News continues to trickle in regarding Estonian conductors’ performances abroad this year, whether with their own orchestra or as guest conductor. Anu Tali, musical director of the Sarasota Orchestra, has two new progammes to direct with her Florida orchestra, and is kicking off the second half of the current season with a total of seven concerts, writes ERR News.
Ms Tali’s first concerts of 2019 took place on 4-6 January and 17-20 January. The second programme was performed three nights in a row on the main stage at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota because Ms Tali was able to get one of her favourite pianists, Lviv, Ukraine-born Emanuel Ax, as the soloist for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The Grammy Awardwinning pianist has previously performed under conductor Neeme Järvi as well.
Over the years, Ms Tali’s concert programmes have included plenty of works that are less well known in the region, introduced in her “Masterworks” series, among them master composer Arvo Pärt’s “Credo” and “Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten.”
Ms Tali took over as musical director of the Sarasota Orchestra in 2013, extending her initially three-year contract in 2016. She will step down as the orchestra’s fifth ever musical director following the conclusion of the current season this spring.
From 2013-2019, Ms Tali has been the only Estonian conductor with her own orchestra in the US. Like the Järvis, she is managed by the famous London-based classical music agency HarrisonParrott.
Two recent concerts in Tartu, Tallinn
Following the conclusion of her permanent position in the US, Ms Tali hopes to begin a new chapter in her international career. In the recent past, however, two concerts did bring her back to Estonian soil — her co-founded Nordic Symphony Orchestra played at St. Paul’s Church in Tartu on February 6, and at Alexela Concert Hall in Tallinn on February 7, 2019.
The program included Brahms’ Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102 for violin, cello and orchestra, and Stravinsky’s score for the ballet “The Firebird,” with soloists Sergei Dogadin (Russia/Austria) and Alexey Stadler (Russia/Germany).
VES/ERR News
