- Three concerts in Estonia in 2022: at the Pärnu Music Festival in July, the Birgitta Festival in August and the Estonia Concert Hall in September
- Memorised performances of ‘Meresillad’ tour (15–21 September) dedicated to Estonia
- Kristjan Järvi’s new reworking of the Nutcracker completes trilogy of classic Tchaikovsky ballet arrangements
- ‘Meresillad’ (‘Sea Bridges’ in Estonian) underlines orchestra’s mission to connect countries, cultures, and communities around the Baltic Sea
Berlin 5 July 2022. In one week, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic and Kristjan Järvi will kick off their ‘Estonia year’ with a concert at the Pärnu Music Festival in Pärnu (14 July). A month later, on 12 August, the orchestra will perform at the Birgitta Festival in Tallinn, before the Baltic Sea Philharmonic will devote its traditional September tour entirely to the country in the north of the Baltic Sea region. The orchestra will again return to the Estonian capital Tallinn and will celebrate the 50th birthday of Kristjan Järvi, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s Estonian-born Artistic Director and Founding Conductor. The ‘Meresillad’ tour (15–21 September) also features two concerts in Germany – in Eisenach and at the Usedom Music Festival, which itself is dedicated to Estonia this year. The Baltic Sea Philharmonic will mainly perform music by Estonian composers, one of whom is also a musician in the orchestra. Completing the programme is a new arrangement by Kristjan Järvi of Tchaikovsky’s beloved Nutcracker ballet as a Dramatic Symphony. The concerts will be played in signature Baltic Sea Philharmonic style, entirely from memory, with smooth transitions and without intermission.
Celebrating Estonia and a passion for bridge-building
As one of the most progressive of the Nordic countries, with an international reputation for digital and tech innovation, Estonia is a natural fit for the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s September tour, as the orchestra embodies all that is innovative and progressive about the Nordic region. The title of the tour, ‘Meresillad’, which means ‘sea bridges’ in Estonian, highlights the continuing mission of the Baltic Sea Philharmonic to build bridges between countries, cultures, and communities. The orchestra achieves this not only by being a borderless community of musicians from ten countries around the Baltic Sea, but also by connecting performers and audiences through exciting new concert formats and innovative digital projects.
The ‘Meresillad’ programme celebrates Estonian composers past and present. The orchestra will perform works by two of the country’s best-known 20th-century composers, Eduard Tubin (1905–1982) and Jaan Rääts (1932–2020). Another Estonian composer to be featured on the programme is Liis Jürgens (born 1983), who is also a harpist in the Baltic Sea Philharmonic. Her composition The Dream of Tabu-tabu was premiered by the orchestra and Kristjan Järvi in Antwerp in March 2022 and is inspired by Estonian nature, people, composers, and culture. Commissioned by the Baltic Sea Music Education Foundation, The Dream of Tabu-tabu is another example of the orchestra empowering its musicians as creators, collaborators and innovators.
With the final work on the programme, Kristjan Järvi concludes his trilogy of classic Tchaikovsky ballet arrangements with a reworking of the Nutcracker as a Dramatic Symphony. The Nutcracker was Tchaikovsky’s final ballet and is one of the most beloved Christmas pieces in the classical repertoire. Järvi’s arrangement of the work, like his previous recastings of Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, showcases all the quintessential colour and drama of Tchaikovsky’s theatre music.
From Germany to Estonia, home to home
The ‘Meresillad’ tour begins with a concert at the Thuringian State Theatre in Eisenach on 15 September before returning to the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s spiritual home of Usedom for the opening of the Usedom Music Festival on 17 September. The orchestra then travels to Estonia for a concert in Tallinn, the birthplace and home city of Kristjan Järvi – at the Estonia Concert Hall on 21 September.
Baltic Sea Philharmonic – a revolution in music and culture
The Baltic Sea Philharmonic takes the orchestral concert experience to a new dimension. Every performance is a voyage of musical discovery, as the musicians perform the entire programme from memory, creating a one-of-a-kind artistic journey. Each concert is a unique spectacle of sound, light, visual art, technology, choreography and playing by heart, and under the electrifying baton of Music Director and Founding Conductor Kristjan Järvi every performance has a special energy that is absolutely infectious. But even more than this, as a community of musicians from ten Nordic countries, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic transcends boundaries and has become a movement for bringing people together. Embodying all that is innovative and progressive about the Nordic region, this visionary ensemble is taking the traditional orchestral model further than ever before. ‘It is a living breathing creature, with boundless energy and enthusiasm for the new – an adventure in itself,’ says Kristjan Järvi.
To download, click here.
