Antes Edition's album entitled Estonian Cello delivers precisely what it advertises: a comprehensive overview of the abundant selection of Estonian composers and their works for cello and piano. Listeners seeking to expand their recording collection of this repertoire will enjoy hearing familiar composers -- like Tubin and
Pärt -- as well as likely unknown composers -- like Tobias-Duesberg and Eller. The selections range from nearly sappy Romantic-influenced works to more exploratory pieces of the twentieth century. Performing this pleasingly diverse program is cellist Teet Järvi and pianist
Rumessen. Many aspects of Järvi's playing are quite admirable; his left hand is extremely dexterous and maneuvers around the cello with a great deal of ease and fluency. His right-arm technique displays a command of a plethora of bow strokes. What Järvi does not immediately demonstrate, however, is a command of dynamics and variations in tone quality. The first 10 tracks of the album, in fact, are so relentlessly loud and forced that many listeners may quickly start to lose interest. Järvi's performance of both the
Pärt and Tubin shows that he is more than capable of producing a pleasing, quiet, introspective tone, although there is still too much forced, pressured sound. Why this variety is not used more in the beginning of the CD is somewhat of a mystery, but certainly works against him as he tries to captivate his listeners. Such effort seems unnecessary given the sensitivity and care with which his accompanist,
Rumessen, plays.