Erkki-Sven Tüür: Aeris Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, German Hornsound & Olari Elts

• Erkki-Sven Tüür (b. 1959):
• 1 Tüür: Phantasma 13:12
• 2 Tüür: Symphony No. 10 "Aeris" 29:45
• 3 Tüür: De profundis 18:01
• Total Runtime 01:00:58

Info zu Erkki-Sven Tüür: Aeris

„Aeris“ ist das neunte Album der ECM New Series mit der lebendigen und ausdrucksstarken Musik von Erkki-Sven Tuur. Olari Elts, ein langjähriger Verfechter von Tuuris Kompositionen, dirigiert das Estnische Nationale Symphonieorchester in fesselnden, hochkonzentrierten Interpretationen von „Phantasma“, „De Profundis“ und Tuuris zehnter Symphonie „AERIS“, einem gewaltigen Drama wechselnder Energien und Wechselwirkungen, das für Hornquartett und Orchester komponiert ist.

Die Symphonie besteht aus vier Sätzen, die nahtlos ineinander übergehen. Tuur: „Jeder Satz drückt eine andere Entwicklung zwischen dem Solistenensemble und dem Orchester aus. Manchmal breiten sich ihre Motive wie Meme im Orchester aus, die sich zu verändern beginnen und allmählich ein Eigenleben entwickeln …“ Das Album wurde in der Estnischen Konzerthalle Tallinn aufgenommen.

Estnisches Nationales Symphonieorchester
german hornsound
Olari Elts, Dirigent

german hornsound
Founded in 2010 by four graduates of the French horn class of Christian Lampert at the State University of Music and the Performing Arts Stuttgart, german hornsound has earned a strong international reputation based on its exceptional profile. With their new concert formats and creative program concepts the could debut at nearly all music festivals in German-speaking Europe over the past years. The ensemble’s repertoire spans all the periods of music history, including original compositions and arrangements. However, german hornsound has made a special name for itself by developing unique projects of its own.

The first CD production “Siegfried und Violetta” (2013), a three-act opera fragment with music of Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner which was developed together with South Tyrolese writer Herbert Rosendorfer (†2012) and Berlin-based opera dramaturg Karl Dietrich Gräwe (†2019) paved the way to the concert stages. Their project Pictures (2015) with Russian music around Mussorgski’s Pictures at an exhibition had premiere in the Elbphilharmonie in 2019. Furthermore there is a good and long musical connection with the vocal ensemble amarcord from Leipzig. After the first Co-Production Wald.Horn.Lied (2016) they performed several concerts at several festivals and did a Christmas Tour together in 2019. The quartet program #hornlikes (2018), where german hornsound actively involves the audience, rounds off their chamber musical profile. Their newest program Primetime in der Wolfsschlucht with music around Webers Freischütz takes the audience along a humorous journey into the past, all packaged in an entertaining show. In late 2022 the production “Heimat” together with world famous singer Daniel Behle has been released as well.

As soloists the quartet appears periodically on the big international stages and halls with renowned orchestras. They performed Schumann’s famous Concert Piece with Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under the baton of Michael Sanderling, Jonathan Nott and Paavo Järvi just to name a few. Contemporary music is also one of the things german hornsound cares a lot about. After a commission to Norwegian composer Trygve Madsen (2013) they could convince well-known Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür to compose a new piece for four horns and orchestra in 2022 which has been premiered Bochum Symphony Orchestra and will also be heard together with Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra.

The four horn players have positions in professional orchestras: the Düsseldorf Symphony, the Hanover State Opera House, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and the Bamberg Symphony.

Besides their concert activities, german hornsound focuses on youth development and young talents. They performed education programs in the Philharmonie Luxemburg as well as in the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. They founded the GHS academy which offers workshops and masterclass for all levels of horn playing: for young beginners, for soloists and ensembles participating the german youth competition “Jugend musiziert”, for students, professionals and ambitioning hobby hornists. They are launching the GHS edition at koebl.de where most of their Arrangements are published. Around Christmas 2021 they released Volume 1 of their new collection “the books” – nice and easy to play horn quartets for any occasion. More Volumes have been released in 2022. The ensemble produces their productions, physically and digitally under their own “GHS records” label.

Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (Eesti Riiklik Sümfooniaorkester, ERSO)
a vivid and versatile orchestra who’s always striving towards excellence. The unique position in the intersection of cultures brings together Nordic, Western and Russian musical traditions. Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2026, ERSO has become the most prominent orchestral ambassador of Estonia abroad, powerfully increasing its international scope particularly in recent decades. Since the 2020/21 season, its Chief Conductor and Artistic Director is Olari Elts. Neeme Järvi, the longest-serving chief conductor of the ERSO, continues to cooperate with the orchestra as an Honorary Artistic Director for Life and the Artistic Adviser of the orchestra is Paavo Järvi.

The orchestra performs with renowned conductors and soloists from around the world, including, of course, most prominent Estonian musicians. ERSO’s CDs demonstrate a quality that has been recognised by several renowned music magazines and the orchestra has won several prizes, including a Grammy Award for the recording of cantatas by Sibelius. Its home venue is the Estonia Concert Hall in Tallinn and it has dazzled the world with numerous tours and participated in reputable international music festivals. They have played in prestigious venues such as the Konzerthaus Berlin, Musikverein in Vienna, Rudolfinum in Prague, Brucknerhaus in Linz, the Avery Fisher Hall (current David Geffen Hall) in New York, the Grand Hall of Saint Petersburg Philharmonia and the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, the Kölner Philharmonie, the Helsinki Music Centre, Berwaldhallen in Stockholm, and many more. Some of the festivals ERSO has attended include the Festival Radio France Occitanie Montpellier with Neeme Järvi and the Eufonie International Festival of Central and Eastern Europe in Warsaw under the baton of Olari Elts. Some of the highlights of the previous seasons include a concert tour with Olari Elts and violinist Daniel Lozakovich, which took the orchestra to Isarphilarmonie in Munich, La Seine Musicale in Paris and Meistersingerhalle in Nuremberg. In May 2023, another successful concert tour took the orchestra to Great Britain, where 11 concerts were given with pianist Barry Douglas under the baton of Olari Elts.

