Saale Kareda, musicologist, Muusika magazine, November 5, 2024

Famous late-Romantic masterpieces, such as Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 and Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor, which were featured in the ERSO’s late September concert, are both audience magnets and major challenges for performers. Every time anew. The ERSO has performed Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 over 60 times, and Elgar’s Cello Concerto has been played with the ERSO six times. In the collaboration between Kristiina Poska, ERSO, and Alban Gerhardt, one could hear mutual inspiration, a passionate drive to go deep, and an unwavering dedication. Poska and Gerhardt have worked together before, and their musical intuition reflects their close and harmonious understanding. As a beautiful symbol of mutual respect, after performing the Elgar concerto, Alban Gerhardt joined the cello section in the last row of the orchestra for Sibelius’ symphony. What a humble service to music! A truly great spirit is always simple and modest.

Gerhardt and Poska are united by their faithful approach to the score. Elgar’s Cello Concerto sounded divinely simple and sincere, without pathos, yet deeply touching – warm, loving, playful, passionate – and profoundly human. Elgar wrote the piece a year after the end of World War I, and while it contains tragic elements, it is primarily a love letter to life in its many forms and colors, a message that Gerhardt brought out with captivating expressive power. The symbiosis between the soloist and orchestra under Poska’s sensitive yet firm direction was a deeply moving experience. Gerhardt’s interpretation was not only highly suggestive, technically virtuosic, and emotionally compelling – his captivating cello tone ranged from light to shadow, ever shifting, endlessly nuanced. Through Elgar’s music, one could feel Gerhardt’s powerful nature as a creator, attuned to the deep abysses of life, painful tenderness, and radiant sanctity, along with an boundless courage to live. As a token of thanks for the stormy reception, Alban Gerhardt gifted the audience an encore: a prelude from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Six Cello Suites. The key terms for this performance could be: simple elegance, with virtuoso passages that seem effortless, the unity of the creative spirit with all that exists, selfless service, and unity with music.

The concert’s opening piece was Elis Hallik’s overture Aegis, composed and dedicated to the centenary of the Estonian Republic, finished in 2018, but it was first performed in Budapest by Sinfonietta Rīga, conducted by Erki Pehk. The piece draws inspiration and thematic material from the ancient Greek mythological concept of αἰγίς, symbolizing the protective shield of Zeus and Athena, which the composer has interpreted as protection and strength in a broader sense. In a pre-concert interview, Kristiina Poska emphasized her deep connection to Aegis, both through its sound and its meaning, which she perceives as a protection for Estonia. Before the performance, Poska invited the listeners to focus on their own attitude and belief, to help ensure that Estonia would remain protected as the music played.

In August, Elis Hallik signed a collaboration agreement with one of the world’s most prestigious music publishers, Schott, making her the first Estonian composer to join this venerable and long-established publisher. Aegis is the first work by Hallik published under Schott’s auspices – significant in itself, as the word aegis is derived from the same concept as the Latin aegis and Greek aigis. For composers, it is essential to refine their works through new performances. I remember seeing how many revisions Arvo Pärt made at Universal Edition after new performances. During the rehearsal period, Hallik had the opportunity to work with the exceptionally sound-sensitive conductor Kristiina Poska, refining the overture to be more sculpted compared to its initial performance (available to listen on SoundCloud). Many revisions focused on dynamics to achieve a smoother, more arc-shaped development throughout the piece. Adjustments were also made for greater rhythmic and harmonic clarity, ensuring the work would be even more transparent and precise.

A significant part of Aegis’ thematic material is derived from the work’s title –  E – G – G-flat – A (and also F – C), which serve as important harmonic anchors, appearing in various combinations throughout the piece. Their role is structural, providing stability, while allowing the harmonic texture to flow freely and develop. The pitch intervals ges-g are particularly associated with creating dissonances; combinations of ges-g-e often repeat, creating harmonic tensions and allowing for resolutions. The overture contains both the tenderness and vulnerability from which its emotional tone and harmonies blossom, as well as more forceful motifs – like a shield – ensuring that the fragile creation retains its vitality and beauty.

Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2, composed between 1900 and 1902 in Italy and Finland, remains one of the most beloved works in the romantic symphonic repertoire. The second symphony has been historically linked to Finland’s independence movement, following the fall of the Russian Empire. The composer’s own relationship with this idea remains debated. Undoubtedly, this symphony carries a timeless, powerful message, which each listener interprets according to their worldview. There is something uniquely and universally powerful in this symphony. The grand finale of this 45-minute work seems like a higher view of the beauty, charm, fragility, pain, tragedy… and magic of being human. Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 takes the listener through landscapes of enchanting, vibrant colors that pulse with vitality, the courage to live, and all that comes with it. The symphony’s imagined protagonist travels through happy and difficult journeys across natural landscapes, experiencing passion, suffering, struggle, self-overcoming, loss, destruction, and ultimately rises in the finale like a phoenix from the ashes, glowing in all-encompassing light. In the symphony’s masterful score, the archetypal dynamics of human life – its rises and falls, losses and discoveries – are portrayed so powerfully that even the tragic aspects of existence become magical. No life has been in vain, no experience is false, and no person, no matter what they endure, is a victim, but instead is walking a unique journey of human existence. Kristiina Poska led Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 from memory, shaping this magical journey with ERSO’s extraordinarily dedicated musicians into a powerful whole, where every moment, harmony, and phrase was an organic part of the higher plan and architecture of the work.

It should also be noted that the concertmaster for the evening was Marta Spārniņa, and the section leaders were as follows in the score order: 2nd violin – Kaido Välja, viola – Liina Žigurs, cello – Indrek Leivategija, double bass – Regina Udod, flute – Mari-Liis Vind, oboe – Aleksander Hännikäinen, clarinet – Soo-Young Lee, bassoon – Peeter Sarapuu, horn – Ye Pan, trumpet – Indrek Vau, trombone – Andres Kontus, tuba – Cornelius Jacobeit, timpani – Maarja Nuut, and percussion – Lauri Metsvahi. For such a profound musical experience as this concert evening, words always fall short in expressing gratitude for the illuminating experience! The light of music shines, inexorably breaking through pain, darkness, and uncertainty, supporting the courage to live, no matter the time.