The series is sponsored by Liviko
Olivier Messiaen
Les Offrandes Oubliées
Henri Dutilleux
Cello concerto Tout un monde lointain…
Kaija Saariaho
Vista
Maurice Ravel
Choreographic poem La Valse
In November, Theodor Sink, the principal cello of ERSO, will take the stage as the soloist for the orchestra. As a multifaceted interpreter, Sink is a soloist, a chamber musician, and an orchestra member. He started to work at ERSO in 2017, and since then, he has soloed regularly with the orchestra. This time, Olari Elts will conduct Henri Dutilleux’s Cello Concerto. The five parts of the piece are inspired by the poetry of Charles Baudelaire. The composition is considered one of the finest examples of its genre created in the twentieth century.
The programme of the concert also includes Les Offrandes Oubliées, created by one of the most influential composers of the twentieth century, Oliver Messiaen, when he was still young. The orchestral piece Vista by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho (who sadly passed away last year) is going to be performed for the first time in Estonia. The concert also includes a beloved orchestral piece by Maurice Ravel – the choreographic poem La Valse. This is a twentieth-century tribute to the Viennese waltz, a sore memory of its glory days.
THEODOR SINK cello
ERSO
Conductor OLARI ELTS
The series is sponsored by Nordic Catering
Heino Eller
Homeland Tune
Peeter Vähi
Blue Collage (premiere)
Artur Lemba
Piano Concerto No. 2 in E minor
Sergei Bortkiewicz
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 16
The first concert in the ‘Romance’ series brings conductor Neeme Järvi together with his long-time musical partners on the stage of the Estonia Concert Hall: Triin Ruubel on violin, Indrek Leivategija on cello, and Anna Shelest on piano. Ruubel and Leivategija will perform the solos of Peeter Vähi’s Blue Collage. The concert programme includes Piano Concerto No. 2 by Artur Lemba, one of the brightest pianists in Estonian music history. Lemba’s works are characterised by a combination of classical and romantic styles and a lyrical sound.
The programme also includes Piano Concerto No. 1 by Sergei Bortkiewicz, a Romantic composer of Ukrainian descent. His compositions are heavily influenced by the music of Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, and other nineteenth-century greats. Anna Shelest, the soloist for the piano concerti, is an artist with numerous international accolades, who has enchanted audiences across the world. The New York Times has described her as a pianist of ‘a fiery sensibility and warm touch.’
TRIIN RUUBEL violin
INDREK LEIVATEGIJA cello
ANNA SHELEST klaver
ERSO, conductor NEEME JÄRVI
at 6 p.m.
Pre-concert conversation panel with Joonas Hellerma and Mihhail Gerts
at 7 p.m.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 1
Eduard Tubin
Violin Concerto No. 1
Eduard Tubin
Symphony No. 1
Conductor MIHHAIL GERTS
The series is sponsored by Liviko
Elis Hallik
Aegis
Edward Elgar
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
Jean Sibelius
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43
‘Cello Concerto’, the new concert series of ERSO, begins in September with Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, where the orchestra is conducted by Kristiina Poska and German cellist Alban Gerhardt is performing the solos. Gerhardt’s career launched in 1991, when he soloed with the Berlin Philharmonic. Since then, he has been considered one of the most versatile cellists in the world, characterised by technical mastery, deep musicality, and never-ending artistic curiosity. Gerhardt plays a cello made by Matteo Gofriller in 1710.
The concert opens with Elis Hallik’s Aegis, which is dedicated to the centenary of the Republic of Estonia and carries the idea of a protective shield. The second half of the evening is devoted to Symphony No. 2 by Jean Sibelius. The symphony composed in Italy is a synthesis of classical lightness and romantic sensibilities and constitutes a crossroad in the musical development of Sibelius.
ALBAN GERHARDT cello
ERSO
conductor KRISTIINA POSKA
Artur Kapp
Hiiob
In Estonian sacred music, three oratorial works stand as mountain peaks among the others: “Des Jona Sendung” by Rudolf Tobias, “Estonian Requiem” by Cyrillus Kreek and oratorio “Hiiob” (1929) by Artur Kapp, the premiere of which in 1931 became a major event in Estonian musical life. After the break of 27 years, this impressively large composition will be brought back to the audience by maestro Neeme Järvi.
