Wondrous Beauty (final concert)

Wondrous Beauty (final concert)

In cooperation with the Narva City Symphony Orchestra.

Conductors: Anatoli Štšura and Andres Mustonen.

Soloist: Irina Zahharenkova (piano).

At the festival’s final concert, orchestral works by Penderecki, Silvestrov and Štšura are heard, together with the premiere of a new work by Steinberg and Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

The composer Eitan Steinberg and the conductor Andres Mustonen share a long collaboration. Over the years Steinberg’s works have been performed both within Mustonenfest and beyond it. Premieres have included Sod Hakavana for six choirs and percussion (Israel 2018, Estonia 2019), A Splinter of Infinity (2022), and Created and Prayer (2024). This time Evolving (2023) receives its premiere. Of the work, written for string orchestra, the composer writes: “Evolving is a development of sound through time and space. Through time — by way of almost static musical phrases that come alive as they move. Through space — here, the space of the sound spectrum — by gradually widening the range. The aim of this static atmosphere is to offer moments of reflection; the work is absorbed and quiet, a contemplation free of emotion.”

Eitan Steinberg (b. 1955) has received the ACUM Lifetime Achievement Award (2014), the Landau Award (2010) and the Israeli Prime Minister’s Prize for composition (2007, 2018). His works are often performed in his native Israel as well as in Europe and the United States. As a professor in the music department of the University of Haifa he taught Jewish and Arab students together, which was for him a great source of hope and inspiration. He is now professor emeritus of the University of Haifa.

Also on the programme: Krzysztof Penderecki (1933–2020), Agnus Dei (version for strings); Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937), Stille Musik; and Anatoli Štšura (b. 1960), Fugue ASCH (dedicated to Alfred Schnittke).

The concert ends with Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (1810–1849), with Irina Zahharenkova as soloist.