This Wednesday (October 16), Erkki-Sven Tüür celebrated his 65th birthday. He is one of Estonia’s most versatile composers, who mastered the art of composing music from progressive rock to contemporary music and has been recognized both domestically and internationally.
In honour of Tüür’s birthday, a concert featuring his works will take place on Saturday, October 19, in the large hall of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (EAMT).
For the concert, Tõnu Kaljuste, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra will join forces, presenting the audience with the premiere of the latest addition to Tüür’s repertoire – a new version of the “The Wanderer’s Evening Song”, set to the words of Ernst Enno. Reflecting on the creation of this new version of the more than 20-year-old piece, Tüür notes, “I had to travel back in time and transform into my younger self, shaping the string textures according to the preferences of my younger self.”
The second piece of the concert, “Awakening”, is based on the words of Estonian poets Ernst Enno, Juhan Liiv, Jaan Kaplinski, Doris Kareva, and Latin liturgical texts. Tüür explains, “While writing this piece, I was deeply immersed in instinct and perception, allowing the text to form fragments of melody, without fearing that at times they might resemble Estonian folk tunes, Gregorian chants, or something similar to what I once wrote for In Spe band.”
Some moments are comparable to the kinds of open musical expression of Americans such as John Adams and Steve Reich, and with the strong Estonian choral tradition pushing the piece onwards like wind in the sails of a galleon (Domini Clements, www.musicweb-international.com, 2012).
With this concert, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, and conductor Tõnu Kaljuste pay tribute to Erkki-Sven Tüür, a composer who has shaped both the Estonian and global contemporary music landscapes for over four decades, emerging as one of the most remarkable composers of his generation.