On November 22nd, the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra (WKO) from Germany, celebrating its 65th anniversary this year, took the stage at the Estonia Concert Hall. The orchestra was founded in 1960 by conductor Jörg Färber, who dedicated his life to building the orchestra and bringing it to international stages. Alongside the more familiar Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Stuttgart and Munich Chamber Orchestras, thanks in part to Paavo Järvi, WKO ranks among Germany's top chamber orchestras. The ensemble collaborates with internationally renowned soloists and performs not only within its local music scene but also on prestigious stages across Europe.
They are also at the forefront of transitioning to digital sheet music—all the musicians performed from tablets during the Tallinn concert. Jörg Färber led the orchestra for over 40 years, succeeded by conductors such as Armenian Ruben Gazaryan, American Case Scaglione, and from last season, Estonian conductor and artistic director Risto Joost. Recently, Joost has been a prominent figure in Estonian music as music director of the Vanemuine Theater, infusing the university town with musical excitement. Now, audiences in Tallinn and Tartu had the chance to experience his other group, which he referred to in his closing remarks as his new passionate love.
The concert was framed by two works by Richard Strauss: the evening began with a sextet from the opera "Capriccio" and concluded with "Metamorphosen." In the opera "Capriccio," the sextet serves as a romantic declaration and creative gift for a widowed noblewoman, and on concert stages, this late-Romantic, lush miniature is often played as an overture. From the first notes, it was clear that the WKO performs with experience and quality. This is a large ensemble of soloists that adapts to the repertoire's demands. The characteristic dark, warm, and smooth string tone originating from the bass instruments of German orchestras creates a deep and rich sound, emphasizing the music's internal structure over external effects. In the sextet, WKO smoothly transitioned between chamber intimacy and orchestral fullness, offering listeners the orchestra's lush sound while maintaining precise rhythm, flawless intonation, and solid ensemble discipline.
At the heart of the concert were works by Estonian and Latvian composers. The program notes indicated that Risto Joost prioritized contemporary music from the Baltic countries during his first season as chief conductor. The violin concerto "Tālā gaisma" (Distant Light) by one of Latvia's most lauded modern composers, Pēteris Vasks, originally written for Gidon Kremer, was performed by violinist Michael Barenboim. Vasks’s violin concerto is a lyrical and meditative work that alternates between spiritual tranquility and dramatic inner tension, reflecting the eternal interplay between light and darkness. The piece challenges the performer’s technical expressiveness as well as the ability to convey the work’s substance and emotional depth. The collaboration between Barenboim, WKO, and Joost resulted in a clear and considered interpretation, with a lucid form and pure tonal palette that carried both the phrasing and the substantive dimensions of the work. The goal of the performers seemed to be chamber music-style collaboration, with the usual soloist-orchestra dichotomy replaced by a dialogue between equal partners. The overall impression of the violin concerto captured the prevailing mood of the piece, though occasionally it felt that additional nuances or daring risks could have lent more color and emotional depth to the performance.
In the second half of the concert, the WKO was joined by the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra (TKO), which Risto Joost conducted from 2013 to 2019. It is hard to find a better interpreter of Arvo Pärt's music than TKO, an ensemble that has shaped the ideal sound for the composer’s works. Therefore, listening to "Greater Antiphons" performed by both orchestras together was particularly intriguing. Normally presented by a smaller string orchestra, this performance featured a more extensive ensemble: 22 violinists, eight violists, six cellists, and four double bassists, creating a distinctly different soundscape. The piano sections, such as the second part "O Adonai" or the fifth part "O Morgenstern," sounded fuller, while the forte sections, like the sixth part "O Schlüssel Davids" or the end of the seventh part "O Immanuel," filled the Estonia Concert Hall to the brim. The performance by WKO and TKO expanded the perception space of Pärt’s music, granting it a different perspective, with prayer texts originally intended for choir gaining a more massive and resonant acoustic effect. Unfortunately, the program booklet did not list the titles of the sections of Vasks’s or Pärt’s works. Although the audience seemed knowledgeable and recognized the pieces without assistance, including the titles would have been appreciated.
The evening culminated with Richard Strauss’s pinnacle late work "Metamorphosen." This tragic and expressive piece, nearly lamentation-like, was composed towards the end of World War II and is often interpreted as a requiem for German culture and spirit. "Metamorphosen" is a single-movement, introspective work whose symphonic form expresses what seems to be the composer's inner monologue. Simultaneously, each part is an independent thought that must emerge distinctly from the piece's polyphonic texture. Originally written for 23 solo strings, the piece was performed by the combined WKO and TKO with a larger ensemble. Nevertheless, the music retained clarity and detail richness, with Risto Joost having expertly balanced the orchestras, resulting in a transparent polyphonic texture reaching the audience. The only lingering question concerned the distribution of the parts.
The well-constructed program included two encores. Michael Barenboim performed the second movement "Loure" from Bach’s E Major Partita, followed by the orchestras playing Lydia Auster’s "Melody." Taste is subjective, but both pieces felt like awkward detours, not fitting the program's concept nor adding anything new—in fact, they somewhat disrupted the cohesion of the evening.
In summary, the concert was underscored by a consistently captivating chamber music mindset—maintaining flexibility even when uniting two chamber orchestras—and a sense of equal partnership. TKO and Joost have been making music together for decades, and it seems that WKO and Joost have already developed an inspiring musical relationship within just one season.
Post scriptum: One regret remains. That same evening, another joint orchestra performed in Tallinn: the Finnish Baroque Orchestra with the early music ensemble Floridante. Clearly, the capital's concert scene is so bustling that organizers can't synchronize their events with similar ones. Although I managed to catch much of the program built on concerto grossos at Niguliste before heading to the Estonia Concert Hall, the emotional impact of the WKO and TKO concert overshadowed the earlier performance.