Estonian National Symphony Orchestra 100 Centenary Concert

At the anniversary concert, ERSO performs outstanding symphonic works under the baton of Chief Conductor Olari Elts. „Lepo Sumera’s Fifth Symphony unfolds as constantly changing, dreamlike scenes melting irreversibly into one another, which may originate from the past, the future, or even from non-existence. A strange landscape emerges – a frozen massif containing eternal expectation, ready at any moment to shatter, melt, or crumble into dust due to its enormous internal tension…” This is how Erkki-Sven Tüür described the Sumera’s work.

Richard Strauss’s masterpiece, the philosophical symphonic poem Also sprach Zarathustra, was inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s novel of the same name. Rather than retelling Nietzsche’s complex concept of human evolution, Strauss’s work conveys its spiritual atmosphere. The opening of the piece, a sunrise in the mountains seen through the eyes of an ancient prophet, has been used in numerous performances, commercials, and films. The concert opens with Benjamin Britten’s festive overture The Building of the House, performed together with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. Composed in 1967 for the opening of the Snape Maltings concert hall in Suffolk, it serves as a reminder that ERSO, now celebrating its centenary, is in need of a concert hall to call home.