The conductor Neeme Jarvi and the pianist Kalle Randalu, together with the composer Arvo Part and the conducting sons of Neeme Jarvi, Paavo and Kristjan, are among Estonia's most famous musical figures. Although they have worked abroad frequently and for a long time, they have always remained loyal to their Estonian homeland. The two ESTONIAN-RECORD productions with live recordings from 2015 to 2018 document two joint appearances of the exceptional musicians in their home country. In addition to the well-known and no less popular piano concertos KV 482 & 488 by Mozart, there are also delightful symphonic rarities by Richard Strauss (Le-Bourgeois-Gentilhomme-Suite Op.60) and Arnold Schonberg (orchestral arrangement of Brahms' Piano Quartet No.1) to be discovered, in which the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra can distinguish itself as an outstanding ensemble of world renown.

The grand man of Estonian music, Maestro Neeme Järvi, is probably one of the best known Estonian musicians in the world and since 2010 he has again been chief conductor and artistic director of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. On this record he conducts the piano concerto No 4 by Ludwig van Beethoven and the Symphony No 2 by Johannes Brahms and collaborates with Kalle Randalu and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. Neeme Jarvi is the head of a musical dynasty. One of today’s most highly respected maestro’s, he conducts the world’s most prominent orchestras and works alongside soloists of the highest caliber. He has also amassed a discography of nearly 500 recordings. He has held positions with orchestras across the world such as the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He is also the Principal Conductor Emeritus of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Medieval music often surprises us with it's oriental sounds. The East was a greater influence to Europe in the Middle Ages than it is often realized. The Moors ruled the Iberian Peninsula for almost 800 years, and the East and the South influenced our culture, including music, through Spain and the crusades. The lute, bow and several oriental percussion instruments made their way to Europe and that is why the music of the southern cultures sounds so natural on ancient instruments. As a holy city for three world religions, not only a 'Clash of Cultures' took place in Jerusalem at all times, but also a musical transfer. On their latest recording the ensemble Hortus Musicus explores this musical exchange. Many of the songs included are traditional Jewish songs or anonymous tunes of unknown specific origins, while three are by composers Walther von der Vogelweide and Neidhart von Reventhal.

Both Camille Saint-Saens and Francis Poulenc were engaged in the composition of wind sonatas towards the end of their lives. Poulenc's wonderful clarinet sonata is one of the composer's last completed compositions. Selvadore Rahni (clarinet) and Tuuli Rahni (piano) have recorded here some of the most beautiful contributions of the French repertoire for clarinet and piano. Clarinetist and composer Selvadore R�hni is one of the most well-known Estonian clarinetists in the world. Active as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player, he is also well-known in Japan, where he served as the principal clarinetist of the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra from 1997 until 2005 and recorded as principal clarinet with KSO for the National TV and Radio of Japan as well as record company Arte Nova. Pianist Tuuli R�hni was born in Tallinn, Estonia. She began her musical studies at the age of three. From 1975 to 1986, she studied piano at Tallinn Music High School under �lle Sisa, and graduated with honors under the guidance of Ivo Sillamaa. From 1986 to 1991, she studied at the Tallinn State Conservatory (subsequently renamed the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre) under the guidance of Prof. Peep Lassmann, and graduated cum laude.

Andres Mustonen, artistic director of Hortus Musicus, writes of the group's new release: "The present release, titled Canto, is not trying to be an anthological overview of Italian music from the 16th and 17th centuries. It is rather a walk through the streets of Italian cities of the time, sometimes passing by a church, sometimes slipping into taverns or listening to sounds coming from the open windows of the doge's palazzo... This album lacks the puritanical-musicological ambition to remove a layer of dust from the yellowed manuscripts lying on archive shelves. The uninhibited performance of Hortus Musicus - that is life, our life itself."

Mastro Neeme Jarvi is one of the greatest names in Estonian music, and potentially the best known Estonian musician in the world. Since 2010, Jarvi has again been serving as chief conductor and artistic director of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. For this release, Jarvi conducts works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms. Particularly notable is the intimate and beautiful interpretation of Brahms’ Symphony No. 4. Liner notes are included in Estonian and English.

Luc Robert has a remarkable tenor voice and is one of the rising Canadian artists on the operatic and concert stages. He sang at the opera houses of Frankfurt, Toronto, Dortmund, Helsinki, as well as the Metropolitan Opera in New York. On his debut album for Estonian Record Productions he remains faithful to Verdi and sings arias from La Traviata, Nabucco, Rigoletto et al. Luc Robert’s success began in 2012 when he made his debut as Rodolfo in Verdi’s Luisa Miller at Malmo Opera, Sweden. During the same season he also sang with great success Gounod’s Faust at the Estonian National Opera, Cavaradossi (Tosca) at the Pacific Opera in Victoria, and Nicias (Thais) with the Finnish National Opera. A former firefighter, Luc Robert started his music studies at the “Conservatoire de Musique de Quebec” in Montreal and joined the Canadian Opera Company Studio Ensemble in Toronto in 2002. “Debuting tenor Luc Robert sounded to me like one of the better vocal finds for The Met in recent years. His voice is clear and his delivery passionate yet musical; a touch of huskiness here and there was not a detriment to enjoying his vocalism, and he had the power to pierce through the ensemble at will. His voice ‘spoke’ well in the large space and he had a good top-C to end the Act I trio.” (Oberon’s Grove, 2015)

The grand man of Estonian music, Maestro Neeme Jarvi, is probably one of the best known Estonian musicians in the world. Over his long and highly successful career he has held positions with orchestras across the world. Last season he took up his tenure as Artistic and Music Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. He is also currently Artistic Director of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Emeritus of both the Residentie Orkest Netherland Hague and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He also holds the titles of Principal Conductor Emeritus of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. ERP dedicates the sixth edition of the 'Great Maestros' series to the conductor, who is celebrating his 80th birthday this year and also looking forward to an ECHO Klassik. The program of this release includes works by Brahms, Britten, Mahler and Weber; world-renowned artist Kalle Randalu plays the piano.

