GLASPERLENSPIEL MUSIC FESTIVAL 2012

A joint project of ERP and the city of Tartu

The festival Glasperlenspiel (‘The Glass Bead Game’) directed by Peeter Vähi has got its inspiration from the novel by Hermann Hesse. It is certainly a very special musical event in Estonian summer where music lovers can enjoy performers like Australian Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Tōkyō Philharmonic Chorus, Quintet of Berliner Philharmoniker, Gidon Kremer, Vadim Repin, Piotr Anderszewski, Olli Mustonen, Christoph Eschenbach, etc, as well as the leading musicians of Estonia.

 

Glasperlenspiel presents:

● Thu, May 10th at 8 pm, Nokia Concert Hall (Estonia Avenue 9, Tallinn)
Rémi Boucher (guitar, Canada), Tallinn Sinfonietta, conductor Andres Mustonen, video by Aivo Spitsonok
Program: Mozart, Fiestas, Vähi (première of Antarctic Concerto)
In co-operation with EBCOG 2012

Rémi Boucher was born in 1964 in Canada. He studied the classical guitar in the Montreal Conservatory with Jean Vallières and afterwards completed his studies in Spain, in Belgium at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp and in Switzerland at the Basel Academy. Those travels would not have been accomplished without the aid of the “Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec” and the Canada Council, which not only offered him many grants, but the Sylva Gelber Award, making Rémi Boucher the first guitarist in 30 years to have won this honor!
In addition to his many national and international prices, in less than 18 months, Rémi Boucher has conquered Europe, America and Asia winning at the unanimity the first prize of five of the most important international music competitions (Alessandria in Italy, Andrès Segovia in Palma de Mallorca in Spain, Havana in Cuba, Mauro Guiliani in Turin, and Fernando Sor in Roma).
Since that great success, he was invited by many major symphonic orchestras in all over the world, which gave him the opportunities to play up to ten of the greatest guitar concertos conducted in some cases by the famous Cuban composer Léo Brouwer. Because of the success coming out of his concerts his career expanded very fast and allowed him to play, to gives master classes and to participate as member of international juries in many of the most important competitions, music festivals and universities of the world with regularly renewed invitations.
His repertoire also includes all of the most famous guitar concertos (Rodrigo, Villa-Lobos, Tedesco, Ponce, Torroba, Brouwer, Abril, Guiliani, and Vivaldi) just as well as the most interesting works for solo guitar from the Renaissance to the Modern music. Rémi Boucher is especially known for his excellent interpretation of impressionist and Spanish music that were strongly acclaimed by the critics in all over the world.
“Rémi Boucher has fire, passion, zest and poetry and he has them in spades. There is hope for the guitar when it is play like this…” (International Guitar Magazine).

July 19th - 24th, 2012, Tartu

● Thu, July 19th at 7 pm, St John’s church (Jaani Str 5, Tartu)
Anna-Liisa Bezrodny (violin), Tallinn Sinfonietta, conductor Mikhail Leontyev
Program: Mozart. Violin Concerto No 3 in G major; Toivo Tulev. Symphony (première)

