The Baltic Sea Philharmonic and Kristjan Järvi will bring their renowned programme ‘Midnight Sun’ to Germany in the summer of 2023. The new tour, which takes its name from the Nordic phenomenon of the never-setting midnight sun, will start on 21 June at the Berlin Philharmonie, then continue to the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg on 22 June and conclude at the Kissinger Sommer on 23 June. The threese concerts will transport audiences into the unique world of a youthful, international group of forward-thinking musicians and their pioneering conductor. Concert-goers will experience a stimulating musical journey with no breaks or intermission, as the performers play from memory without the use of music stands. The musicians’ kinetic energy on stage and their dynamic engagement with each other and their conductor further enhance the presentation.
This outstanding summer event brings together works by Tubin, Rääts, Kristjan Järvi and the orchestra’s harpist Liis Jürgens. The highlight of the evening will be the 1945 version of Stravinsky’s classic The Firebird. It is the centrepiece of a programme full of fresh and invigorating interpretations, all performed in inimitable Baltic Sea Philharmonic style.
Tickets for the Berlin concert, held in collaboration with the Young Euro Classic international music festival in Berlin, are available from 7 March here. Tickets for the Elbphilharmonie concert go on sale from the same date here. The ‘Midnight Sun’ tour is sponsored by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Immerse yourself in Nordic midsummer nights
The immersive sound spectacle of ‘Midnight Sun’ brings the magical atmosphere of a Nordic midsummer to Berlin, Hamburg and Bad Kissingen, inspired by the phenomenon of the never-setting midnight sun in the summer months above the Arctic Circle. After an uplifting introduction with Kristjan Järvi’s Ascending Swans, which transports the audience from the hot Central European summer nights to the cool of the far North, the orchestra and conductor move into far more epic and exotic realms with Stravinsky. The Firebird was the first full-length work that the Baltic Sea Philharmonic performed completely by heart – the orchestra’s world-premiere memorised performance of the Stravinsky classic took place in 2017 on the Swedish island of Gotland on the orchestra’s ‘Baltic Folk’ tour. The longing for transformation and renewal so powerfully expressed in The Firebird has since been an important theme for the orchestra as it takes musical performance to new dimensions. After selections from Jaan Rääts’ Concerto for Chamber Orchestra No. 1, the ‘Midnight Sun’ programme continues to the southeast of Estonia and the Seto region with the Setu Tants by Estonian master Eduard Tubin. The Dream of Tabu-Tabu by Baltic Sea Philharmonic harpist Liis Jürgens – a powerful, cinematic declaration of freedom of expression and against totalitarianism and violence – precedes the evening’s closing piece, Kristjan Järvi’s Midnight Sun.
Even more ‘Midnight Sun’ in Germany and Italy
Later in 2023 the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s ‘Midnight Sun’ programme undergoes another transformation with more concerts in Germany and Italy. The orchestra and Kristjan Järvi will open the Usedom Music Festival on 16 September before touring Italy from 20– 23 September, with visits to the Merano Music Festival (20 September), the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona (21 September) and the Teatro Amintore Galli in Rimini (22 September).
Please check our concert schedule for all concerts in 2023.
