Erkki-Sven Tüür: Lost Prayers

Album review

"Lost Prayers" is the first of Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür's New Series recordings to be devoted entirely to his chamber music. Scaled-back instrumental forces, however, are no indicator of reduced expressive power, and the volatility of Tüür's concept emerges forcefully from the first seconds of Fata Morgana which is, with Lichttürme, one of two pieces for violin, violoncello and piano.
These pieces are performed by the Estonian trio of Harry Traksmann, Leho Karin and Marrit Gerretz-Traksmann, all of whom have played Tüür's music extensively and made appearances on earlier ECM discs, including "Crystallisatio" and "Oxymoron". The German-based Signum Quartett plays Tüür's Second String Quartet, "Lost Prayers", and Signum violinist Florian Donderer also performs Synergie together with cellist Tanya Tetzlaff.

Collectively the musicians underline Erkki-Sven Tüür's view that "one can build up a really rich and wide palette of sounds with only three or four instruments. You don't necessarily need a full orchestra to operate with a powerful soundscape." Erkki-Sven Tüür says of this recording: "Manfred Eicher had wanted to record an album focused on my chamber music works for many years, but it was only after I composed Lichttürme that I felt: now we have a set of pieces we could really release together. This chamber music collection is very important to me". © ECM New Series