Anna-Liisa Bezrodny was born into a distinguished family of musicians in Moscow, currently in great demand as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician.
Already at the age of two she began her violin studies with her parents, and at the age of nine she entered the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, to the class of her parents, Prof Igor Bezrodny and Prof Mari Tampere-Bezrodny, later studying in both Sibelius Academy and Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Anna-Liisa has appreared as soloist and recitalist with orchestras in most prestigious concert venues in Russia, Finland, Holland, Germany, the UK, Spain, the USA, Estonia and others, including the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican Hall, Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Cologne Philharmonie, Cadogan Hall, Finlandia Hall, St Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, Moscow Conservatoire Great Hall, and many others.
Anna-Liisa is repeatedly invited to countless festivals, playing in both chamber ensembles as well as solo, such as The Oistrakh International Festival, Die Russische Musik Festival Dortmund, Malta International Music Festival, Lincoln Festival, Sibelius Festival in Michigan, Liana Isakadze Festival in Georgia, Iitti Chamber Festival in Finland. Anna-Liisa is a receipient of countless awards and prizes: special prize of the Rotary Club (1999), Ian Fleming Charitable Award of the Musicians Benevolent Fund (London, 2003), Martin Musical Scholarship Award, (London, 2003), Hattori Foundation and Myra Hess Trust prizes, (London, 2004), Ricci Foundation Winner 2009, Young Artist of the Making Music Foundation 2009, Heifetz International Violin Competition (2005, 3rd prize), Brahms International Competition (2005, 2nd prize). In 2006 Anna-Liisa won the prestigious Guildhall Gold Medal, playing Shostakovich Violin Concerto No 1 in the Barbican Hall with Sian Edwards. In 2005 Anna-Liisa Bezrodny was awarded the PROMIS Award for talented young musicians from the London Symphony Orchestra, and in the same year received an honorary prize from the Pro Musica Foundation in Finland.
Anna-Liisa's playing has been heard on several occasions on Finnish and Estonian National TV's and National Radio, NBC and BBC Radio 3 in the UK. She has given concertos with orchestras such as the Moscow Symphony Orchestra TV6 (in the Moscow Conservatory's Great Hall), Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Turku Philharmonic, Bachorkester Gewandhaus Leipzig, Estonian National Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Jyvaskyla Chamber Orchestra (Finland), Vaasa Philharmonic Orchestra, Liepaja Symphony Orchestra (Latvia), Haydn Chamber Orchestra, Georgian Chamber Orchestra, Vilnius Philarmonic (Lithuania), Pecs Philharmonic (Hungary), Jena Philharmonic, South Bank Symphony, London Ensemble (at Wigmore Hall), Guildhall Symphony Orchestra (Barbican Hall) and others.
Watch Anna-Liisa Bezrodny on YouTube: Violin Concerto No 1 in A minor by Dmitri Shostakovich, 13 min 50 sec, Barbican Hall, London

Tallinn Sinfonietta’s unique artistic style encompasses not only the masterworks of the classical repertoire, but innovative cross-art form projects and a vigorous commissioning program. Our repertoire spanning six centuries, entwines old music with new, we play works from Bach to Tüür, from Corelli to Piazzolla.

Risto Joost has been the founder and the first artistic director of the orchestra. Tallinn Sinfonietta’s birth depends on long-standing willingness to embrace the music with high emotional label, to give the audience unforgettable memories they are never expected to get from classical music concert. We wish to introduce to the listeners the music from the past as alive, breathing, joyful thing. We need to prove that every type of music could bring freshness to the mind, warm the soul and give energy. It is only up to thinking and attitude. The resulting sense of energy and individuality is one of the most commented-upon elements of Tallinn Sinfonietta concert experience.
In spring 2011, Tallinn Sinfonietta performed four concerts in Switzerland and Austria, getting high acclaim for each concert. The orchestra performed at international contemporary music festival Ars Musica in Brussels Palais des Beaux-Arts at the end of March with pianist Laura Mikkola and viola player Kim Kashkashian under the baton of Andres Mustonen. At the beginning of May there was a concert in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw with Lisa Smirnova, conductor – Andres Mustonen. Summer took Tallinn Sinfonietta to a tour in Italy – to the international festivals Mittelfest and Emilia Romagna Festival.
Watch Tallinn Sinfonietta’s live video on YouTube: 18 min 41 sec

Mikhail Leontyev (Михаил Леонтьев): not yet 30, the conductor’s biography includes impressive facts: performances with the orchestra of the State Cappella of St Petersburg, Federal State Philharmonic on Caucasus Mineral Waters, the State Opera and Ballet of the Republic of Komi, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, Osaka Philharmonic, Symphony Orchestra of St Petersburg, Chamber Orchestra Arpeggione(Moscow), Mikhailovsky Theatre (St Petersburg), Tambov Symphony Orchestra, St Petersburg Music House, etc. The season of 2011–2012 will see debut with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra named after Evgeny Svetlanov.
In his theatre music repertoire there are Tchaikovsky’s operas The Queen of Spades, Iolanta and Eugene Onegin, Borodin’s Prince Igor, Verdi’s Masked Ball, Halevi’s Jewess, Janáček’s Katya Kabanova, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. Mikhail Leontyev has also conducted Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake, Delibes’ Coppélia, Elcheva’s musical Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, Uspensky’s Anna Karenina, Donizetti’s comic opera The Bell, Prokofiev’s children’s opera The Giant, etc. His extensive symphonic repertoire contains an awe-inspiring list.
Leontyev has won awards at several international competitions: V Conducting Competition named after Sergei Prokofiev (St Petersburg 2008, Title Winner and the Prize of Yamaha), XV Conducting Competition Min-On (Tokyo, 2009, a Gold Medal, Title of Laureate and the Prize of Asahi), I Open Conducting Competition named after Ilya Musin (Kostroma in 2009, 1st prize and Title of Laureate), I All-Russian Conducting Competition (Moscow 2011, Title of Laureate).
Watch Mikhail Leontiev on YouTube:  Fantasy Kamarinskaya by Mikhail Glinka, 10 min 20 sec, Tokyo

