The Estonian composer Urmas Sisask (b. 1960) has been fascinated by astronomical phenomena throughout his career, as work-titles like The Milky Way (piano, 1990), Andromeda (two pianos, 1991) and The North Star (orchestra, 1992) attest. But the 29 movements in Starry Sky (1980-7) do not depict their celestial subjects, which serve rather as springboards for fairly arbitrary personal musings – declared in subtitles – having little connection with the objects in question. Few will even have heard of the minor constellation Vulpecula – the Fox, I believe – let alone equate it with “Anxiety”; Corvus – the Crow – prompts a “Blizzard”, Serpens “Appearances” – and so on.
Strongly tonal in idiom, Starry Sky covers a broad spectrum of models as well as moods: Bartok, Debussy, Messiaen and (inevitably) Part come and go, though in the main it ploughs a neo-romantic, intermittently impressionistic furrow. As a loose collection of pieces (the average duration of each being about two minutes) which can be played in any order or selection, there is little room for development or meaningful thematic interconnection between the movements. Exceptions are the sub-suite, The Pleiades (Nos. 16-22, with no subtitles), or the virtuoso final seven – particularly Aries (“Tension”), Ophiuchus (“Catastrophe”) and Hydra (“Timelessness”) – which at last give the excellent Lauri Vainmaa something demanding to do. The first half of the cycle remains earthbound despite good moments; in a few places, Sisask’s invention – pretty basic at the best of times – borders on the trite.'