March 27-28, Estonian National Male choir with Mihhail Gerts conducting will present Urmas Sisask’s “Spell for Denmark” for baritone, male choir and percussion Op. 112 at the concerts in Denmark. New work on texts by Anne Kahro and Estonian folklore is dedicated to the Kingdom of Denmark. Beside Sisask’s piece, programme includes choral music by Arvo Pärt, Veljo Tormis, Gustav Ernesaks, Artur Kapp and Danish composers. Concerts dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Estonian Republic will take place on March 27 at 8 p.m. in Danish Royal Library Black Diamond Hall and March 28 at 8 p.m. in Aarhus Music House.
Estonian National Male Choir is currently the largest professional male choir in the world, founded by the legendary Estonian composer and conductor Gustav Ernesaks in 1944. During more than an half century ENMC has performed 5800 concerts all across Estonia, Europe, Canada and USA. Beside a capella music, ENMC’s repertoire includes nearly 30 large-scale vocal symphonic works. Within the last 5 years, ENMC has recorded 18 CDs for Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, Virgin, Finlandia, CCn'C, Forte, Alba and other record labels. Currently the choir is working on recording CDs with Veljo Tormis’s complete male choir music. CD with Sibelius’s cantatas (Estonian National Male Choir, Girls’ Choir Ellerhein, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Järvi, Virgin Classics) won Grammy Award in the “Best Choral Performance” category in 2004. In 2005, the recording of Edvard Grieg’s “Peer Gynt” (same performers) was selected the orchestral album of the year by BBC Music Magazine.
The main source of Urmas Sisask’s (b. 1960) music is astronomy – the basis of many of his works are mathematical descriptions of planets’ movements. The special facet of his interest is astronomy in Estonian folk traditions; folk heritage lives also in his folk music stylizations. Sisask has gained world-wide popularity foremost with his sacred choral music with simple harmony and beautiful melodies.
Mariliis Valkonen