● Thu, July 19th at 10 pm, St John’s church
CONJUNCTIONS – SYNÁPSIES
Vassilis Agrokostas (Byzantine chanter), Ross Daly (tarhu, saz), Harris Lambrakis (ney), Christian Elsässer (piano), Konstantia Gourzi (conductor, piano), string quartet Prezioso
Konstantia Gourzi’s (Greece) music inspired by Byzantine psalms

The Greek composer and conductor Konstantia Gourzi studied in Athens and Berlin. Today she is recognised as one of contemporary music’s most important champions, a prizewinner of the Christoph and Stephan Kaske Stiftung.
In the 1990s Konstantia Gourzi founded the attacca berlin ensemble. With them, she led the international project Zeitzonen (Time Zones) between 1991 and 1997. From 1999 to 2007 she was the artistic director of Berlin’s ensemble echo. In 2002, she instigated ensemble octopus für musik der moderne. The beginning of the ensemble-network plus21musicplus (2007), bringing contemporary music together with theatre, dance and the visual arts, is a milestone of her artistic career.
As a conductor, Konstantia Gourzi regularly works with diverse orchestras for the most important festivals in Israel and Europe. Her compositions – including theatre and film music – are performed in Europe, America, Japan and Israel. Gourzi’s reworking of Haydn’s opera 'Philemon and Baucis' (commissioned by the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin in 2003) was re-premiered at the Budapest Spring Festival in 2009. In 2010, Konstantia Gourzi was Composer in Residence at the 58th Festspielen Europäische Wochen Passau, supported there by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.
The program Conjunctions – Synápsies (released in 2010 by NEOS Record Company) connects the Western string quartet with an Byzantine sacred sound world.

The Prezioso string quartet: Hanna-Liis Nahkur (1st violin), Mari-Katrina Suss (2nd violin), Anne Ilves
(viola), Andreas Lend (cello). These four musicians of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra established the quartet in 2006.
In 2006 the quartet won the 1st prize at the EATM Chamber Music Competition and in 2008 they reached the finals of the Con Brio Competition-Festival in Tallinn, where the quartet received numerous special prizes as well as concert offers, including a recital at the Estonia Concert Hall. In 2009 the quartet was awarded the 4th prize at the International String Quartet Competition Night and Sun in Finland.

K Gourzi. Flammenarie for Byzantine psalmist, tarhu and piano, Op 44, fragm, 3 min 30 sec, mp3, 128 kbps

● Fri July 20th at 5.30 pm, Open Air Stage next to St John’s church (free entrance, in co-operation with Tartu Hanseatic Days)
Wind orchestra Auletes (the Netherlands), conductor Jos Schroevers

● Fri, July 20th at 7 pm, St John’s church
ROMANTIC PEARLS
Liisa Randalu (viola) ja Kalle Randalu (piano)
Program: Schumann, Vieuxtemps, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Enescu

Kalle Randalu

• Professor at Freiburg and Karlsruhe Universities of Music
• 1999, was appointed Honorary Doctor by Estonian Academy of Music
• 2001, was awarded the Order of the White Star Class IV
• 1980, graduated from Prof Bruno Lukk’s piano class at the Estonian Academy of Music
• 1980–1983, postgraduate studies with Prof Lev Vlassenko at Moscow Conservatoire
• has received accolades at numerous international competitions
• since 1988 lives and works in Germany
• is known for his highly stylish and fine-tuned interpretations of classics, especially Mozart and Beethoven
• special place in his broad and versatile repertoire is taken by Estonian and German music
• has premiered many piano works
• performances all over Europe as well as in USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, Brazil and Russia
• has close collaboration with renowned orchestras and conductors of the world
• repertoire includes over 40 piano concertos
• as a superb chamber ensemble player has close ties with Mandelring Quartet and Trio di Clarone and together with many other highly acclaimed musicians in Germany belongs to the ensemble Villa Musica
• 13 LPs and over 30 CDs (Melodija, Antes, MDG)
• of the afore-mentioned, a collection of 7 CDs with all sonatas by Paul Hindemith, recorded together with Villa Musica has attracted special attention and was awarded Classical Award in Cannes, 1999 and ECHO Classics Award in Germany, 1998 and 2003