The orchestra has enjoyed fruitful cooperation with highly acclaimed record companies such as Chandos, BIS, and Onyx, and in the past also with Alba Records, Harmonia Mundi, and Melodiya. In addition to local radio and television channels, ERSO’s concerts have been broadcasted by Mezzo, medici.tv and they have also reached many radio listeners via the EBU. In 2020, the orchestra launched its own channel – erso.tv.

As for conductors and soloists, ERSO is fortunate to perform with the very best from all around the world, including front-rank Estonian musicians. Commanding a repertoire that ranges from the Baroque period to the present time, the ERSO has had the honour to premiere symphonic pieces by almost every Estonian composer, including Arvo Pärt, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Jüri Reinvere, and Eduard Tubin.

Olari Elts
Olari’s had first concert with ENSO, City Life, in 1998. The programme included the works of John Adams, Steve Reich ja Eino Tamberg. Cooperation with ENSO became closer in 2007, when Elts became ENSO’s Principal Guest Conductor. Olari Elts has brought with him a wide repertoire and conducted numerous performances of large-scale works with ENSO, such as the concert performance of Mozart’s opera Idomeneo, Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie, etc., and, of course, Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was performed in collaboration with Theatre NO99 and Eesti Kontsert. He has also brought to audiences several exciting cross-genre concerts, combining classical music with electronics and various visual effects and animations.

In addition to numerous concerts in Estonia, Olari Elts has performed several concerts abroad with ENSO: at the Il Settembre dell’Accademia festival in Verona, Italy, at a concert dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia at Stockholm’s Berwaldhallen; at the Turin Cathedral, Italy; as part of the Cultural Programme of the XX Winter Olympics, during which Arvo Pärt’s La Sindone was premiered; twice at the Finlandia-talo in Helsinki; and most recently at the Eufonie International Festival of Central and Eastern Europe in Warsaw.

Olari Elts’ passion for distinctive programming rich with invention has earned him much praise on the international music scene. He began his tenure as Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in 2020. He was also Artistic Advisor of the Kymi Sinfonietta from 2018 to 2022.

Olari Elts has appeared as a guest conductor with renowned orchestras such as Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Soloists with whom he collaborates include Gautier and Renaud Capuçon, Brett Dean, Isabelle Faust, Alban Gerhardt, Martin Grubinger, Martin Helmchen, Stephen Hough, Lucas & Arthur Jussen, Kari Kriikku, Karita Mattila, Alexander Melnikov, Daniel Lozakovich, Baiba Skride, Simon Trpčeski, and Antoine Tamestit.

In the 2023/2024 season, Elts leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra on tour to Poland, returning to Eufonie Festival for the second time. Returns this season include engagements with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic and the Polish Baltic Philharmonic in Gdańsk, where he is joined by pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. He also looks forward to debuts with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta de València, the Aalborg and Wuppertal Symphony orchestras and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Ankara. Following recent successful international tours with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in the UK, Germany and France, this season’s opening concert in Tallinn signifies Elts’ contract extension as the orchestra’s Chief Conductor and Music Director for a further five years.

As a champion of contemporary Baltic composers such as Erkki-Sven Tüür and Heino Eller, Elts has released recordings of Heino Eller’s Symphonic Poems, as well as Eller’s violin concerto with Baiba Skride and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. Also widely celebrated by critics are his Ondine recordings of Erkki-Sven Tüür works with Tapiola Sinfonietta, including the viola concerto with Lawrence Power, Tüür’s Symphony No. 5, and the accordion concerto Prophecy with the Helsinki Philharmonic. His 2016 recording of Brahms’ arrangements (Glanert, Berio) with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra also received high praise. Elts’ discography includes the Borgström and Shostakovich violin concertos with Eldbjørg Hemsing and the Wiener Symphoniker and recent releases with music by Kalevi Aho, recorded with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and the Kymi Sinfonietta, under the BIS label. His latest recording project is a new album with music by award-winning Norwegian composer Øyvind Torvund in collaboration with the Olso Philharmonic Orchestra.

Elts also made his mark in the opera field, having conducted titles such as Eugene Onegin, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Idomeneo and Berlioz’s La Damnation du Faust. Crossing genres, Elts toured to the Konzerthaus Berlin with the theatre-concert production which combined Mendelssohn and Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” with the Tallinn-based theatre company NO99. For Bernstein’s 100th anniversary, Elts conducted the film “On the Waterfront” with Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg.

Elts was Principal Guest Conductor of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra from 2007-2020 and held the same position at Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra from 2011-2014. He was Artistic Advisor of the Orchestre de Bretagne from 2006-2011, Principal Guest Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra from 2007-2010 and Chief Conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra from 2001-2006. Born in Tallinn in 1971, Elts is founder of his contemporary music ensemble, NYYD Ensemble.

Booklet für Erkki-Sven Tüür: Aeris