HOPE AND YEARNING

Festival Glasperlenspiel presents:
December 31st at 7.30 pm, 2020 Tallinn St John’s church (canceled because of Covid pandemic)
HOPE AND YEARNING
Luc Robert (tenor, Canada), Arvo Leibur (violin), Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta, Andres Mustonen (conductor, violin)
Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Franck, Beethoven-Vähi

GLASPERLENSPIEL 2020

The slogan of this year’s Glasperlenspiel is a paraphrase of the famous words “E pur si muove!” (“And yet it moves!”), attributed to Galileo Galilei after he was forced to deny the heliocentric view in front of the inquisition court. We have converted them: AND YET IT HAPPENS!

But let’s focus on the main … This Glasperlenspiel is an anniversary event – 25 years of the Glasperlenspiel Festival, 250 years from the birth of Beethoven and conditionally we can celebrate 2500 years since the birth of European musical culture. To mark the latter, Hortus Musicus begins its concert with two rare hymns, archaeological finds from Ancient Greece. However, the main attention of the festival is directed to the anniversary of Beethoven: his „real“ works will be performed as well as arrangements made by the author himself or by other composers. In addition, the Glasperlenspiel features music created by contemporary composers inspired by Beethoven. Let’s mention here the première of Marianna Liik’s Thirsteth for Light, commissioned by the festival, inspired by the grandiose Piano Sonata No 31.
An attentive festival visitor will probably notice that the program of this year’s festival is carefully composed, forming in its entirety a kind of fugue, rondo or symphony. The main themes of the festival week are denoted by keywords like the Moonlight Sonata, The Seasons, St Peter’s Day and Peters. The programs of the opening and closing concert are mirroring each other.
In view of our 25th birthday, we might have wanted to organize one on a larger scale, more crowded, but this summer’s situation sets its own limits, so we chose another path: expanded geographically, from Tartu to east and west as far as we could – to Piirissaar and Saaremaa, including in addition to the former partners also new musical friends. It is gratifying that the royal favor of His Majesty Kirill I is hovering over the concerts of Saaremaa. To celebrate a quarter of a century of existence, we also promised ourselves certain extravagance, not just a fireworks display, but grandeur for the sake of pure art and maximum authenticity. Namely, three fortepianos made by American piano master Paul McNulty will be taken to Estonia for the concerts of pianist Viviana Sofronitsky, copies of the same instruments Beethoven used in different creative periods for composing his sonatas.
We know that the situation in the world is not stable, many borders are half-closed, and regular air traffic is still in the recovery phase. In order to avoid canceling some concerts and having empty days at the festival, we asked the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conductor Kaspars Putniņš and pianist Kristjan Randalu to „the reserve bench“. The programs for possible replacement concerts have not been announced, we will only do so, if there is a real need for them.
Finally, I would like to thank Tartu, the “Spirit of Tartu” and the people of Tartu for enduring us for so long, and express our sincere hope to continue the festival in the university town for the next quarter of a century.

Peeter Vähi
Artistic director of Glasperlenspiel

The main programme
July 9th – 15th, 2020, Tartu

July 9th at 7 pm THREE PETERS   S O L D   O U T !
July 10th at 12.15 pm MIDDAY CONCERT: PRAYER
July 10th at 7 pm MESSE DE… CARMINA BURANA
July 10th at 10 pm EARLY MEETS CONTEMPORARY
July 11th at 7 pm BEETHOVEN – 250
July 11th at 10 pm KANNEL-BAROQUE
July 12th at 2 pm TRAVEL THROUGH OLD-RUSSIAN SACRED MUSIC   S O L D   O U T !
July 13th at 7 pm MOONLIGHT SONATA
July 14th at 7 pm BEETHOVEN – 250
July 14th at 9.30 pm JAPANESE DRUM SHOW  S O L D   O U T !
July 15th 7 pm THE FOUR SEASONS  S O L D   O U T !

