Under Risto Joost’s direction, Vanemuine Music Theatre and its orchestra, as one of its most important pillars, have evolved to an unprecedented level.
Give the Vanemuine orchestra musicians a serious and beloved symphony, and the often intently focused, stony faces come alive and start radiating music!
Vanemuine Symphony Orchestra's season closing concert on May 15th at the large hall of Viimsi Artium. Hans Christian Aavik (violin), Vanemuine Symphony Orchestra, conductor Risto Joost. The program included Ülo Krigul's "Studium" (premiere), Felix Mendelssohn's, and Johannes Brahms's music.
The Vanemuine Symphony Orchestra has been garnering increasing attention for its intriguing concert programs that capture interest beyond the bounds of the "Athens of the Emajõgi." Since taking on the role of Vanemuine's music director and principal conductor in the fall of 2020, Risto Joost has been a positive driving force behind the entire Vanemuine Music Theatre. His work is perhaps best visible to the public through the recent seasons' new musical productions and concert programs, showcasing both the musicians' remarkable development and the diversification of musical choices. Fortunately, the commissioning of new compositions, a practice maintained by the previous music director Paul Mägi, has continued.
Overture to All of Tubin’s Symphonies
Before the concert, Risto Joost mentioned in a "Delta" interview that the Vanemuine season closing concert would feature a program in the spirit of German Romanticism, with Estonian roots. Composer Ülo Krigul, who belongs to the German, specifically Viennese, school of music, was commissioned by Joost for a new work for this concert. Joost proposed the idea of writing a symphonic work connected to the city of Tartu, prompting Krigul to seek inspiration from Eduard Tubin’s symphonies. Though there is no specific anniversary for Tubin at the moment, he remains the most significant and accomplished representative of Tartu's academic music spirit. Before World War II, he was a key musical figure in Tartu, both as a young composer and as a conductor for the Vanemuine Orchestra.
Krigul mentions that his piece "Studium" could serve as an overture to all of Tubin's symphonies in terms of genre. Even though the selection of material was intuitive and the formal design improvisational, he studied Tubin’s ten symphonies and the development of the composer’s musical language over the decades, which brought out Tubin’s characteristic clarity of form.
Ülo Krigul's "Studium" is a spirited, passionate composition, beginning in what feels like a Hitchcock film but soon shifting to more familiar and at times calmer pathways. It is mainly a dynamic and dramatic work, with significant involvement from the brass section. The piece allows the Vanemuine Symphony Orchestra to sound occasionally powerful and wide-ranging, yet it mainly communicates rhythmic patterns familiar to those who have heard Tubin's symphonic music. The mood steeped in folk melodies, filled with a melancholic longing for homeland and drama, emerges but in a new light—nowadays, I perceived the angst as perhaps more impactful than before. The fear of a repetition of the horrors of World War II is still a relevant topic today, and often the first association with Tubin’s music is that his ballet "Kratt" was being performed at the Estonia Theatre when the building was bombed in March 1944. Beyond this, I dare not think further...
Could I confuse Krigul’s work with Tubin’s? Not quite, but the sound of the rhythmically active sections is fairly accurately captured. It is an eventful and refreshing listen in the current sound-centric era of music. Krigul’s strength has always been the richness of orchestral colors, and this work is no exception. Another forte for Krigul is creating something entirely new while playing with borrowed source material, and this time it's again achieved very convincingly. So convincingly that what surfaces feels innately Tubin-esque. Even if there are direct borrowings, they are skillfully and tastefully concealed and veiled, without ostentatious quoting or striving to create a mere adaptation.
In the context of contemporary music, Krigul’s piece sounds gentle, but to listeners accustomed to more classical and harmonious music, the beginning of the piece is quite abrupt for an opening concert piece, though undoubtedly engaging. At Vanemuine SO's Tartu concert, the opening piece was Margo Kõlar's "Et tõusta taevasse" from the "Pirita Mass," a lyrical piece with Eller-like oboe solos that would have suited the Viimsi audience as well. At Vanemuine, they celebrated the 100th anniversary of long-time music director and conductor Erich Kõlar (1924–2022), who restored the tradition of music theater and symphony orchestra concerts at Vanemuine after World War II. Among other things, Risto Joost mentioned that in a couple of years, Erich Kõlar’s son, Margo Kõlar’s opera will premiere at Vanemuine, which is already in vigorous preparation.
