Estonian National Symphony Orchestra opens centenary season

The Estonian National Symphony Orchestra opened its 100th season with a gala concert on September 11, ERR’s culture portal reported. The programme featured works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann and Heino Eller.

The concert began with Eller’s tone poem “Dawn”. Schumann’s Fantasiestücke-style piano concerto, described as the composer’s musical declaration of love to his wife Clara Schumann, followed. Clara Schumann was also the work’s first performer.

South Korean pianist Yekwon Sunwoo performed the concerto with the orchestra. His international career gained momentum after he won the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2017.

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony was performed in the second half of the concert. Olari Elts conducted the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra.

The broadcast was produced in cooperation with Klassikaraadio and reported by Nele-Eva Steinfeld. ERR’s culture portal will also broadcast the orchestra’s concerts in full during the autumn season.

The orchestra’s season will continue with a foreign tour. It will give three concerts in South Korea at the end of this week and the beginning of next week, performing works by Schumann and Beethoven alongside Tõnu Kõrvits’s “Hymns to the Northern Lights”.

In early October, the orchestra will perform at the Tubin Festival with conductor Mihhail Gerts and violinist Hans Christian Aavik.