To many, Estonia might in itself seem rather remote. But the lake-filled nation, which counts as a part of its land more than 1,500 islands, is home to summer music festivals that could make even the most map-savvy cultural tourist forget they were ever on a beaten path.
In particular, the Pärnu Music Festival, the Saaremaa Opera Festival, the Haapsalu Early Music Festival, the Birgitta Festival and the Leigo Lake Music Festival are all held in breathtaking settings befitting their summer of 2022 offerings, which will include Beethoven and Lutosławski, Tchaikovsky and Verdi, Bach and Haydn and Estonian composers perhaps lesser known than their western counterparts. Summers are mild in Estonia with daytime temperatures usually staying below 20°C and afternoon thunderstorms not uncommon. The best way to travel around the country is by renting a car which makes all the festivals easily accessible, even Saaremaa where the car can go onto a ferry.
While some of Estonia's more unusual festivals take full advantage of the beautiful countryside, the Pärnu Music Festival (13-22 July) is held indoors, in spaces including an 18th-century church, a traditional concert hall and various spa hotels. Just one and a half hours from Tallinn, Pärnu is the summer capital of Estonia, dominated by a long sandy beach, a beautiful promenade and a pretty medieval town. The historic summer resort was one once frequented by none other than Dmitri Shostakovich. It was at Pärnu, in fact, that a young Paavo Järvi, with his father Neeme, the festival's co-founder, met the famous composer in 1973.
Paavo Järvi will lead the Estonian Festival Orchestra this year in a concert of Tchaikovsky, Lutosławski, and Max Bruch (16-17 July) with celebrated guest violinist Joshua Bell. The season will represent a homecoming and a reunion for the Järvi family: patriarch Neeme Järvi will celebrate his 85th birthday by conducting the opening night concert (13 July) featuring, appropriately enough, the Homeland Melody composed by Heino Eller (1887-1970), often considered to be the founder of contemporary symphonic music in Estonia. The concert will also include Mozart’s playful Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Beethoven’s magnificent Grosse Fuge Op. 133. Neeme’s other maestro offspring, Kristijan Järvi, will lead the Baltic Sea Philharmonic in a concert of Philip Glass’s music, celebrating the New York minimalist’s 85th year. (15 July).
Those interested in Viking history should venture to the far West of Estonia onto the island of Saaremaa, as ship burials were discovered nearby which throw new light on these ancient warriors. After years of study the artifcacts are now on display in the local museum. Meanwhile, nature lovers can enjoy some fabulous walks, thousands of migratory birds and wild orchids in Viidumäe Nature Reserve and Vilsandi National Park. Storytelling will be at the fore at Saaremaa Opera Days (20-24 July). In addition to performances of Gounod's Romeo and Juliet (20 July) and Verdi's Traviata (22 July), there will be a production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s one-act Mozart and Salieri paired with a ballet performance of Mozart's Requiem. That 21 July “Night With Mozart” double header will be followed by another theatrical dedication to another past master. “Waiting for Chopin”, by the Silesian Opera under the direction of Michal Znaniecki, sets a group of Chopin’s young, female students in a salon, playing his works for each other and playing games with the audience while waiting for their teacher to arrive. The show, which premiered during Chopin Year 2010 and has been performed internationally, attempts to elucidate on how little we know the beloved composer by imagining those around him (including a cameo by George Sand). That production and the rest of the festival will take place in the courtyard at the center of Kuressaare Castle, which dates back to the 14th Century.
Antiquity and authenticity are the modus operandi at the Haapsalu Early Music Festival (28-31 July) on the Baltic coast, and Haydn will be the centerpiece. While Shostakovich may have summered in Estonia, Haydn spent his off-seasons in Fertöd, in present day Hungary. Concerto Copenhagen will present a program of his ‘summer symphonies’ (29 July), playing three of the Fertöd works—Symphony no 43 in E-flat Major, “Mercury” (1771), Symphony no 44 in E minor, “Mourning” (1772), and Symphony no 47 in G major, “Palindrome” (1772) – in chamber orchestra settings. Haydn will also be on hand in a concert by the Estonian string quartet M4GNET, who will play his String Quartet Op. 20, no. 1 in E flat major along with Beethoven’s String Quartet in D major, Op. 18 no. 3 and Mozart's String Quartet no. 15 in D minor (30 July). French harpsichordist Jean Rondeau will play Bach's Goldberg Variations as they were meant to be heard on the 29 July, and a selection of Bach's cantatas and motets will be presented by the Chamber Choir Voces Tallinn and Haapsalu Festival Baroque Orchestra on opening night. The British Tenebrae Consort will offer a program of medieval chant and polyphony to close the festival (31 July). Concerts take place in the 14th Century Haapsalu Dome Church and churches and halls around the seaside town.