NOSPR / Elts / Gerhardt / Romantic Bell Tolls - NOSPR

The programme is built on two pillars: bells and tunefulness. Each of the three works, which belong among the wide spectrum of contemporary music, explores these elements in its own way. From Cantus by Arvo Pärt – an absolute classic and one of the earliest manifestations of his enchanting tintinnabuli style – through the short opening piece by another Estonian composer, Erkki-Sven Tüür, to the neoclassical and neoromantic as well as highly attractive Cello Concerto No 2 by Krzysztof Penderecki, bells or chimes play a special role in each one of them, and each is constructed around more or less expressive thematic material. In Pärt’s work, this takes the form of a gently sung canon; in Penderecki’s traditionally structured composition, thematic development constitutes the very essence of the work (while bells make their presence felt in the orchestral texture, they introduce the piece). The greatest departure towards pure sound comes with Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Melting Bells – a sonic depiction of bells, which have accompanied humanity for millennia in various forms and on countless occasions. Here, they are evocatively smelted into bullets, yet even this gesture follows its own inner logic.

The programme thus presents a range of contemporary musical works which find a common denominator in their communicative clarity, and concludes with the grand symphonic tradition of the Romantic era: Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No 3, imbued with some of the most beautiful melodies in the orchestral canon. For many, it remains the favourite work of this great composer.

Jakub Puchalski

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