● Sat, July 21st at 7 pm, St John’s church
Massimo Mercelli (flute, Italy), Tallinn Sinfonietta, conductor Andres Mustonen
Program: Salieri, Kancheli, Vähi

Andres Mustonen’s (b 1953) discovery of music has followed a very unusual path. His adolescent fascination with contemporary music made an about-face in the early 1970s towards early and Christian music. In 1972 it led to founding the early music consort Hortus Musicus, which gives vital performances even today. Since the founding of the ensemble, Hortus Musicus and Andres Mustonen have been performing constantly on the world’s concert stages and at music festivals: the Utrecht Festival, the Malmö Baroque, concerts in Prague, St Petersburg and Moscow, performances at the Mozart-Fest in Chemnitz, the Jaffa Festival in Israel, the Lufthansa Baroque Festival in London, the Scottish Early Music Festival in Glasgow, the Lockenhaus Festival in Austria, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, the Glasperlenspiel Festival.
Mustonen conducts the leading orchestras of Finland, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia and Lithuania, the Great Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, the Russian National Academic Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Musica Viva Academic Chamber Orchestra,  the Bayerische Rundfunken, the Helsinki City Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, etc.
Mustonen is in close creative contact with many composers – გია ყანჩელი (Giya Kancheli), Владимир Мартынов (Vladimir Martynov), Ավետ Տերտերյան (Avet Terterian), Валентин Сильвестров (Valentin Silvestrov), Erkki-Sven Tüür, Arvo Pärt – also giving premières of their new works.
Making music, Mustonen can be characterised by spontaneity, improvisation and radiant performance. “For me an orchestra is not a static form but a living organisation of musicians, one whose members enhance and affect each other.” In time, Andres Mustonen has developed a wide circle of musician friends with whom he makes music: Natalia Gutman, Aleksei Ljubimov, Michel Lethiec, Inesa Galante, Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Pascal Gallois, Seppo Kimanen. “I never share the stage with someone I don’t know, don’t consider my friend, or don’t love.”

● Sat, July 21st at 10 pm, University of Tartu History Museum (Lossi Street 25, Tartu)
KOSTABI MEETS PIANO
Mark Kostabi – painter, composer, pianist...

Artist and composer Mark Kostabi was born in Los Angeles in 1960. He studied drawing and painting at California State University. Kostabi moved to New York in 1982, and by 1984, emerged as a leading figure in the now legendary East Village art scene where he cultivated a provocative media persona by publishing self-interviews reflecting on the commodification of contemporary art. By 1987, his work was widely exhibited in New York galleries as well as prominently throughout the United States, Japan, Germany and Australia. Kostabi established a second home in Rome in 1996. Dividing his time between Rome and New York enabled him to dramatically enhance his presence in the Italian art scene.
His permanent public works include a mural in Palazzo dei Priori in Arezzo, Italy, a large bronze sculpture in the central square of San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy, and a bronze portrait of Pope John Paul II in Velletri, Italy. Kostabi has designed album covers for Guns N’ Roses (Use Your Illusion) and The Ramones (Adios Amigos) and Jimmy Scott (Holding Back the Years).
Kostabi has performed music as a soloist and with other musicians including Ornette Coleman, Jerry Marotta, Tony Levin, Amedeo Ariano, Stefano Nunzi, Aaron Comess, Richard Hammond, Olen Cesari, Marco Siniscalco, Marco Loddo, Puccio Panettieri and Paul Kostabi. His compostions have also been performed independently by Rein Rannap, Kristjan Järvi, Delilah Gutman and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. His CDs include I Did It Steinway, Songs for Sumera and New Alliance.