TUURI DEDE mezzo-soprano
TAMAR NUGIS baritone
RAIKO RAALIK bass
AIN ANGER bass
girls' choir Ellerhein
State Choir LATVIJA
Estonian National Male Choir
ERSO
conductor NEEME JÄRVI
The series is sponsored by Nordaid
Erkki-Sven Tüür
Melting Bells
Ester Mägi
Church Bell (arranged by Rasmus Puur)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
Hector Berlioz
Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14
The opening concert of the 98th season of ERSO is dedicated to a recurring theme of the sound of bells in its various forms and meanings. ERSO’s chief conductor Olari Elts is directing the concert. Composer Erkki-Sven Tüür will create a new piece especially for this evening. Rasmus Puur’s arrangement of Ester Mägi’s Church Bell, a song written for a male choir, is also going to represent Estonian music. The concert is named after Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. The symphony, which was considered revolutionary in the 1830s due to its novel sound, has become a true classic for modern symphony orchestras.
Bomsori Kim, a South Korean violinist with a high-flying career, will be the soloist of the concert. She has won numerous reputable violin competitions and is an artist of Deutsche Grammophon as well as a frequent guest performer on the most prestigious stages of the world. She will be the soloist for the Violin Concerto by musical prodigy Erich Wolfgang Korngold, which has been performed by ERSO only twice before.
BOMSORI KIM violin
ERSO
conductor OLARI ELTS
Kenn-Eerik Kannike (from the album ‘Computations’) / arranger Karl Tipp
Computations
Vamos
Jurop
Simulation
Steam
Decay
In August, ERSO will visit the HALL club for the third time. This time, it is a joint event organised by ERSO, HALL, and the unda festival. The concert programme is created in close cooperation with the resident artists of the club.
unda festival takes place in September in the European Capital of Culture Tartu. The festival explores the links between club culture, music, dance, and anthropology. unda also explores the broader intertwining of club culture with other fields, thus being a fruitful ground for cooperation with ERSO.
Kenn-Eerik Kannike
Nina Kawaguchi (violin)
Helena Altmanis (viola)
Theodor Sink (cello)
Linda Vood (flute)
Meelis Vind (clarinet)
Johannes Kiik (trombone)
Lauri Metsvahi (percussion)
The concert series Maestro is supported by EPIIM
Carl Maria von Weber
Turandot Overture and March
Paul Hindemith
Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Symphony No. 2 in E minor
Neeme Järvi, Honorary Artistic Director for Life of ERSO, will be joining the orchestra in May. Järvi’s collaboration with ERSO began in 1956. Four years later, Järvi was named the conductor in residence of the orchestra, and in 1963, its chief conductor. His second term as chief conductor ended in 2020, but both the orchestra and the public happily look forward to his return to the podium every year. This time, the programme will feature works by Wilhelm Furtwängler and Paul Hindemith.
Furtwängler, who is considered one of the best conductors of the 20th century, is considerably less well-known as a composer. He has written three symphonies, of which his Symphony in E minor with ERSO is an extensive four-movement work in the late Romantic style. In 1930, Furtwängler expressed support for Hindemith, performing the works of the latter even after they had been banned in Germany by the Nazis. Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphoses ties a third German composer, Carl Maria von Weber, on whose Turandot themes the work is based, with the programme. The composition was originally conceived as a ballet, although it was completed in the United States in 1943 as a four-part orchestral work.
ERSO
Conductor NEEME JÄRVI
The concert series Romance is supported by Nordic Catering
Rasmus Puur
Symphony (premiere)
Robert Schumann
Concertpiece for Four Horns and Orchestra, Op. 86
Johannes Brahms
Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
The Romance series will end in May and the orchestra will be led again by Chief Conductor Olari Elts. The concert will feature an exceptional line-up of soloists, four young Estonian horn players Paula Ernesaks, Kairi Sosi, Eliise Kannukene and Kreete Jacob, all with prominent careers ahead of them in Estonia and abroad. Paula Ernesaks joined the Berliner Philharmoniker as a member of its horn section in the spring of 2022.
Robert Schumann’s Concertpiece for Four Horns and Orchestra, featuring horn solos, will be performed. The second half of the concert will feature a performance of Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 4, which is the longest of his symphonies and a good summary of his entire symphonic output. The evening will begin with the premiere of Rasmus Puur’s Symphony No. 1.
PAULA ERNESAKS horn
KAIRI SOSI horn
ELIISE KANNUKENE horn
KREETE JACOB horn
ERSO
Conductor OLARI ELTS
Margo Kõlar
…Only One Word…
Liisa Hõbepappel
And now it is still now
Age Veeroos
New piece for cello and orchestra
Linda Leimane
Enantiomorphic Chambers
Justina Repečkaitė
Vellum
Marius Baranauskas
Supernova
One of the highlights of the Estonian Music Days is the concert of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (ERSO).
