Concert series 2019/2020 now on sale!
10. May 2019.
In the 2019/20 season, ENSO presents six series – MAESTRO, CITY LIGHTS, RESONANCE, ROMANTICISM, HARMONY and PIANO CONCERTO. Each series contains four concerts with the best music, performed by the best musicians from Estonia and abroad. In many cases, an entertaining warm-up concert or a pre-concert discussion is also included as a bonus.
The concert series ‘Maestro’ will start and end with the opening and final concert of the season under the guidance of principal conductor Neeme Järvi. At the heart of the opening concert, framed with oratorical heroic works, is the Violin Concerto by Sibelius performed by Ye-Eun Choi, a South Korean violinist living in München who is making an outstanding international career. The final concert is dedicated to Pärt’s Symphony No. 4 Los Angeles and Sibelius’s Kullervo. The Estonian National Male Choir will also perform at both concerts. The concert ‘Gringolts and Mendelssohn’ will be carried out under the guidance of ENSO’s principal guest conductor Olari Elts. The violinist Ilya Gringolts, with whom the Estonian audience is already familiar, will perform with the orchestra as the soloist of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and its modern re-make, Sciarrino’s Allegory of the Night. Gringolts, who became the youngest winner of the international Paganini Competition two decades ago, works together with the world’s best orchestras and conductors. He also plays with the Gringolts String Quartet. The theme of the third concert of the series – fire, extinguishing, and energy – focuses on major natural and human disasters, such as Australia’s extensive forest fires in 2009, World War I, and the work rescuers do. The concert will be carried out under the guidance of ENSO’s former principal conductor Arvo Volmer. Vocal soloists and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir will also perform.
I: SEASON OPENING CONCERT
Fri, Sept. 13, 2019 at 6 p.m. (pre-concert event) and at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Hiob. Symphonic fantasy “Fathers’ Land” (“Isade maa”; premiere)
Sibelius. Violin Concerto
Bruckner. “Volksfest”, Cantata “Helgoland”
V. Kapp. Choral Poem “Northern Coast” (“Põhjarannik”)
Ye-Eun Choi (violin), Estonian National Male Choir, ENSO, conductor NEEME JÄRVI
II: GRINGOLTS & MENDELSSOHN
Fri, Feb. 7, 2020 at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Berio. “Good Night” (“Gute Nacht”) for Trumpet Solo
Sciarrino. “Allegoria della notte” for Violin and Orchestra
Mendelssohn. Violin Concerto
Martucci. Nocturne
Mendelssohn. Symphony No. 1
Ilya Gringolts (violin), ENSO, conductor OLARI ELTS
III: ENERGY
Fri, March 6, 2020 at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Dean. “Fire Music”
Britten. “Cantata misericordium”
Nielsen. Symphony No. 4 “The Inextinguishable” (“Det Uudslukkelige”)
Juhan Tralla (tenor), Tamar Nugis (baritone), Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, ENSO, conductor ARVO VOLMER
IV: END OF THE SEASON CONCERT I
Thu, May 21, 2020 at 6 p.m. (pre-concert event) and at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Pärt. Symphony No. 4 “Los Angeles”
Sibelius. “Kullervo Symphony”
Monika-Evelin Liiv (mezzo-soprano), Rauno Elp (baritone), Estonian National Male Choir, ENSO, conductor NEEME JÄRVI
The opening concert ‘Tallinn–Vienna’ of the concert series ‘City Lights’ is the starting point of ENSO’s Central European tour: only two days later, ENSO and Neeme Järvi will give a concert in the Golden Hall of the Wiener Musikverein. This is the second venue considered one of the most prominent in the world that Maestro Järvi and ENSO are visiting (the last one was Konzerthaus Berlin). This time, the concerts of the Baltic Symphony Festival will take place in Tallinn and Riga. The joint orchestra of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania will perform under the guidance of Guntis Kuzma, conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. The soloist is Triin Ruubel, principal violin of ENSO. The concert ‘Roman Carnival’ will be performed under the guidance of Italian conductor Giordano Bellincampi, who was born in Rome and won the hearts of both the audience and musicians last year. He will perform the Roman-themed works of Berlioz and Respighi. The series will be finished by conductor Kristjan Järvi and the American violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, who was at the top of the Billboard chart a few years ago. She is one of the most famous violinists in the world and also soloed at the opening event of the Pärt Centre. Kristjan Järvi and Anne Akiko Meyers have also recorded the violin works of Arvo Pärt that they will perform with the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra.