● Sun, July 22nd at 7 pm St John’s church
DANSE DE ZÉPHYRS
Lars Ulrik Mortensen (kharpsichord, conductor), European Union Baroque Orchestra
Program: Rebel, Charpentier, Rameau

European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) annually invites 100 talented Baroque musicians from across Europe to take part in one of the 3-day audition courses. The 25 or so successful candidates, normally from up to 14 EU countries with an average age of approximately 24–25 years, then spend 6 months together, training, touring and performing throughout Europe under the world’s leading Baroque specialists. EUBO has been so successful in its mission, that there are now former EUBO musicians in every major professional Baroque ensemble in the world, including, for example, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, English Concert, Europa Galante, Academy of Ancient Music, Le Petite Bande, Les Arts Florissants.
EUBO’s music director Lars Ulrik Mortensen received in 2007 Leonie Sonning Music Award, recognizing his outstanding work as a harpsichordist and conductor in the early music field. The award was first given in 1959 to Igor Stravinsky, and other recipients have included Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Yo-Yo Ma and Alfred Brendel.

 

● Mon, July 23th at 7 pm, St John’s church
BAROCK’N’ROLL
Ensemble Musica Antiqua Russica (St Petersburg), artistic director Vladimir Shulyakovsky
Program: Uccellini, Buxtehude, Frescobaldi, Biber, Monteverdi, Purcell, Mattei, Merula

● Tue, July 24th at 7 pm, St John’s church
Raschèr Saksofonikvartett (USA / Germany)
Program Bach, Glass, Purcell, Glazunov

Since its formation in 1969, the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet has appeared regularly at the major concert halls in Europe, Asia and the US: Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center New York, Kennedy Center Washington DC, Opera Bastille Paris, Royal Festival Hall London, Philharmonie Cologne, Finlandia Hall Helsinki, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Schauspielhaus Berlin, Musikverein Vienna, Tonhalle Zürich, Parco della Musica Rome, Dewan Filharmonik Petronas Kuala Lumpur, National Concert Hall Taipei, etc.
The Vienna Zeitung hailed the quartet as the “Uncrowned Kings of the Saxophone” and a critic from Die Welt claimed, “If there were an Olympic discipline for virtuoso wind playing, the Raschèr Quartet would definitely receive a gold medal.” The ensemble carries on a tradition established in the 1930's by the pioneer of the classical saxophone and founding member of the quartet Sigurd Raschèr, who animated many composers to write music especially for him. In a similar fashion, the quartet has inspired over 300 composers to dedicate music to them, including Berio, Glass, Gubaidulina, Kagel, Kancheli, Nørgard, Xenakis...
Regarding their interpretation of Bach, the well-known German musicologist Ulrich Dibelius wrote, “When the Raschèr Quartet plays Bach, the music takes on a seraphic aura − as if the organ and the string quartet had come together.”
Numerous composers have been fascinated with the combination of the Raschèrs and orchestra, which has resulted in more than 25 new works for that combination as well as invitations from many of the world's leading orchestras, including the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, American Composer's Orchestra, Saint Cecilia National Academy Orchestra Rome, Gulbenkian Orchestra Lisbon, Malaysian National Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Pilharmonique Strasbourg, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Residentie Orchestra of the Hague, Berlin Sinfonie Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonisches Orchester Kiel, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Camerata Bern, Vienna Symphony, BBC London Symphony, SWR Baden-Baden, MDR Orchestra Leipzig, Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Stuttgart, Radio-Sinfonie Orchestra Cologne, I Fiamminghi and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle.

 

New Year Concert

● Jan 12th at 7.30 pm, Russian Theatre, Tallinn
CANTUS ANGELICUS
Oliver Kuusik (tenor, Estonian National Opera), Imbi Tarum (harpsichord), Tallinn Sinfonietta, conductor Andres Mustonen
Program: Schubert, Franck, Adam, Bach, Bach-Vivaldi...

 

 

Organizers:
Peeter Vähi – artistic director
Tiina Jokinen – executive director
Kadri Kiis – producer, accountant
Kaia Lattikas – management of Tallinn Sinfonietta
Anu Jaanson – assistant producer, manager
Inna Kivi – musicologist, booklet
Olavi Sööt – logistics
Mart Kivisild – design
Tanel Klesment – sound engineer
Mart Viires - website

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Special thanks: Tartu City Government, Bert Langeler, Toomas Peterson

            

Tickets available in the box offices of Piletilevi, also in internet

See also: Glasperlenspiel-festivals; Glasperlenspiel on Facebook, Glasperlenspiel 2011, Glasperlenspiel 2010, Glasperlenspiel 2009, Glasperlenspiel 2008, Glasperlenspiel 2007, Glasperlenspiel 2006, Glasperlenspiel 2005, Archives: Glasperlenspiel 2003 and 2004
Glasperlenspiel on Facebook

Next festival: July, 2013
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