This season, Estonian Music Days and ERSO will introduce new
compositions from Estonia and other Baltic countries. The concert will
be conducted by the British conductor Clement Power, who is well known
as an interpreter of new music. The “LHV New Composition Award 2024”
will be presented at the concert.
VALLE-RASMUS ROOTS cello
ERSO
Conductor CLEMENT POWER
The concert series Amadeus is supported by RADISSON COLLECTION HOTEL, TALLINN
Felix Mendelssohn
Overture The Hebrides, Op. 26
Robert Schumann
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 36 in C major, K. 425
In 2021, Misora Ozaki was awarded the third prize and the ERSO Special Prize at the 2021 Tallinn International Piano Competition. This season, we are welcoming the young pianist back to Tallinn. Our own young conductor, Henri Christofer Aavik, will be conducting one of the most romantic piano concertos, Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor.
Aavik has recently earned attention in Europe by winning the first prize in the Jorma Panula Conducting Competition and the second prize in the Yevgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition. In fact, the young conductor has called Neeme Järvi, a long-time ERSO Chief Conductor, one of the most important role models in his conducting career. ERSO will also be performing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 and the overture The Hebrides by another musical child prodigy Felix Mendelssohn.
MISORA OZAKI piano
ERSO
Conductor HENRI CHRISTOFER AAVIK
The concert series Romance is supported by Nordic Catering
Richard Strauss
Symphonic poem Don Juan
Paul Hindemith
Three Songs, Op. 9
Richard Wagner
‘Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhein Journey’ from the opera Twilight of the Gods
Richard Wagner
‘Funeral March’ from the opera Twilight of the Gods
Richard Wagner
‘Build me a sturdy funeral pyre’ from the opera Twilight of the Gods
In March, ERSO, Olari Elts, and soprano Aile Asszonyi will meet on the stage of the Estonia Concert Hall to perform an operatic concert programme. The programme will feature excerpts from Richard Wagner’s last opera Twilight of the Gods part of the tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung. The works of Richard Strauss and Paul Hindemith will also be played.
This year, soloist Aile Asszonyi made her historic debut at the Frankfurt Opera, taking the stage in the title role in Elektra by Richard Strauss. This is one of the most compelling roles ever performed by an Estonian singer in a top European opera house. Asszonyi’s dramatic soprano is particularly well-suited to major roles in the operas of Wagner and Strauss. This evening, however, we will be hearing a performance of Strauss’s symphonic poem Don Juan.
AILE ASSZONYI soprano
ERSO
Conductor OLARI ELTS
Manuel de Falla
Suite No. 2 from the ballet El Sombrero des Tres Picos
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K.466
Maurice Ravel
Rapsodie espagnole
Claude Debussy
Three symphonic sketches La Mer
In 2022, Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt gave a very successful solo concert in the Estonia Concert Hall, which included the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Hewitt is dedicated in particular to the interpretation of the music of Bach and in this respect, she is considered the heir to her famous compatriot, Glenn Gould. In March 2024, Hewitt will be back in Estonia and she will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 with ERSO.
As with the previous concert in the Piano Concerto series, this evening we will also be hearing a work by Manuel de Falla, more specifically, a suite from his ballet El Sombrero des Tres Picos. The second half of the concert will continue with the theme of Spain, with a performance of Maurice Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnole. The concert will be directed by French conductor Pierre Bleuse, who is the chief conductor of the Odense Symphony Orchestra and, from the 2023/24 season, the music director of the renowned contemporary music ensemble intercontemporain.
ANGELA HEWITT piano
ERSO
Conductor PIERRE BLEUSE
6 p.m. – pre-concert event
Carl Reinecke
Trio for oboe, horn and piano, Op. 188 I and II movement
Performers Guido Gualandi, Jürnas Rähni and Kärt Ruubel
Musicologist Anu Veenre speaks about the concert programme
7 p.m. – symphony concert
Ludwig van Beethoven
Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b
Carl Reinecke
Flute Concerto in D major Op. 283
Robert Schumann
Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120
Jasmine Choi, the soloist of the third concert of the Pure Gold series, is one of the most acclaimed flutists of her generation, performing a repertoire ranging from classical to pop music. In addition to her orchestral work with the Vienna Symphony and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, she has performed as a soloist with countless other orchestras. Together with ERSO, she will be performing Carl Reinecke’s Flute Concerto.