I: TALLINN – VIENNA
Wed, Sept. 18, 2019 at 6 p.m. (pre-concert event) and at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Eller. Tone Poem “Dawn” (“Koit”)
Chopin. “Grande polonaise brillante”
Bruckner. Symphony No. 4
Zee Zee (piano), ENSO, conductor NEEME JÄRVI
II: TALLINN – RIGA. Baltic Symphonic Festival
Thu, Nov. 21, 2019 at 6 p.m. (pre-concert event) and at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Kõrvits. “Tears-Fantasy” (“Pisarate-fantaasia”)
Vasks. Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra “Vox amoris”
Mendelssohn. Symphony No. 3 “Scottish” (“Schottische”)
Triin Ruubel (violin), ENSO, conductor GUNTIS KUZMA
III: ROMAN CARNIVAL
Thu, Apr. 30, 2020 at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Berlioz. Overture “Roman Carnival” (“Le carnaval romain”)
Wagner. “Wesendonck Lieder”
Respighi. “The Pines of Rome” (“Pini di Roma”), “The Fountains of Rome” (“Le fontane di Roma”)
Arete Kerge (soprano), ENSO, conductor GIORDANO BELLINCAMPI
IV: PÄRT & SIBELIUS
Fri, May 15, 2020 at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Pärt. Symphony No. 3, “Darf ich”, “Fratres”, “Passacaglia”
Sibelius. Symphony No. 3
Anne Akiko Meyers (violin), ENSO, conductor KRISTJAN JÄRVI
The concert series ‘Resonance’ is framed with concerts that will focus on the latest works by Erkki-Sven Tüür and Steve Reich, both led by ENSO’s principal guest conductor Olari Elts, and also features two major festivals – the Estonian Music Days, which has the longest history of music festivals in Estonia and where new works by young composers (conductor Kaspar Mänd) will be performed, and Afekt, introducing the world’s best modern music artists, where, in addition to Japanese and Austrian composers, Maria Kõrvits’s new piece, as well as Märt-Matis Lill’s Ruins of Hara Hoto (conductor Clement Power) will be performed. In addition to Tüür’s Symphony No. 9 Mythos, two new works will be performed for the Estonian audience at the 60th-birthday concert of Tüür: Solastalgia, performed by Vincent Cortvrint, the piccolo soloist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, and Phantasma, commissioned by the Kymi Sinfonietta, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, and ENSO. In addition to the works of recent years of Steve Reich, one of America’s most influential contemporary composers, of which Music for Ensemble and Orchestra was first performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic as late as at the end of 2018, the latest film project, created with artist Gerhard Richter and director Corinna Belz which premiered in New York only in April 2019, will be performed.
I: MYTHOS. Erkki-Sven Tüür 60
Fri, Oct. 4, 2019 at 6 p.m. (pre-concert event) and at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Erkki-Sven Tüür
“Phantasma” (premiere)
“Solastalgia” (Estonian premiere)
Symphony No. 9 “Mythos”
Vincent Cortvrint (piccolo flute), ENSO, conductor OLARI ELTS
II: AFEKT INTERNATIONAL MODERN MUSIC FESTIVAL
Fri, Nov. 1, 2019 at 6 p.m. (pre-concert event) and at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
M. Kõrvits. New work
Hosokawa. “Ferne Landschaft” I–III
Neuwirth. “Masaot/Clocks without Hands”
Lill. “Ruins of Hara Hoto” (“Hara Hoto varemed”)
Kristi Mühling (kannel – Estonian zither), Vambola Krigul (percussion), ENSO, conductor CLEMENT POWER
III: ESTONIAN MUSIC DAYS
Fri, Apr. 3, 2020 at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
New Works by Kristjan Kõrver, Malle Maltis, Evelin Seppar and Alisson Kruusmaa
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, ENSO, conductor KASPAR MÄND
IV: STEVE REICH
Fri, Apr. 17, 2020 at 6 p.m. (pre-concert event) and at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Steve Reich. “Runner”, “Music for Ensemble and Orchestra”
“Reich/Richter” (music by Steve Reich, film by Gerhard Richter and Corinna Belz)
ENSO, conductor OLARI ELTS
