{"id":4900,"date":"2012-03-26T08:11:29","date_gmt":"2012-03-26T06:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/erso.ee\/maaratlemata-en\/in-with-the-new\/"},"modified":"2022-08-22T07:19:53","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T05:19:53","slug":"in-with-the-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erso.ee\/en\/2012\/03\/in-with-the-new\/","title":{"rendered":"In With the New"},"content":{"rendered":"

ERSO’s March 23 performance at Estonia Concert Hall, featuring four premieres, was everything but traditional.<\/em><\/p>\n

The symphonic music-scape is studded with stars; the well-loved and well-known toe-tappers of the familiar that comprise the orchestral canon. So it is always special, and yes novel, when the novel is unveiled. ERSO was especially generous on Friday by providing an evening almost entirely comprised of premiere performances.<\/p>\n

The program was a celebration of Estonian Music Days and featured five compositions, four of them never before performed and four of the five by Estonian composers. Trying to wrap one’s head around music heard for the first time is always a challenge, but exciting. This was musical experiment for composer, performers and listeners alike.<\/p>\n

Some of this experimentation attended even to the physical form of the orchestra itself. Longtime avant-garde composer, the Franco-American Gerard Pape, had the orchestra split in three for the premiere of his work \u201cHarmonies of Form and Time\u201d. Conductor Risto Joost waved his baton from the middle of the concert hall as the band assembled here and there. It was an interesting effect. Pape\u2019s music was an intense barrage which featured solo performances for multiple instruments. Noteworthy was the plaintive wail of Levi-Daniel Magila\u2019s cello which opened the piece, and Vambola Krigul\u2019s dynamic percussion. Pape\u2019s piece was a threshold experience, opening a musical space that landed in an intense crescendo. Joost seemed to really be enjoying himself.<\/p>\n

But prior to this there was heaps of other stuff. The other Krigul, \u00dclo\u2019s \u201cSwan Bone City\u201d, brought solo vocal performance in the person of the elfish Iiris Vesik. Vesik, best known as a pop performer, lent a mesmerizing and pretty weird quality to this work. Equal parts oracle and acid queen, she went on at length in English about something I wasn\u2019t quite able to understand. It was theatrical, frenetic and captivating.<\/p>\n

Before intermission flamboyant Estonian celebrity Rein Rannap played his succinctly titled \u201cPiano Concerto\u201d. This was a fairly prosaic bit of emotional piano music, or was it? Redolent of a film score, the \u201cPiano Concerto\u201d held more than a few pleasing musical clich\u00e9s but also subtle pastiche. Much of it came off as homage to 1960\u2019s or 70\u2019s TV or cinema music, especially the English variety. I half expected to see David Niven stride across the stage at some point. All in all it was good fun and masterful piano work as only Rannap can provide.<\/p>\n

Starting the program was Peedu Kass\u2019s \u201c7 Fragments\u201d, a short symphony. It had the feel of compelling ambient music. Kass\u2019s work was just the thing to loosen the mind and relax the body to absorb the mind-stretching material that followed.<\/p>\n

Finishing was the only piece that wasn\u2019t new, Jaan R\u00e4\u00e4ts\u2019s Symphony No 7. R\u00e4\u00e4ts\u2019s superb symphony was a reminder that this was Estonian Music Days and of the sterling contribution to orchestral music made by this small nation. And it was very cool that Mr. R\u00e4\u00e4ts, the elder statesman, was in attendance, as were all the other composers featured for the evening.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/news.err.ee\/Culture\/fc3c18d9-3eaf-4ec0-8af5-aacae12a6c5c<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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