Classical music channel: listen Tallinn Concerts Live or later

Järvi family launches new classical music festival in hometown Pärnu, July 27, 2012

New classical music Järvi festival, organised second year by the globally renowned Estonian conductors Paavo Järvi (49) and his father Neeme Järvi (75) that was opened in Estonian coastal resort town Pärnu on Thursday and will last until August 2, aims to become a new summer tradition for European classical music fans.

"Pärnu is the town where our grandmother lived and where we spent together with my sister Maarika who is flutist and brother Kristjan who is also conductor all our childhood summers until we managed to emigrate to West from USSR in 1980. I have tried to come back for holiday to Pärnu and this festival is kind of gratitude to our childhood," Paavo Järvi told AFP on Friday.

"There are many other outstanding Estonian musicians working abroad so I hope this festival will become a place where we all can meet and on the other hand we can all spend time with the top musicians we have met and worked with globally," he added.

Paavo Järvi is currently chief conductor of Orchestre de Paris, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and was recently announced to become also chief conductor of the Japanese leading NHK Symphony in 2015.

"Around 300 musicians from dozen countries, most from Germany, US, UK and France perform at the festival concerts," festival spokesperson Elis Vesik told AFP on Friday.

"We also have 21 young conductors from several countries attending the Järvi Academy and learning conducting from both maestros," she added.

The Järvi Festival gala concert on Saturday has outstanding list of several well known musicians - Mate Szücs (viola, Berlin Philharmonics, Germany), Florian Donderer (violin, Germany), Fritz Pahlmann (horn, Gremany), Matthew Hunt (clarinet, England), Sophia Rahman (piano, England) Gunilla Süssmann (piano, Norway), Jason Calloway (cello, USA), Ulrike Danhofer (violin Austria) etc.

The Sunday concert stars are Estonian soprano Anneli Peebo from Vienna Volksoper and Estonian pianists Kalle Randalu and his son Kristjan Randalu.

The closing concert of the festival on August 2, 2012 will mark the 75th birthday of Neeme Järvi whose actual birthday was already on June 7 when all the family members were still involved with their musical work obligations in various states.

Estonia's new classic music festival hits high note (bit shorter version on AFP wire)

TALLINN, July 27, 2012 (AFP) - Estonia's new Jarvi Summer Festival of classical music kicked off this week promising to draw some 300 musicians from over a dozen countries to the Baltic coast city of Parnu in the south.

The festival was founded last year under the baton of globally renowned Estonian conductors Paavo Jarvi and his father Neeme Jarvi.

"Parnu is the town where our grandmother lived," Paavo Jarvi told AFP on Friday. "I have tried to come back for holiday to Parnu and this festival is kind of ode to our childhood," he added.

"Around 300 musicians from over a dozen countries, including Germany, the US, Britain and France will perform here this year," festival spokesperson Elis Vesik told AFP.

"We also have 21 young conductors attending the associated Jarvi Academy to learn with both maestros," she added.

Paavo Jarvi is currently chief conductor of the Orchestre de Paris, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and was recently announced to become also chief conductor of Japan's leading NHK Symphony in 2015.

The festival's gala concert on Saturday has an outstanding list of well-known musicians including viola player Mate Szuecs, violinist Florian Donderer and French horn player Fritz Pahlmann, all from Germany.
England's Matthew Hunt will play clarinet alongside compatriot pianist Sophia Rahman. The concert will also feature Norway's Gunilla Suessmann on piano, American Jason Calloway on cello and Austrian Ulrike Danhofer on violin.

Sunday's concert stars are Estonian soprano Anneli Peebo from Vienna Volksoper and Estonian pianists Kalle Randalu and his son Kristjan Randalu.

The festival runs July 26 to August 2.

Check also Järvi Festival homepage HERE

Retrouvailles en Estonie de la famille Järvi pour son Festival d'été TALLINN (Estonie), 27 juil 2012 (AFP) - Le chef d'orchestre américano-estonien Paavo Järvi et son père, le chef estonien Neeme Järvi, ont lancé la deuxième édition de leur festival d'été dans leur ville natale de Parnu (sud-ouest de Tallinn), avec l'espoir d'en faire une destination traditionnelle pour les fans de musique classique.

"Il y a de nombreux musiciens estoniens remarquables qui travaillent à l'étranger et j'espère que ce festival va devenir un lieu où on va pouvoir tous se retrouver", a déclaré vendredi à l'AFP Paavo Järvi, qui dirige notamment l'Orchestre de Paris.

Quelque 300 musiciens d'une douzaine de pays, notamment d'Allemagne, des Etats-Unis, de Grande-Bretagne et de France, participent cette année à ce festival, du 26 juillet au 2 août.

"Nous attendons aussi 21 jeunes chefs de différents pays qui ont suivi l'Académie Järvi et les enseignements des deux maestros", a précisé Elis Vesik, porte-parole du festival.

