Customer Reviews

Rudolf Tobias: Des Jona Sendung - Jonah's Mission

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Rudolf Tobias was born in Estonia (in 1873, same year as Rachmaninoff) and he had quite an unfortunate short life (he died in 1918). His vision and ambition in Music was not necessarily shared by others and his Oratorio was never performed in full during his lifetime and was soon forgotten. Thanks to the enormous work of Musicologist Vardo Rumessen who has restored after a considerable work. In some ways his destiny reminds me of the one of Charles Tomaslinson Griffes who had to copy by hand his "Pleasure-Dome Of Kubla Khan" for a performance by the BSO and shortly died after. But Tobias had himself no chance to see a complete performance during his lifetime. And it was not until 1989 that the complete version was ever performed, thanks to Rumessen, the famous Musicologist, and his restoration work done on the score.

Three choruses are staged for "Des Jonas Sendung", 150 chorists are used in the main and there is an addition of children's choir. A female choir is acting as the "Mystic Chorus". The Orchestra is deployed in full proportion.

The Oratorio itself is a very well balanced between huge, grandiose moments (the Sanctus reminds me of one movement of Elgar's "The Spirit of England"), intimacy with parts that could be Chamber Music and fast, muscular transients (like in the opening bars).

It is sad that such a discovered work, neglected or even unperformed during their time, reveals to be a major landmark in the entire Oratorio output and ranks among the best Choral works ever written : Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Haendel Messiah.

This is also making every audition of this CD an unforgettable experience.

A major accomplishment. Rudolf Tobias (1873-1918) must be counted as the founder of Estonian art music in more than one sense (apparently he composed the first Estonian string quartet, orchestral work and oratorio). His grand oratorio Des Jona Sendung, surely the pinnacle of his oeuvre, was premiered in Leipzig in 1909, but that performance was something of a disaster, and apparently the work gathered dust since then until Vardo Rumessen decided to restore and arrange it for a performance in 1989 (his restoration is the one we hear here). Tobias had even obtained German citizenship prior to the work's premiere, and the texts for the work are thus German rather than Estonian.

The work is cast in 38 sections and scored for relatively massive forces. And the music is striking; fiercely passionate and of surging power, scaling windy heights and plumbing abysmal depths. There is absolutely nothing stolid and worthy about this music, although it does not shy away from monumentalism. That said, it is equally effective and captivating in its solemn and its tenderly atmospheric pastoral moments. And it does not really sound like anyone else (perhaps early Tubin) - certain elements are discernible, to be sure, such as Liszt and Sibelius (Kullervo), but they certainly do not obscure the individual voice (Franz Schmidt's Buch mit sieben Siegeln mght in fact be the closest I can think of in terms of what kind of work this is). Tobias was also an imaginative orchestrator, apparently, for the orchestral textures, while wonderfully effective (in particular the marvelous writing for woodwinds), are also strikingly original. It is, indeed, something of a masterpiece, and that seems to be the opinion of all other reviews I have seen of it.

Fortunately the performances are great. The remarkable Baltic choral tradition is deployed for wonderful effect, with truly brilliant, ferocious, smoldering and dashing performances from the choruses - it is really, truly remarkable and would have been a reason in itself to check out this release, even if the work in question had not been such a marvelous one. The soloists are also impressive, with no real weak links though they all seem stronger on fervor than tenderness. The orchestra players similarly play their hearts out under Järvi's powerful but sensitive direction. With superbly comprehensive notes, this set is a real winner - the only drawback is that the sound, although perfectly clear, is a little recessed and dull.