Nordic Symphony Orchestra & Anu Tali - Erkki-Sven Tuur: Strata

The album 'Strata' presents large-scale music for orchestral forces from highly-regarded Estonian composer Erkki-Sven T��r - his Sixth Symphony and Concerto for violin and clarinet. It is T��r's fifth ECM New Series album with compositions that are, in his words, abstract dramas in sound, with individual characters and an extremely dynamic chain of events; unfolding in a space that is constantly shifting, expanding and contracting.

Introduced on ECM with the 1996 release 'Crystallisatio', Erkki-Sven T��r has come to be one of the most celebrated of Estonian composers, after Arvo P�rt probably the most widely-played internationally. 'Strata' an album of great power, recorded in Tallinn at the Estonia Concert Hall, is certain to widen T��r's following. The album is also an ECM debut for charismatic Estonian conductor Anu Tali and the Nordic Symphony Orchestra (which she co-founded). Originally projected as a Finnish-Estonian undertaking, the orchestra has grown to include outstanding players from 15 countries.

Soloists on Noesis are German clarinettist (and composer) J�rg Widmann and his violinist sister Carolin, two of the most distinguished instrumentalists of their generation. Carolin Widman has received praise and prizes for her ECM recordings of Schumann's Violin Sonatas and her 20th century recital disc 'Phantasy of Spring'. An album of J�rg Widmann's compositions is scheduled for New Series release in 2011.

Personnel: J�rg Widmann (clarinet), Carolin Widmann (violin), Nordic Symphony Orchestra, Anu Tali (conductor)