July 15th–18th CONCERTS ON SAAREMAA ISLAND
July 9th – August 29th ART EXHIBITIONS & LIVE PAINTING

Art exhibitions

Pēteris Venckovičs (graphics, photography) MY NAME IS PETER, ARCHITECT PETER. July 9th – August 29th, Tartu St John’s church

In my pictures  I stick to the same universal values as in my architecture – SCALE, TIME, COLOUR. I’ve always been fascinated by watercolor, poster graphics, and the last approx 20 years – also by photography. Most of the exhibition consists of photographs taken from 2007 to 2019 in various parts of the world. My posters attempt to reflect (and graphically depict) the relativity of scale and time and colour in the landscape of art history. I’m fascinated by Eduard Steichen. And: Saul Leiter, Desiree Dolron, William Eggleston, Julia Margaret Cameron, Wing Shya. Welcome to the sustainable variety of times.
Architect, Member of Latvian Architects Union, Latvian Architecture Award 2003, 2005. Exhibitions: 2005 – “Triple reflection”, 2006 – “Mexico notes”, 2009 – “Tuareg Blue”, 2009 – “The Process”, 2013 – “Holy Shit” (India notes), 2019 – “Photo/Graphics I”, “Photo/Graphics II”, “Photo/Graphics III”.

Mirjam Hinn (live painting of music). FLOATING SOUNDS. July 9th – August 29th, Tartu St John’s church

July 15th–18th, additional concerts on in Kuressaare and Triigi Philharmonic (Saaremaa island, in co-operation with Orient, Mustjala Festival, Uus Kontsert)
July 12th, additional concert in Viljandi (in co-operation with Viljandi Early Music Festival): Viviana Sofronitsky (3 different fortepianos, Canada / Czech Republic), programme – piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Master classes of taiko-drums and concert management:
July 10th–14th, 1–4 pm, Tubin Hall of Tartu Heino Eller Music College. Teacher – Yosuke Oda (Japan) and Tiina Jokinen. For free. In co-operation with Riga Music Festival Artissimo. More info: Hermann Braun Foundation, Mrs. Inna Davidova,  phone +371 67205444, hbf@hbf.lv.

Festival organizers:
Peeter Vähi – artistic director
Taavet – artistic advisor
Tiina Jokinen – executive director
Kadri Kiis – producer, accountant
Johannes Vähi – co-producer, IT
Meeta Morozov – booklet editor, musicologist
Olavi Sööt – co-producer, logistics
Mart Kivisild – design
Tarmo Tuvike – marketing
Marje Hansar – social media
Kaidi Ugandi – Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta
Koji Miyagi – taiko master class

Special thanks: Tartu City Government, Tartu Parish, Ministry of Culture of Estonia, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Toyota, Embassy of Estonia in Tokyo, Embassy of Austria in Tallinn, Tartu St John’s church, Tartu Centre for Creative Industries, Tiiu Aro, Jarno Laur, Urmas Klaas, Urmas Sõõrumaa, Toomas Lindjärv, Kairi Jürgenson, Väino Reinart, Saaremaa Parish, Juhani Jaeger, Triin Käpp, Jana Raud, Tartu Heino Eller Music College, Kadri Leivategija, Esper Linnamägi, Anna-Liisa Uusma, Kaupo Kiis, Kristel Leppik, Aare Tammesalu, Maara Parhomenko, volunteers

Media reviews 2020

See you at next Glasperlenspiel in July 2021! Concerts, premieres, exhibitions, master classes… Ivari Ilja (piano), Peep Lassmann (piano), Hugo Ticciati (violin), Sukhwinder “Pinky” Singh (percussion), Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta, Barrocade (Israeli Baroque Orchestra), Andres Kaljuste (conductor), Andres Mustonen (conductor)…

Previous festivals: 2019; 2018; 2017; 2016; 2015; 2014; 2013; 2012; 2011; 2010; 2009; 2008; 2007; 2006; 2005; Archives: Glasperlenspiel 2003 and 2004