In the concert series ‘Romanticism’, the main work of every concert is a romantic symphony: Rachmaninov’s Second and Third, Bruckner’s Eighth, and Glazunov’s Fifth. Vassily Sinaisky will once again perform with ENSO after a decades-long break. Sinaisky won the Karajan Competition in 1973 and he has been the principal conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, and the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, as well as the long-time principal guest conductor of the BBC Philharmonic. Other concerts will be performed under the guidance of Neeme Järvi, Nikolai Alexeev, the previous principal conductor of the orchestra, and Mihhail Gerts, who will go on tour to Central Europe with Neeme Järvi and ENSO in September. The solo instruments include violin, piano, and, at two concerts, cello. The Norwegian violinist Ragnhild Hemsing first performed with ENSO in 2012, when she introduced the unique Hardanger fiddle here. This time, she will perform Tubin’s Violin Concerto. Mihkel Poll, one of the most prominent pianists of Estonia’s younger generation, will perform Tubin’s Piano Concertino, and Marcel Johannes Kits, who won the prominent Estonian TV competition Stars of Classical Music, will perform Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1. The cellist of the concert ‘Dvořák and Rachmaninov’ will be Anastasia Kobekina – the Bronze medal winner at the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition (2019) in St. Petersburg. She will perform Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, a piece that belongs to the core repertoire for the cello.
I: JÄRVI & HEMSING
Fri, Oct 11, 2019 at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Wagner. “Polonia” Overture
Tubin. Violin Concerto No. 1
Reger. Serenade
Ragnhild Hemsing (violin), ENSO, conductor NEEME JÄRVI
II: DVOŘÁK & RACHMANINOV
Fri, Jan. 24, 2020 at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Dvořák. Cello Concerto
Rachmaninov. Symphony No. 3
Anastasia Kobekina (cello), ENSO, conductor NIKOLAI ALEXEEV
III: BRUCKNER’S EIGHTH
Fri, Feb. 28, 2020 at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Tubin. Concertino for Piano and Orchestra
Bruckner. Symphony No. 8
Mihkel Poll (piano), ENSO, conductor MIHHAIL GERTS
IV: SINAISKY & RACHMANINOV
Thu, March 26, 2020 at 6 p.m. (pre-concert event) and at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Shostakovich. Cello Concerto No. 1
Rachmaninov. Symphony No. 2
Marcel Johannes Kits (cello), ENSO, conductor VASSILY SINAISKY
Sharon Bezaly, the soloist of the opening concert of the series ‘Harmony’, who first performed with ENSO in 2012, has been called ‘God’s gift to flute’ and the ‘Paganini of the flute’ in the press. Composers from 11 countries have written a total of 20 flute concertos for her. This time, she will also perform with the principal conductor of ENSO, Neeme Järvi. The exciting and diverse programme ranging from Baroque to Pärt, the title of which refers to the main work of the concert, Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, will be performed by Bas Wiegers. Wiegers has worked together with ENSO on several occasions and has been described with the words ‘charismatic’ and ‘openness’. The concert soloist, recorder virtuoso Erik Bosgraaf from the Netherlands, calls his instrument an inexhaustible source of inspiration. He uses it to perform both improvisations and jazz works from medieval music to what he calls the ‘music of tomorrow’. ENSO’s chamber concert is titled ‘We!’, a title borrowed from Lepo Sumera, as it perfectly describes the feeling of belonging that the orchestra members experience when performing with different groups. There are woodwind, brass, and percussion instrument artists, as well as the chamber orchestra. Audience has said that ENSO’s chamber concerts are a great way to see and hear those musicians who otherwise play an important role in the back of the stage. The series will end with the traditional concert by ENSO and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre under the guidance of Paul Mägi, the principal conductor of Vanemuine Theatre. The soloist and the work performed by them will become known in November, when the winner of the IX Estonian Piano Competition is announced; the main work of the concert is Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, which was planned for a long time and was completed just after Stalin’s death.
I: PÄRT & TAMBERG
Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Pärt. Symphony No. 2, “Fratres”
Tamberg. “Concerto grosso”
Reinecke. Flute Concerto
Franz Schubert. Symphony No. 3
Sharon Bezaly (flute), ENSO, conductor NEEME JÄRVI
II: JUPITER SYMPHONY
Fri, Dec 20, 2019 at 6 p.m. (pre-concert event) and at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Rebel. “The Elements” (“Les élémens”)
Pärt. “Fratres”
Vivaldi. “Winter” (“L’inverno”) from “Four Seasons” (“Le quattro stagioni”)
Mozart. Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter”
Erik Bosgraaf (recorder), ENSO, conductor BAS WIEGERS
III: WE!