The current recording is a double portrait: the portrait of pianist Ralf Taal portraying Fryderyk Chopin - trying to display the model from as many angles as possible. The first touches to the portrait-CD are given by a colorful Prelude bouquet followed by the narrative, elegiac fourth Ballade and three etudes, op 10 - where Chopin unites brilliant technique with poetic-romantic figures. The splendid Polonaise, op 53 offers homage to Poland, the composer's homeland. And finally, one final brush stroke on the canvas, the restless, sarcastic and lyrically speckled second Scherzo.

The grand man of Estonian msuic, Maestro Neeme Järvi, is probably one of the best known Estonian musicians in the world and since 2010 he has again been chief conductor and artistic director of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. On this record he conducts the Piano Concerto No. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven and the Symphony No. 1 by Johannes Brahms and collaborates with Kalle Randalu and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra.

"For pianist Vardo Rumessens, Johannes Brahms’ music is of real importance. When he played in Tallinn on Brahms' 180th birthday in 2013, Mr. Rumessens dedicated his concert program to him. This recordings features several of Brahms' best-known piano pieces. Mr. Rumessen (b. 1942) has achieved his main success as a performer of Estonian classical music, but has performed much other music as well, including Bach, Chopin and Scriabin, worldwide."

Mastro Neeme Jarvi is one of the greatest names in Estonian music, and potentially the best known Estonian musician in the world. Since 2010, Jarvi has again been serving as chief conductor and artistic director of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. For this release, Jarvi conducts works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Richard Strauss, most notably the beautiful interpretation of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op 15. Kalle Randalu is the featured piano soloist for the work.

In the 1960s, Jaan Rääts (b. 1932) brought into Estonian music a markedly anti-Romantic, neo-classicist orientation. Unlike many others, Rääts found his musical language relatively quickly and has broadly stayed true to it until today. His prolific work for piano includes the 24-piece Marginalia, dedicated to Kalle Randalu and the Electronic Sonata, the first work of its kind released on LP in Estonia, heard here on synthesizer, later arranged for two pianos.

When published in 1716, Antonio Vivaldi’s Sonatas, op. 5 were declared as the second part of his op. 2. + The entity contains four solo sonatas and two trio sonatas, which was rather unusual at that time. + The Baltic Baroque, under the direction of Grigori Maltizov, present, most surprisingly, the first recordings of these works to be undertaken and the first on period instruments. + There is a multitude of reasons for their non-representation on record, all of which falling into areas of origin, authorship and relations in music.

Although mainly known as a symphonic composer, Eduard Tubin also composed chamber music for various instrumental settings. Among his works, violin music occupies a special place excelling in melodic and emotional expression. Such works by him require great technical skills, thus showcasing each performer’s virtuosity.

On this new release the Baltic Baroque Ensemble presents four delightful and not so well-known sonatas by Antonio Vivaldi for two violins with optional basso continuo. The Sonata, RV 70 was Vivaldi's first chamber sonata for two violins, if desired, to be played without the bass.

The Best of Arsis Bells

René Eespere’s (b. 1953, Tallinn) work since the end of the 1970s, accounting for some aesthetic changes, involves tonal mode treatment, ostinato technique and elaborate use of variation, suggesting influences of ancient ritual music, minimalism and the Baroque. Chamber works and concerti rank among his most significant output. This two-disc set of chamber works for guitar includes music written between 1991-2013. The Concerto for Guitar features the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and conductor Paul Mägi.

Cantus angelicus

Resurrection of Mozart

DeusExClavier

In the context of Estonian violin music, Tubin composed many of the most outstanding works, including 2 violin concertos, 2 violin sonatas with piano, Sonata for Solo Violin and Suite on Estonian Dance Tunes, as well as a number of shorter pieces. Tubin's works, with their crisp, northerly expression, are profoundly national in character. Sigrid Kuulmann studied at the Estonian Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and at Robert Schumann Hochschule in Dusseldorf. She is a Laureate of Heino Eller International Violin Competition in Tallinn and is gaining further accolades for her performances of Estonian music, especially in Eduard Tubin's works.

The roots of handbells as musical instruments go back to the 17th century England where the first miniature copies of church bells were cast. First designed as practice instruments for the carillon players, they soon acquired the status of independent musical instruments called handbells. Arsis Handbell Ensemble, formed in 1993 from the singers of Arsis Chamber Choir, consists today of eight professional players and has one of the biggest handbell collections in the world. Arsis can boast of an impressive list of concert tours that have taken them to Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and the USA.

The Estonian National Male Choir RAM was founded by the founder of Estonian choral music Gustav Ernesaks in 1944. Originally a male choir specializing in a cappella repertoire, it has grown into a world-renown professional performer of oratorial works. RAM has given more than 6000 concerts all over Estonia, in the former USSR, in Europe as well as in Israel, Canada and the USA. The Orchestra of the Estonian Defense Forces is a state ceremonial orchestra founded on February 1st, 1993, re-established with the Estonian Defense Forces after the country had regained it's independence.

As a featured soloist and composer, Kristjan Randalu has performed in classical, jazz, and crossover Projects. He has worked with Quincy Jones, David Liebman, Christian McBride, Vince Mendoza, Dennis Russell Davies, and Maria Schneider. While at the Henry Mancini Institute, Kristjan Randalu performed on the two-time Grammy nominated Concord Jazz album "Elevation".