Baltic Voyage

My posting has slowed a little recently because of the BBC Proms season; most of my free listening time has been spent with those concerts rather than taking the next cd on the shelf. But still on a BBC theme; the last post was the latest BBC Music mag cover disk and today we go back to such a disk from a few years ago entitled Baltic Voyage, Heroic Symphonies From Estonia. This features the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra playing music by Villem Kapp, Arvo Part and Eduard Tubin. Each piece is conducted by a different member of the Estonian Jarvi conducting dynasty, father Neeme and sons Paavo and Kristjan. There is a strong Baltic connection of course with Finland and neighbouring Lithuania and Latvia but it should also be remembered that Estonia was part of the USSR for most of the 20th century when thes pieces were being composed. These disparate influences are evident here in the two symphonies featured, Kapp's Symphony No 2 with a slightly Sibelian sound world and Tubin's Symphony No 3 with a finale that could come from Shostakovich. The shorter Part piece is the Cantus in memory of Benjamin Britten, a work in his tintabuli style which I have already considered in a recording by the Britten Sinfonia.