Exodus (1999)

Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff. UK  11. 01. 2012
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, cond. Olari Elts

[...] Fiery percussion was also a characteristic feature of Exodus, by Erkki-Sven Tüür, a symphonic poem dating from 1999. The title refers to Tüür's perception of humanity's insatiable urge to escape constraints. The music had a elemental quality, gradually gathering momentum and moving towards a cataclysmic outburst of sound. Yet everything about this score is tightly controlled, and the aftermath of this explosion of energy was equally intense, with Tüür's instinct for instrumental colour realising a glistening texture, every detail poised. Elts showed immense sympathy for his Estonian compatriot's vision. This was the high point of the concert. [...]

Carnegie Hall, New York USA  31. 02. 2003
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, cond. Paavo Järvi

[...] Mr. Jarvi began with the New York premiere of Exodus (1999) by Erkki-Sven Tuur, an Estonian composer who lists Frank Zappa and the British art-rock band King Crimson among his influences. The first half of his piece uses kaleidoscopic juxtapositions, with layers of swirling strings and combative brass bursts enveloping everything from a Beethovenesque gallop to a brief string of jazz-tinged pitched percussion. This chaotic writing unfolds into a tranquil, texturally transparent closing section. There were moments in the work's densest writing when the orchestra's strings seemed to flag, but mostly the musicians projected the level of energy that Mr. Tuur
demanded. [...]

Lincoln Theatre, Miami USA  09. 02. 2002
New World Symphony Orchestra, cond. Paavo Järvi

Any short list of the next generation's leading baton-wielders should include Paavo Järvi, who led the New World Symphony in a program of Scandinavian music Saturday night at the Lincoln Theatre. Son of noted conductor Neeme Järvi, head of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the 39-year-old conductor is making big musical waves in his own right in his inaugural season as music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
Saturday night in Miami Beach, Järvi showed just what all the buzz is about. The Estonian-born conductor elicited performances of remarkable refinement and gleaming clarity, demonstrating an impressive ability for nuance and balancing textures. Yet nothing was fussy or self-regarding about his direction, and the playing had tremendous sweep and vitality.
The opening work, Exodus by Erkki-Sven Tüür, demonstrated Järvi's ability to make a convincing case for a new and unfamiliar piece of music. Reflecting its title, Exodus is a journey reflecting "humanity's insatiable urge to escape constraints," says the Estonian composer. Like Järvi, Tüür, 42, played in a rock band as a youth, a populist inspiration that has clearly influenced his classical writing.
Scored for a large orchestra, Exodus is crafted with impressive confidence and stylistic flair. Unlike many works where the rock influence seems diluted or awkwardly grafted on to a symphonic canvas, Tüür's piece succeeds in fusing the raw energy of rock to orchestral forces. Exodus opens with untrammeled fury, with a rocklike riff for unison double-basses and vociferous brass chords cutting through. Eventually, the driving rhythms subside and the music softens to end on a peaceful note.
Järvi proved a committed advocate of his compatriot's music, eliciting playing of exhilarating virtuosity from the New World members, who were clearly as enthusiastic about this combustible music as the conductor.

[...] Tuur is one of a number of distinctive new voices to have emerged from the Baltic states since perestroika, though until now his orchestral music has been best known here through recordings. Largely self-taught, he ran a rock band in Estonia in his 20s, while also studying composition at the Tallinn Academy, and his music seems the product of a mind not over bothered by the dogmas of style and language. It's dense, highly wrought stuff, which nevertheless carries quite a big emotional charge, and the Birmingham audience (a surprisingly small one, given that the second half of the programme was Mahler's Sixth Symphony) responded very positively to the superbly executed premiere.
Each life, taken separately, is an exodus, Tuur says, and his piece is "a composer's subjective sound image of a force that can defeat the undeniable". With or without that extra-musical background, it is still a hugely impressive achievement, packing a great deal into its 17-minute span, which maintains a constant pulsing until the very last few moments. But Exodus isn't at all a minimalist score – the busy figuration is constantly cross-cut with other rhythms and melodic profiles picked out against it, gradually accumulating momentum and tension, until it all explodes in a massive climax to which a drum-kit adds an anarchic edge. After that the textures thin, the motion calms down and only melodic fragments remain; a lonely Shostakovich-like melody wanders aimlessly for a few moments, and the piece evaporates in a haze of string chords.
The plotting of this trajectory is very confident, and there's something almost physical about the way in which Tuur moves and shapes the sound masses that his textures generate, so that the music offers a variety of perspectives – on one level the intricate construction offers constantly changing patterns and arrays, on another the sheer weight of sound is sculpted into large-scale gestures, so that the ear switches from one to the other. Intriguing stuff: Exodus certainly deserves some more performances.

[...] Järvi did, on the other hand, deliver an impressive first performance of Tüür's Exodus. Perhaps because of his background as a rock musician, Tüür sets out with a not too distant or obscure objective and devotes immense energy to getting there. The scoring of Exodus is brilliant throughout and its combination of high-speed stamina and repetitive figuration so relentless that it finds its way out – into an ethereal texture of comparatively sustained high-lying string sounds - only just in time.