Estonian Music Days 2018. Sound = Colour

Kadri-Ann Sumera (piano)
Oliver Kulpsoo (lighting designer)
Tammo Sumera (electronics)

PROGRAMME

Liisa Hirsch (b. 1984)
New work (2018, premiere)
Kristjan Kõrver (b. 1976)
New work (2018, premiere)
Märt-Matis Lill (b. 1975)
New work (2018, premiere)
Mari Vihmand (b. 1967)
“Water Tree” for piano (2014)
Mart Saar (1882–1963)
Preludes for piano

Music is both a temporal and a spatial field of art. The space around music has always mattered to me: the acoustics, but also shape, light, feeling. Space can inspire, but also suppress. In collaboration with lighting designer Oliver Kulpsoo we aim at creating a unique (sound)space into a familiar concert hall, that should initiate a spatial sound and make time stand still. And to get into the swing, the listener can expect spatial-acoustic surprises already prior to the concert. When commissioning new pieces, I first addressed Liisa Hirsch, a close friend and fellow. Her previous wanderings in capturing the fine vibrations of sound in an especially sonorous, but still structured fluid of sound excellently matches the idea of spatial sound. Inspired by the possibilities of the White Hall of the House of the Blackheads, we are using both of the pianos. The new piece by Kristjan Kõrver with its active rhythm and mathematic persistence should chip in a welcome contrast. The third premiere comes from Märt-Matis Lill, who promised to use electronics: this alone gives certain character to the space. A recent piece by Mari Vihmand, “Water Tree”, fits into the programme as a kind of picturesque meditation. I definitely wanted to include the preludes by one of Estonia’s first “real” composers Mart Saar, that form a bridge from one end of our short, but rich musical tradition to the other. The
stylistic diversity and personality of Saar’s miniatures has fascinated me for long and makes it kind of hard to believe that there is a whole century between the creation of those pieces and the ones I’m premiering.
Pianist and artistic curator Kadri-Ann Sumera