The Estonian Festival Orchestra is back on tour for the first time in three years, following the pandemic. The orchestra – hand-picked by Paavo Järvi and comprising the best talent from Estonia and across the globe – reunites for concerts in Tallinn (30 August) and Lahti (31 August) before travelling to Korea for performances in Seoul (3 September), Tongyeong (4 September) and Gyeonggi-do (5 September).
Joining the orchestra on tour as soloists for the Brahms double concerto are young Estonian musicians Triin Ruubel (violin) and Marcel Johannes Kits (cello). “Both Triin and Marcel have grown up in our orchestra” says Paavo Järvi. “They are musicians who have participated from early on in the Estonian Festival Orchestra and they are now both top players in Estonia. Triin is concert master of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Marcel won third prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition earlier this year. Bringing both of them as soloists to Korea felt appropriate as they are both a kind of alumni of our festival and orchestra. Also they are both excellent chamber musicians and important figures in Estonian life – the new influencers if you will.”
Also on the programme is Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 which the EFO performed at this year’s Pärnu Music Festival, and which Gramophone referred to as “performances of colossal energy, passion and astounding orchestral playing.”
Gramophone concluded “Paavo has created an ensemble to make Estonia proud” and Korean audiences are about to experience why.