It is unfortunate that the symphony as a form and genre is no longer in vogue; otherwise, Ülo Krigul would easily be one of Estonia’s strongest living symphonists, alongside Erkki-Sven Tüür and Tõnu Kõrvits, and perhaps even Margo Kõlar. They all possess a substantial reserve of ideas, as well as the craftsmanship and timbral sense necessary for realizing those ideas.
Joy in Every Note
In recent years, Hans Christian Aavik with his violin seems to be everywhere, and justifiably so, because his talent is exceptional both for his melodic and intelligent interpretation of the violin and for his ability to engage with the audience (though interacting with the audience was limited this time). Both aspects have been repeatedly highlighted in Sirp.
At the Vanemuine SO concert, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Violin Concerto No. 2 in E minor, Op. 64, one of the most recognized violin concertos in the classical canon, was performed—and Aavik's bold interpretation found many new colors in the piece. His pianos and gentle, almost transparent tones were a delight and pleasure! Perhaps even more experiences have been offered by Aavik’s interpretations where he has been able to play his own cadenzas—though, in the instrumental concertos of the Romantic era, these are already written by the composers. However, the expressiveness and dynamic shaping in his cadenza performance was marvelous, leaving listeners hesitant to breathe for a time.
I would have expected the slow movements of the concert to be the most impressive, where Aavik would have more opportunity to play freely with phrasing, but the final part’s sparkling playful notes and trills offered a unique experience. The dynamics from barely audible to a powerful and tragic forte were executed throughout the piece with such clarity that no questions arose. He seems to have grown together with his violin and bow, and his playful style deserves special recognition. Intellectual work on shaping the interpretation has clearly been done so thoroughly that he himself finds pure joy in every note on stage—and it shows. He breathes this music (from the second row, one could even hear he might have a slight cold), and the greatest beauty can strike the listener just as the bow stroke comes to an end. The soloist’s determined phrasing also lifted the musicians' enthusiasm.
Chakras Opened
The second half of the concert was filled by Johannes Brahms's Symphony No. 1, Op. 68. Unlike Mendelssohn, a precociously talented composer, Brahms reached the premiere of his first symphony only at 43, as Beethoven’s legacy intimidated him. Brahms’s work is known to be dramatic yet very melodic, but certainly not frivolous like the legacy of several earlier Romantic composers. Therefore, it was clear that Risto Joost based his interpretation of Brahms’s music on a rational German framework, yet the majestic emotions were not missing.
Both the tutti sections and polyphonic passages sounded excellent, with woodwinds standing out in particular. The slow movements, especially the second lyrical movement, showcased the orchestra from an even better side than the forte sections.
Generally, from several recent concerts, I have the impression that Vanemuine musicians may not enjoy playing live directly before the audience, with their faces only lighting up brightly during the last notes played. While concertmaster Kristel Eeroja-Põldoja often stands out with her active presence before an otherwise rather stoic orchestra (her solo was notable also in Brahms' symphony), this time, playing Brahms’s symphony, many orchestral members’ energy appeared quite different. They had to carry the music forward themselves; no soloist did it for them. Give them a serious and beloved symphony, and their often intensely focused, stony faces come alive and begin to radiate music! This seemingly inspired the audience as well, as they couldn’t quite stop applauding after the symphony’s first movement. "Thank you very much! Only three more movements," Risto Joost cheerfully announced to the audience. The conductor continued his educational mission by introducing the encore, Lydia Auster's "Melody", explaining that indeed, in northern tradition, it isn't customary to applaud between movements, but afterward, the applause can be more vigorous—and it was indeed thunderous at the end.
Music Theatre – The Most Stable Branch of Vanemuine
I listened to the Symphony Orchestra in Viimsi Artium for the first time, which was exciting in advance, as the large hall there is indeed grand with good acoustics, though the orchestra doesn’t have overwhelming stage space. Fortunately, the program this time consisted of works with generally smaller ensembles, with some exceptions. Nonetheless, the stage was packed from end to end, and it appeared quite cramped for the brass section. The violin sections especially had to squeeze in when the soloist stepped onto the