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- Erkki-Sven Tüür
Violin Concerto No. 3 'Kõnelused Tundmatuga' (2020)
(Conversations with the Unknown)- Henry Litolff’s Verlag GmbH & Co. KG (World)
- vn + 3.3.3.3/3.3.3.1/timp.3perc/pf.hp/str
- Violin
- 34 min
Programme Note
This title "Kõnelused Tundmatuga" / "Conversations with the Unknown" refers to different possible conversations with an ‘other self:’ an inner voice (conscience), divinity (in the most abstract meaning), or with someone you do not know but wish to have as a close friend. The conversation is always a dialogue with a certain projection of imagination which is always changing and evolving. The violin soloist is like an individual in the middle of a jungle of ideas, values and so on, trying to bring light and better understanding to one’s journey through the life, seeking answers for the most existential questions.
My orchestral music always uses polyphonic textures consisting of several layers and individual lines, the density of which gradually grows or falls away. This general approach is present also in this concerto. The three movements of the concerto are performed attacca (slow – fast – slow). However, there is always a feeling of different tempi sounding simultaneously in different layers. The first movement ends with a short cadenza which leads into a groovy middle movement. After the huge orchestral culmination, we enter into a different sound world: this is the door to the third movement, more mysterious and atmospheric, sometimes sombre and opaque. The solo violin plays against constantly-shifting acoustic conditions. It is surrounded by ‘overpainted’ musical spaces. At the very end we come to a different light - perhaps this is the moment of full understanding of the qualities that the “Unknown” always tried to gently lead us to.
Erkki-Sven Tüür
Scores
Reviews
Surfaces and peaks.
[...] The European premiere of the violin concerto by the hr-Sinfonieorchester and its British guest conductor Nicholas Collon left plenty of room for openly circling thoughts for more than half an hour. While the orchestra elevated Tüür's moving soundscapes to energetic fields, violinist Vadim Gluzman was the sovereign centre, impulse and echo, balancing and driving, always with a razor-clear tone and strong technique. [...]
[...] The 3rd Violin Concerto by Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür then lasted 40 minutes. And here, too, the title of the work commissioned by Hessischer Rundfunk (Hessian Broadcasting Corporation) revealed something of a sonic juxtaposition: ‘Conversations with the Unknown’. The only difference here was that a composer's commentary was necessary in order to notice the tonal parallelism between the very large orchestral surface and the solo violin playing in front of and above it (in the programme booklet, the 65-year-old composer speaks of ‘a jungle of ideas and values etc.’). There was no moulded, symbolic and emblematic figure that would have had any meaning. But perhaps the lighter and more chiselled development towards the end was the unknown. In any case, one could enjoy the stoic brilliance of the 51-year-old virtuoso Vadim Gluzman. [...]
[...] This was followed by Erkki-Sven Tüür's new third violin concerto ‘Conversations with the Unknown’. Tüür, an outstanding Estonian composer, had composed this violin concerto on commission from the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the European premiere promised to be an interesting encounter. Soloist Vadim Gluzman, an internationally acclaimed violinist with a rich musical history, comes from the former Soviet Union. He studied with Zakhar Bron and later with Dorothy DeLay at the renowned Juilliard School. His artistic sensibility and commitment to contemporary music make him one of the most versatile violinists of his generation. Gluzman's unique interpretation and technical mastery took the audience on a sonic journey through the expressive harmonies of this contemporary work. His artistic sensibility lent the piece a very unique character. Vadim Gluzman, virtuoso as ever, guided the audience through the work, in which the dialogue with the unknown was carried out on a musical level.
The ‘conversation’ is always an exchange of the inner world of one's own self. The voice of the violin acts as a tonal individual within its own journey through life. Collon's sensitive direction of the hr-Sinfonieorchester helped to shape the complexity and depth of this work with commitment. Gluzman was attentively accompanied by him. The hr-Sinfonieorchester made this obstinate work shimmer in many different colours. The audience was impressed and gave long applause for the performers and the composer. [...]
A new Violin Concerto As Cosmic Dialogue, Search for Perspective.
[...] The somewhat esoteric message of Kõnelused Tundmatuga emphasized an exchange between the soloist (representing the individual) and the orchestra (symbolizing a tumbler of ideas, emotions, cultural bric-a-brac, etc.) over the course of three movements (slow-fast-slow). Sections of the orchestra often created sonic collages that featured a light electronic buzz or slightly distorted whirls even though no electronic instruments were used. They were perhaps influenced by Tüür’s youth, when he played in a rock band before pursuing a career as a composer.
In reaction to a wash of sound that often began with colorful tones from the marimba, vibraphone, piano, harp, and glockenspiel, Gluzman carefully etched lines that seemed to search and probe. His playing was primarily confined to the upper register of his Stradivarius. Sometimes the orchestra echoed a passage that Gluzman played or vice versa. In one of his cadenzas, Gluzman created an eerie series of semitones that were genuinely spooky.
The piece generated an atmosphere of expansion and contraction that went back and forth many times. Gluzman brought it all to a close with silken, ethereal phrases that whispered heavenward as if to suggest that the individual had finally met the divine. [...]