Fri, Jan. 17, 2020 at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Tamberg. “Journey with Cello and Percussion” (“Teekond tšello ja löökpillidega”), “Music for Five” (“Muusika viiele”)
Pärt. “Arbos”
Sumera. “Play for Quintet” (“Mäng kvintetile”), “We!” (“Meie!”), “Musica profana”, “La folia”
Tormis. Overture No. 2
ENSO chamber ensembles and chamber orchestra, ENSO
IV: SHOSTAKOVICH’S TENTH
Thu, Feb. 20, 2020 at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Piano concerto chosen by the soloist
Shostakovich. Symphony No. 10
Winner of the Estonian Piano Competition 2019, Symphony Orchestra of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, ENSO, conductor PAUL MÄGI
The series ‘Piano Concerto’ is aimed at piano music lovers, but in addition to four amazing pianists and piano concerts, there are many more exciting things to expect. Garrick Ohlsson, winner of the international Chopin Piano Competition in 1970, will perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The artist, who is popular all over the world, will be performing with ENSO for the third time now – the inspirational first meeting took place in 2018 on the American Tour in Florida and Michigan under the guidance of Neeme Järvi. The concert will be carried out under the guidance of ENSO’s principal guest conductor Olari Elts. Liszt’s Piano Concerto will be performed by Kristi Kapten, winner of the 2011 International Piano Competition in Tallinn, who performs on stages all over the world and also plays in an eponymous trio. She will be joined by conductor Jun Märkl, who won the hearts of the audience and the orchestra last season, and who has worked with reputable German and French theatres and orchestras. For the main piece of the concert, he chose Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. The young French pianist Lucas Debargue first caught major attention when he came fourth in the Tchaikovsky competition and won the music critics’ award. He has been compared to Glenn Gould and Van Cliburn and is a welcome guest in the world’s most prestigious concert halls. At the Estonia Concert Hall, he will perform with the principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein, who is currently living in New York. The soloist of the last concert of the series is the pianist Anna Shelest, who lives in New York. Together with Neeme Järvi, they will continue to perform and record Rubinstein’s piano concertos. After Mozart’s A Little Night Music, Lepo Sumera’s Symphony No. 2 will be performed. 2020 marks the 70th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Estonian composer, teacher, chairman of the composers’ union, and minister of culture. The year also marks the passing of 20 years from his death.
I: CHOPIN & OHLSSON
Fri, Dec. 6, 2019 at 6 p.m. (pre-concert event) and at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Szpilman. “Little Overture”
Chopin. Piano Concerto No. 1
Musgrave. “Song of the Enchanter” (Hommage à Sibelius)
Sibelius. Symphony No. 1
Garrick Ohlsson (piano), ENSO, conductor OLARI ELTS
II: LISZT & BERLIOZ
Fri, Jan. 10, 2020 at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Liszt. Symphonic Poem “Les préludes”, Piano Concerto No. 1
Berlioz. “Symphonie fantastique”
Kristi Kapten (piano), ENSO, conductor JUN MÄRKL
III: BOTSTEIN & DVOŘÁK
Fri, March 20, 2020 at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Elgar. Overture “In the South” (“Alassio”)
Saint-Saëns. Piano Concerto No. 5
Dvořák. Symphony No. 6
LUCAS DEBARGUE piano, ENSO, conductor LEON BOTSTEIN
IV: JÄRVI & SUMERA
Fri, May 8, 2020 at 6 p.m. (pre-concert event) and at 7 p.m., Estonia Concert Hall
Rubinstein. Piano Concerto No. 2
Mozart. Serenade “A Little Night Music” (“Eine kleine Nachtmusik”)
Sumera. Symphony No. 2
Anna Shelest (piano), ENSO, conductor NEEME JÄRVI
Tickets for the concert series (four concerts): €74/€59
While in recent years, the tickets for ENSO’s concert series have only been available for a few rows, then now, tickets can be bought for almost any seat in the hall.
Single tickets (€25/€18) will go on sale publicly on 25 June 2019.