Tubin: Violin Sonata / Alto Saxophone Sonata / Ave Maria

Featuring

Nils-Erik Sparf
Roland Pöntinen
Pekka Savijoki
Neeme Järvi
Roland Rydell
Janåke Larson

Lunds Studentsångare
Eduard Tubin

Did you know?

1/7

Performer Biography

Neeme Järvi, the conductor, is engaged in recording projects of the complete orchestral music of Sibelius and Tubin for the BIS label, and has also recorded all symphonies by Gade and Martinů for BIS.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Tubin chose Mart Saar's choral song 'Seven moss-covered beds' as the basis for his Ballade because its text, from the Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg, symbolized Estonia's centuries of foreign oppression.

Performer Biography

Nils-Erik Sparf, the violinist on this album, comes from a long line of Dalecarlian fiddlers and began playing folk-music at a very early age with his father.

Composition History

Tubin's Ballade in the form of a Chaconne on a theme of Mart Saar was completed shortly after he fled to Sweden in 1944, on March 8, 1945.

Compositional Technique

The Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano features a second movement based on a 13th-century troubadour song, and a motif in its middle part that recalls the tenor saxophone solo from Tubin's Sixth Symphony.

Compositional Technique

The second movement of Tubin's Sonata for Violin and Piano incorporates a theme reminiscent of the Estonian folk-song 'Targa rehealune' (Beneath the wise man's lodging), which Tubin used in several compositions.