© Rene Jakobson
Since the beginning of Young Euro Classic, the Symphony Orchestra of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre has appeared several times at the festival in Berlin. It represents the outstanding level of Estonian music education, as witnessed by the fact that the country’s leading conductors, such as Paul Mägi, Eri Klas, Arvo Volmer and Andres Mustonen, work with the orchestra. They are complemented by such renowned foreign conductors such as Lutz Köhler (Berlin) and Michel Tabachnik (Switzerland). Every year, the orchestra prepares approximately five programmes, performing not only at the Academy, but also in concert halls around the country and at various festivals. Its concerts for young audiences, organized with other departments at the Academy, are increasingly popular. Every year, the orchestra also performs one programme with the National Symphony Orchestra of Estonia, and every two years it rehearses a great choral and symphonic work or an opera and performs it at the Estonian National Opera in Tallinn.
Konzerthaus Berlin
© Krõõt Tarkmeel
Toomas Vavilov has been pursuing a two-pronged career for many years. On the one hand, the 53-year-old is one of the leading clarinettists of his country, with a repertoire ranging from classical to contemporary music – and a special focus on Estonian works. Several composers have written pieces especially for him, including Urmas Sisask, Eino Tamberg, Ester Mägi, Lepo Sumera and Raimo Kangro. As a conductor, Vavilov made his debut with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in 1998, followed by performances with other important orchestras and choruses in Estonia. From 2006 to 2008, he was chief conductor of the tradition-steeped Vanemuine Theatre in Tartu. Furthermore, the conductor is active in music education for children; he has also staged the choreographic show Schoenberg and Circus and conceived a rock opera for the Estonian band Ruja.
© Kaupo Kikkas
The pianist Sten Heinoja is one of the most promising talents of the Estonian younger generation. At the age of four, he received his first piano lessons, and as a teenager, he enrolled as a student at the music academy in Tallinn. In 2014, Heinoja won the Estonian Piano Competition (including five special prizes); 2016 he was the winner of the Classical TV show Klassikatähed. In 2018, he won the Kendall Taylor Beethoven Competition in London. Ever since, the pianist has performed with all the important Estonian orchestras; he has also been invited to perform in many European countries, India and China, Israel and the USA. His repertoire focuses on the First Viennese School and 20th-century piano music. Heinoja also forms a regular duo with the cellist Marcel Johannes Kits and is a member of the piano trio Hämarik.
© Kristi Tüvi
Born in Pärnu in 1992, Alisson Kruusmaa studied at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, where she graduated in composition in 2017. She has been noted both for orchestral as well as choral and chamber music works. In her music, she loves to create fragile sonic landscapes, marked by delicate orchestration. Kruusmaa’s most significant compositions include Mesmerism for clarinet and piano and the piano concerto Piece (both 2015) as well as Songs of Silver Light for mezzo-soprano, trumpet and piano (2017). The same year, Kruusmaa’s orchestral piece Circles, which was inspired by the crystalline patterns of the rings of Saturn, was premiered in Tallinn. Among her most recent compositions are And the Great Winds Come and Go for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, premiered at the Andriessen Festival in the Netherlands, and the major choral work Under Evening Sky. 2021 saw the premiere of her expansive piano concerto As if a River Were Singing…; last year Kruusmaa’s new Accordion Concerto was premiered in Pärnu.
“Wenn Bach Bienen gezüchtet hätte” (1994/2019)
“Five Arabesques” (2021/22, German Premiere) 🏆
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in D-Major Op. 21 Hob. XVIII:11 (1782)
“In spe” for Wind Quintet and String Orchestra (2010)
Symphony No. 7 (1958)
About the concert
A small country with a large – and very vivacious – musical tradition! No wonder the Orchestra of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre presents itself at Young Euro Classic with a programme focusing on music from its homeland. Arvo Pärt, 87 years old today, is an internationally famous composer with an unmistakable musical style, perfectly encapsulated in a work such as Wenn Bach Bienen gezüchtet hätte – the upbeat to a concert ending with a far too rarely-performed symphonic grand master of Estonian heritage, Eduard Tubin. His Symphony No. 7, a highly expressive work with sweeping melodious lines, was written in 1958, when its composer was in exile in Sweden. The diverse state of contemporary music in the Baltic republic is represented by the composer Alisson Kruusmaa, whose Five Arabesques were inspired by a poem by Hermann Hesse. All this surrounds a classical “island” in the middle of the evening, for which the Estonians have chosen the sparkling Piano Concerto in D-major by Joseph Haydn.
Broadcast
The concert will be streamed LIVE on ARTE CONCERT and will be available afterwards in the ARTE media library: arteconcert.com
The concert will be recorded by Deutschlandfunk Kultur and broadcast nationwide on 31 AUG, 20:03, in the broadcast “Konzert” – in the Dlf Audiothek app, via FM and DAB+.