The concert will be conducted by Holly Hyun Choe, who has assisted Paavo Järvi in the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich in the recent seasons. She will conduct the third overture to Ludwig van Beethoven’s opera Leonore and Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 4. The work is the last in order, but the first symphony composed by Schumann.
JASMINE CHOI flute
ERSO
Conductor HOLLY HYUN CHOE
Kaija Saariaho
Six Japanese Gardens
Florent Ghys
Petits Artéfacts
Missy Mazzoli
Vespers for Violin
Tōru Takemitsu
Rain Tree
In February, ERSO ensembles are once again inviting the audience to the international photography museum Fotografiska. In the museum filled with photography, music and visual arts will meet for the evening. The length of the concert is one hour.
VAMBOLA KRIGUL percussion
THEODOR SINK cello
NINA KAWAGUCHI violin
Arvo Pärt
Swansong
Benjamin Britten
Violin Concerto, Op. 15
Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 6 in A minor
In February, long-time chief conductor of the orchestra, Arvo Volmer will once again perform with ERSO. Volmer, concert soloist violinist Benjamin Beilman, and ERSO have met on stage before when they performed together on a concert tour in the United States in 2018. Beilman will be visiting Estonia for the first time and the concert will feature an excerpt of Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto. Beilman has earned international acclaim for his passionate performances and deep, rich tone.
One of the keywords for ERSO’s 2023/24 season is Gustav Mahler’s symphonies, and one of them, No. 6, will also be presented during this concert. The symphony, also known as Tragic, is a large-scale work composed for a large orchestral ensemble. However, the first movement of the symphony contains one of Mahler’s most romantic themes, named after his wife Alma. The opening work of the concert is Arvo Pärt’s Swansong, which is an orchestral version of his work Littlemore Tractus, composed in 2000 for choir and organ.
BENJAMIN BEILMAN violin
ERSO
Conductor ARVO VOLMER
The concert series Amadeus is supported by RADISSON COLLECTION HOTEL TALLINN
Fanny Mendelssohn
Overture in C major
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219
Franz Schubert
Symphony No. 4 in C major, D 417
Acclaimed chamber musician, soloist, and concertmaster Florian Donderer will be performing with ERSO at the third concert of the Amadeus series. He is well known to local audiences as the concertmaster of the Estonian Festival Orchestra and first violin of the outstanding Signum Quartet. The Signum Quartet is one of the most adventurous and outstanding string quartets in the music world today.
For the ERSO concert, Florian Donderer has selected for the programme Violin Concerto No. 5 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. All of Mozart’s violin concertos were written over a short period of time in Salzburg, with the fifth, the Concerto in A major, a youthfully fresh and sincere work, being the last one. Alongside Mozart, Donderer has selected works by Fanny Mendelssohn and Franz Schubert. Fanny was a talented pianist and composer who was overshadowed as a musician by her brother, Felix Mendelssohn. From Schubert’s repertoire, we will be hearing the Symphony No. 4, subtitled Tragic, the most serious of his first six symphonies, reminiscent of the musical compositions of the Sturm und Drang period.
The concert series Piano Concerto is supported by LIVIKO
6 p.m. – pre-concert
Liina Sumera
Conatus
A conversation between Guido Gualandi, Bas Wiegers and Liina Sumera.
7 p.m. – symphony concert
Liina Sumera
Chimera
Manuel de Falla
Nights in the Gardens of Spain
Igor Stravinsky
The Rite of Spring
Dutch conductor Bas Wiegers performs often with ERSO and their collaboration began in 2016, at the Eight Bridges Festival, in Cologne. Since the 2022/23 season, the charismatic conductor works with the Munich Chamber Orchestra and appears regularly as a guest conductor for various orchestras around the world. The last time when Wiegers performed with ERSO was in April 2022 when Triin Ruubel gave a solo performance of Tôru Takemitsu’s work Nostalghia.
This time, the person to share the stage with Wiegers and ERSO is the pianist Age Juurikas, who will be performing Manuel de Falla’s work Nights in the Gardens of Spain. De Falla is deemed one of Spain’s most important composers and he has influenced musicians across Europe. Before his time, Spanish music and folk traditions were virtually unknown outside the Iberian Peninsula. The concert will also feature Igor Stravinsky’s legendary work The Rite of Spring and Liina Sumera’s new piece, written especially for this concert.
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