Eesti Riiklik Sümfooniaorkester
The Eesti Riiklik Sümfooniaorkester ( Estonia State Symphony Orchestra , ERSO ) is Estonia's leading symphony orchestra . It is headquartered in the Estonia Opera and Concert House in Tallinn .
ERSO was founded as the radio orchestra of the Estonian State Broadcasting Corporation and performed for the first time on December 18, 1926. In 1939 the Raadio-Ringhäälingu Sümfooniaorkester ("Radio-Rundfunksymphonieorchester") already comprised 39 orchestral musicians, in 1956 the number rose to 90.
In the 1950s, the ERSO was one of the first symphony orchestras in the Soviet Union to perform works by the so-called modernists (including Igor Stravinski , Arnold Schönberg , Anton Webern and Carl Orff ) who had been frowned upon during the Stalinist era . The orchestra placed another focus on Estonian composers such as Eduard Tubin , Arvo Pärt , Lepo Sumera and Erkki-Sven Tüür . In 1975 the orchestra was given its current name under the chief conductor Neeme Järvi .
After the collapse of the Soviet Union and Estonian regained independence in 1991, most of the orchestral musicians left the ERSO to find jobs in the West. From 1993 the ERSO was rebuilt under the direction of the conductor Arvo Volmer , whereby the strings in particular, in the opinion of the critic Friederike Westerhaus, were initially considered "rather mediocre" due to the limited budget. Nevertheless, the musicians of the ERSO already received the Grammy Award in 2004 for a recording of cantatas by Jean Sibelius under Paavo Järvi .
Today the ERSO has around 100 musicians and handles 60–65 concerts per year. The chief conductor from 2001 was the Russian Nikolai Aleksejew . Neeme Järvi has been the orchestra's artistic director again since September 2010, despite his resignation in November 2010 due to a lack of subsidies.
Well-known guest conductors in the history of ERSO include Valeri Gergijew , Mariss Jansons , Kurt Masur , Leif Segerstam , Paavo Järvi , Sir Neville Marriner , Kurt Sanderling and Igor Stravinsky .
Chief conductor
- Olav Roots (1939-1944)
- Paul Karp (1944–1950)
- Roman Matsov (1950–1963)
- Neeme Järvi (1963–1979)
- Peeter Lilje (1980–1990)
- Leo Krämer (1991–1993)
- Arvo Volmer (1993-2001)
- Nikolai Aleksejew (2001-2010)
- Neeme Järvi (since September 2010)
Web links
- Official website (Estonian, English)
- History of the orchestra (English)