"Parnu, c'est la ville où a vécu ma grand-mère et où nous avons passé tous nos été avec ma soeur, Maarika, flûtiste, et mon frère, Kristjan, également chef d'orchestre, avant de quitter l'URSS pour émigrer à l'ouest en 1980", a expliqué Paavo Järvi.

"J'ai voulu revenir à Parnu et ce festival est une forme de gratitude envers notre enfance", a-t-il ajouté.
Le concert de clôture le 2 août sera l'occasion de fêter avec un peu de retard le 75e anniversaire de Neeme Järvi. Il est né le 7 juin, mais les divers membres de cette famille de musiciens, pris par leurs obligations à l'étranger, n'ont pu se réunir plus tôt.

--------------
You will get to Classical Radio channel from Tallinn clicking the headline of that article, but you need to know a bit Estonian to find you way there. So here are few tips:

LIVE from Tallinn : To listen concerts LIVE pick the month first in the calendar located below the word "Kontserdiülekanded", then pick the date, look the time (and find out you know what is the time difference between your local time and time in Estonia). On date and time selected click "Kuula reaalajas" thats right and at top on the site and then choose whether you use Windows Media or Real Audio. Account they say some introduction words in Estonian before the concert starts.

LISTEN RECENT TALLINN CONCERTS FROM ARCHIVE: For that find first on right words "kuula saadete arhiivi", then click it and next find at the site words "Täna kontserdisaalis". You will get a list of some recent concerts in Tallinn that you can listen from archive. Account again they say some introduction words in Estonian before the concerts start.

Estonia tries cultural charm offensive in Russia

Estonia tries cultural charm offensive in Russia

by Anneli Reigas

TALLINN, Dec 25, 2007 - Political ties with its Soviet-era overlord may be at their frostiest since independence in 1991, but Estonia has embarked on a cultural charm offensive to try to win hearts and minds in Russia.

At the forefront is "Georg", a new biopic about Georg Ots, a baritone from the Baltic state who won admiration across the Soviet Union during an operatic career which was cut short by his untimely death in 1975.

Concerts organised by Estonia in Russia in Ots' memory -- the most recent was a few weeks ago in Saint Petersburg -- remain regular sell-outs.

The film, which is due to be released in Russia in February 2008, pulls at the audience's heart strings as it recounts the story of Ots' life and loves.

Starring opposite 39-year-old Estonian actor Marko Matvere, who plays Ots, is Russian actress Anastasia Makeyeva, 26, who portrays the singer's second wife Asta.

"When we did the film I realised that the younger generation of Russians hardly knows anything about Ots," said producer.

"Even Anastasia told us that she knew almost nothing about him before she asked her parents."

Ots' story is a reminder of the days before little Estonia became a bugbear for its giant neighbour, and is a symbol of his people's complex relationship with Russia.

He was born in 1920, shortly after Estonia had won independence following the collapse of the tsarist empire. During World War II he served in the Estonian armed forces. Then was forced to join the invading Soviet army or face prison.

His career flowered after Estonia was reoccupied by Moscow in the wake of the conflict, and he became a household name across the Soviet Union.

At 2.1 million euros (3.0 million dollars), the movie is the most expensive Estonian film ever made, and has been co-produced with Russian and Finnish investors.

Estonia regained its independence from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991.

The drive for freedom in the late 1980s had a cultural edge: it became known as the Singing Revolution, as hundreds of thousands of people flocked to traditional choral festivals which came to symbolise passive resistance to Soviet rule.

In addition to the Ots movie, Estonia is putting out other feelers to music-loving Russians. Aivar Mae, director of the Estonian Concert Agency, has launched a project to build a new music venue in downtown city of Saint Petersburg.

The concert hall will be located in the Russian city's St. John church that belonged to Estonian community in Saint Petersburg already before WWII.

EstBestPractice - IT to clean

Estonian Internet entrepreneurs who used cutting-edge software and legions of volunteers to literally clean up their country decided to offer the same service to the rest of the world. You can my story on that at their site if you click the headline.

Riigikogu juhataja Ene Ergma: MRP avalikustamisega seotud inimesed riskisid oma vabadusega

Riigikogu esimehe Ene Ergma tervitus rahvusvahelisel konverentsil "Aus ajalugu – alus demokraatiale", 17.septembril 2009


Tervitan kõiki ajalookonverentsil „Aus ajalugu – alus demokraatiale”, mis sümboolselt algab päeval, mil Nõukogude Liit Natsi – Saksamaa kallaletungi tõrjuvat Poolat selja tagant ründas. See sündmus näitas tollasele avalikkusele selgelt, et 23. augustil 1939 sõlmitud Nõukogude – Saksa mittekallaletungilepingu varjus lepiti kokku milleski veel enamas.

Me vaatame tagasi dokumendile, mis oli küll üsna napilt ja külmavereliselt sõnastatud, kuid milles fikseeritud kokkulepe muutis Balti riikide ja Poola ajalugu ning nende riikide rahvaste käekäiku. Meie riikide loomulik areng katkes ning ikka veel peame tegelema minevikus sündinud vigade parandamisega.

