc, and str qt

[cilgwyn]

Bought all the BIS Tubin symphony cds separately from Amazon sellers. They all arrived today in a pile on my door mat. Why didn't I buy the box set and save money?! Various reasons. I had ancient old off air tapes of No's 2 & 6. I thought I'd just buy one or two of the most highly rated (going by GMG posts). Of course,the same old story.....I just couldn't resist the rest!! Also,I suppose the anorak in me! I tend to prefer original issues with all the artwork and liners. And you can cradle them lovingly in your hand while you listen......and.........[the remainder of this post has been censored!!]

You know the feeling?!!

[cilgwyn]

Listening to the Fourth symphony now! This is marvelous stuff! Of course,I must be bonkers,but there are a few passages in the third movement,which really do sound a bit like Bax at his most passionate and romantic! Of course I'm imagining this!! I know from the posts here that the Fourth is highly regarded and a bit of a favourite amongst admirers of this composer. This really is glorious music. So far I have listened to the Second,Sixth,Third and Eighth. I enjoyed them all,particularly the superb Second and viscerally exciting Sixth;but this one really is 'something else',as they say! Or what about just,"Wow!"

[Karl Henning]

Jeffrey and cilgwyn, I'd appreciate it if you would solve for x . . . the best Tubin symphony for a listener who may not care for Bax.  Any answer you propose will be earnestly considered 

[cilgwyn]

You won't regret it. The Baxian No 1, the epic No 2 'Legendary' and nos 3,4,5 and 10 are my favourites.

Uh-oh! I see what you mean! I haven't even got to that one,yet!!

[cilgwyn]

Listening to No 5 now,Karl! This one doesn't sound like Bax,yet!!

Uh-oh?!!

[Karl Henning]

Hah!

Don't raise my hopes, just to dash 'em to pieces, friend!

[vandermolen]

Well, they are all good. Cilgwyn will now have to buy the Alba set (all separate releases no box set).  . I have the BIS box AND the separate issues - how is that for CD OCD nutterdom? A friend said that No 4 (the cover of which on the BIS single CD release appears to show Tubin about to step into a partially submerged boat) reminded him of A Pastoral Symphony by Vaughan Williams. It is perhaps the ideal intro to Tubin. I find the end of the slow movement of No 5 (especially in the Jarvi version) very moving. I love No 3 and do not find the last movement bombastic as some do. No 2 'Legendary' is as good as any and wonderfully atmospheric, so Karl I would start with that one. No 1 is quite Baxian and underrated. If you like Tubin you must listen to Symphony No 1 by his compatriot Kaljo Raid - a masterpiece in my view.

[Karl Henning]

Well, they are all good. Cilgwyn will now have to buy the Alba set (all separate releases no box set).  . I have the BIS box AND the separate issues - how is that for CD OCD nutterdom? A friend said that No 4 (the cover of which on the BIS single CD release appears to show Tubin about to step into a partially submerged boat) reminded him of A Pastoral Symphony by Vaughan Williams. It is perhaps the ideal intro to Tubin. I find the end of the slow movement of No 5 (especially in the Jarvi version) very moving. I love No 3 and do not find the last movement bombastic as some do. No 2 'Legendary' is as good as any and wonderfully atmospheric, so Karl I would start with that one. No 1 is quite Baxian and underrated. If you like Tubin you must listen to Symphony No 1 by his compatriot Kaljo Raid - a masterpiece in my view.

Thanks.  I am a bit cautious at the edge of the pool because I feel certain that I heard some Tubin in concert while I was in Tallinn, and (though it may mean nothing to my ears today) I remember not thinking much of it at the time.

[vandermolen]

Thanks.  I am a bit cautious at the edge of the pool because I feel certain that I heard some Tubin in concert while I was in Tallinn, and (though it may mean nothing to my ears today) I remember not thinking much of it at the time.

Karl I just checked on US Amazon and the BIS CDs with No 4 on and nos 2 and 6 are available at about $3 so if you want to try one why not go for one of those.

[Karl Henning]

I've given a listen to samples of n^os. 4 & 7, and think I'll take a dip.  Thanks, Jeffrey!