ERSO 100

ERSO 100 CONCERT SERIES
Selected concerts of the Centenary Season

The series celebrates ERSO’s prestigious centenary season, bringing together masterpieces of world classics and Estonian music to the Estonia Concert Hall, performed under the baton of the orchestra’s maestros.

At the opening concert of the series in October, Chief Conductor Olari Elts leads the orchestra in a performance of Edvard Grieg’s popular Peer Gynt Suite No. 2, featuring the poignant and nostalgic “Solveig’s Song.” These very pieces accompanied the birth of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in 1926, when a trio of musicians – the predecessor of today’s orchestra – first performed on a live radio broadcast. One of the evening’s main attractions is Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Violin Concerto No. 3, titled “Conversations with the Unknown.” The orchestra is joined by the world-renowned violinist Vadim Gluzman, the very soloist to whom the composer dedicated the work and who gave its world premiere in 2023. In the second half of the concert, the audience can enjoy Witold Lutosławski’s colorful Concerto for Orchestra, a masterpiece rich in atmosphere and infused with elements of Polish folk music.

For November, ERSO’s Honorary Artistic Director for Life Neeme Järvi has curated a delightful program of Estonian classics. Eduard Tubin’s Suite on Estonian Dance Tunes features soloist Triin Ruubel performing simple and joyful Estonian melodies. To mark the orchestra’s centennial, the humorous maestro has chosen Joseph Haydn’s spirited Symphony No. 100 (Military). The second half features Villem Kapp’s majestic Symphony No. 2, excerpts of which have also been performed at the Estonian Song Festivals. This concert also serves as the opening event of the ERSO Centenary Festival.

In February, ERSO’s Artistic Advisor Paavo Järvi celebrates the orchestra’s grand anniversary with a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s monumental Missa solemnis. Considered by the composer himself to be his life’s work, the mass is filled with theatrical contrasts, operatic scale, and breathtakingly beautiful fugues. Joining the orchestra on stage are international soloists and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir.

In March, the renowned French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras joins the orchestra at the invitation of Chief Conductor Olari Elts. Alongside Robert Schumann’s romantic Cello Concerto and Heino Eller’s Prelude in G minor, the program includes a new work by the US-based composer of Estonian descent, Lembit Beecher. The crown jewel of the evening is Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring – a work that sparked the scandal of the century at its 1913 Paris premiere but opened the door to modernism. The primal elemental force and raw power of the work’s rhythms remain enchanting more than a hundred years later.