Peeter Vähi. The Path to the Heart of Asia
Peeter Vähi. The Path to the Heart of Asia
December 11, 2011
Tubin
Tubin
December 11, 2011

PEETER VÄHI
TO HIS HIGHNESS SALVADOR D
Hortus Musicus

An exciting dialogue between music and surrealistic art. “… produced a language reminiscent of European minimalism, unusually gentle in contour.” (Gramophone, 5/1995)

1–3 To His Highness Salvador D 11:08
4 Mystical Uniting 8:36
5 Digital Love 8:30
6–8 Concerto Piccolo 13:13
9–12 Four Engravings of Reval 8:46

Performed by:
Camerata Tallinn: Jaan Õun − flute, Ulrika Kristjan − violin, Heiki Mätlik − guitar (#1−5), Early Music Consort Hortus Musicus (#6−12), Ivo Sillamaa − harpsichord (#6−8), Andres Mustonen − conductor (#6−8)

 Imagetext Imagetext

Music composed by Peeter Vähi 
Recorded at the Tallinn City Hall / Matrix Audio Studio and Estonia Concert Hall in 1993 and 1996
Engineered by Priit Kuulberg & Jüri Tamm

Cover artwork: “Geopoliticus Child” by Salvador Dalí
Liner notes translated by Christian Hinzelin and ASAP Milano

Andres Mustonen’s (b 1953) discovery of music has followed a very unusual path. His adolescent fascination with contemporary music made an about-face in the early 1970s towards early and Christian music. In 1972 it led to founding the early music consort Hortus Musicus, which gives vital performances even today. Since the founding of the ensemble, Hortus Musicus and Andres Mustonen have been performing constantly on the world’s concert stages and at music festivals: the Utrecht Festival, the Malmö Baroque, concerts in Prague, St Petersburg and Moscow, performances at the Mozart-Fest in Chemnitz, the Jaffa Festival in Israel, the Lufthansa Baroque Festival in London, the Scottish Early Music Festival in Glasgow, the Lockenhaus Festival in Austria, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, the Glasperlenspiel Festival.
In these years Andres Mustonen and Hortus Musicus have succeeded in storing their work on 25 records.
Andres Mustonen is partly a solo violinist, but  mostly a conductor, whereas the latter post has been developed via a career of a performing artist and musician. Mustonen conducts the leading orchestras of Finland, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia and Lithuania, the Great Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, the Russian National Academic Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Musica Viva Academic Chamber Orchestra,  the Bayerische Rundfunken, the Helsinki City Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, etc. During many years, Andres Mustonen has worked together with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Tallinn Sinfonietta and with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra.
Mustonen has gone through and performed the music history both as a performer and a conductor. He transfers his musical experience of history to performances of classical, romantic and new music. This is but not the new music that infatuated young Mustonen in the early 1960s, when his interest lay in the avant-garde and the happening. It is the harmonic new music created by გია ყანჩელი (Giya Kancheli), Philip Glass, 武満 徹 (Takemitsu Tōru), Владимир Мартынов (Vladimir Martynov), Ավետ Տերտերյան (Avet Terterian), and Валентин Сильвестров (Valentin Silvestrov). Several composers have dedicated their work to him. Mustonen is in close creative contact with many Estonian composers − Erkki-Sven Tüür, Peeter Vähi, Arvo Pärt, and Galina Grigorieva − also giving premières of their new works.
Making music, Mustonen can be characterised by spontaneity, improvisation and radiant performance. “For me an orchestra is not a static form but a living organisation of musicians, one whose members enhance and affect each other.”
Mustonen’s repertoire includes pieces of early music as well as of new music, which he often premières. He places a special significance on religious oratoric masterpieces from Baroque to the modern day: Bach, Mozart, Bruckner, Penderecki, Tavener, Knaifel.
In time, Andres Mustonen has developed a wide circle of musician friends with whom he makes music: Natalia Gutman, Aleksei Ljubimov, Michel Lethiec, Inesa Galante, Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Ramon Jaffe, Francois Leleux, Marcel Peres, Yoshiko Arai, Pascal Gallois, Seppo Kimanen, Vasili Pantir. “I never share the stage with someone I don’t know, don’t consider my friend, or don’t love.”

Published by Edition 49, Germany (# 1−5) and Eres Edition, Germany (# 9−12)

Stereo
1997 Antes Edition Classics / Bella Musica Audio-VideoProduction
BM CD 31.9086

Photos: from the archives of Hortus Musicus and by Peeter Vähi (edited by Kikxsuk)

player To His Highness Salvador D, mov I, fragment, 133 sec, mp3
player Mystical Uniting, fragment, 162 sec, mp3
player Concerto piccolo, fragment, 2 min 26 sec, mp3

Press resonance

Distribution in Estonia by Edition 49, phone +372 50 82223, e49@zzz.ee
Distribution in Europe by Edition 49, info@edition49.de
International distribution by Amazon

See other records of Peeter Vähi: In the Mystical Land of Kaydara, Hommage à brillance de Lune, Maria Magdalena, A Chant of Bamboo, Supreme Silence2000 Years after the Birth of Christ, Tamula Fire Collage, The Path to the Heart of Asia, Handbell Symphony, Music for Synthesizers, Sounds of the Silver Moon

Other recordings of Hortus Musicus: Early Music of 3rd Millennium, Messe de… Carmina Burana, Gregorianische Choräle – Plainchants, Maypole, 1200-1600 Medieval-Renaissance, Vuestros Amores He Señora, Telemann. Quartets, 2000 Years After The Birth Of Christ, Hommage à brillance de Lune, Jerusalem, Ave …,canto:)