Tänavu aprillis võttis Euroopa Parlament vastu otsuse kuulutada totalitarismi kuritegude mälestamise päevaks päev, mil 1939.aastal natslik Saksamaa ja kommunistlik Venemaa sõlmisid Molotovi-Ribbentropi pakti. Selle sammuga andis Euroopa oma hinnangu nende režiimide tegevusele ning alles nüüd võib öelda, et tõmmati joon, millega tähistatakse ühe ebameeldiva ajastu ka moraalselt lõppenuks.

MRP läbi kannatanud rahvad on võitlust ajaloo valgete laikudega pidanud üsna kaua – inimesed pingutasid MRP avalikustamise ja hukkamõistmise nimel aastakümneid. Salaprotokolliga tehtud ülekohtu avalikustamine ja selle tunnistamise taotlemine aitasid avada teed meie rahvusliku eneseteadvuse kasvule ja lõpuks ka iseseisvuse taastamisele.

Balti kett koos murranguliste sündmustega Poolas, Ungaris, Ida-Saksamaal vallandas kommunismi kokkuvarisemise Ida-Euroopas, tuues kaasa piiride avamise Ungari-Austria vahel, Berliini müüri langemise ja sametrevolutsiooni Prahas.

Arhiivide avatus ja ühiskonna vaba areng on lahutamatult seotud ka oma ajaloole antava ausa hinnanguga. Mihhail Gorbatšov, kes alustas Nõukogude Liidus perestroikat ja glasnostit, mõistis seda.

Meie tänu kuulub inimestele, kes MRP ja selle salaprotokollide avalikustamisega panid oma elu ja vabaduse kaalule. Salasobingu hukkamõistmist Nõukogude Liidu Rahvasaadikute Kongressis ei oleks saavutatud, kui meil oleks puudunud toonaste Vene ajaloolaste ja poliitikute toetus ja koostöösoov. Me mõistame üksteist ja see on loomulik, sest stalinlik ja hitlerlik režiim tegid ühtviisi kurja meile kõigile.

Meil on rõõm ja ajalooline võimalus näha ja kuulata täna neid inimesi, kes MRP avalikustamisprotsessi käivitasid ja juhtisid. Tahaksin esile tõsta akadeemik Endel Lippmaad kui MRP-komisjoni hinge. Meie teadmised ajaloost oleksid täna puudulikumad, kui meid poleks aidanud Saksamaa välisministeeriumi poliitilise arhiivi juht dr. Ludwig Biewer. Meie tänu kuulub ka MRP-komisjoni Leedu esindajale hr Kazimieras Motiekale ja Venemaa esindajale hr Vitali Korotitšile.

Tõstan esile ka professor Heiki Lindpere panust komisjoni tööst väärtusliku raamatu koostamisel ning tunnustan omaaegsete MRP-komisjoni liikmete aktiivset tegevust.

Samuti tahan tänada kõiki Eesti esindajaid, kes Rahvasaadikute Kongressi liikmetena MRP-komisjoni tööle kaasa aitasid. Meie tänu väärivad ka MRP-komisjoni igavikku lahkunud esimees Aleksandr Jakovlev ning komisjoni aseesimees Juri Afanasjev, kes lootis konverentsil osaleda, kuid kel ei õnnestunud tulla.

Toonaste sündmuste analüüsimisel ja kajastamisel on teinud ära hindamatu töö ajakirjanik Anneli Rõigas ja režissöör Juhan Aare. Tänan ka Filmiarhiivi – meie ajaloo hindamatut varasalve – ajaloo oluliste kaadrite talletamise eest.

Ärgem unustagem, et tänu väärivad ka kõik need inimesed, kes Balti ketis seistes ajaloolise õigluse jaluleseadmist nõudsid. Sellel, tänaseks UNESCO maailmamälu registrisse kantud sündmusel oli MRP avalikustamisele ja hukkamõistmisele määratu mõju.

Where I come from/ My sacred village

(To be amended)

By Anneli Reigas

If you happen to be in Tallinn and rest has been seen over and over and you wish to see a different Tallinn, take a tram 1 or 2 to Kopli and drive to place called Kopli liinid, a small village with short streets called "liinid" that means lines in English. It is on the coast of the Baltic Sea sea, max 15 min by tram 1 or 2 ride from Tallinn old town, considered very central Tallinn but is very different of the rest of the town. The houses there were for long time partly in ruins there and it has been not the safest place for foreigners to walk around, specially alone and late. But for me it has been the small land of paradise bordered with the Baltic Sea, and with endless childhood memories that included looking often how Sun fell asleep into sea.

By now, 2020 the venue is safe and a completely new village is under construction there - and it looks really beautiful, like a museum. Namely, after few decades of postponing the reconstruction of the area the new village is built now, and what makes it special is that houses look similar as the ones built over 100 years ago, and even streets are partly built with small stones like they were in old times, but new modern amendments are made.

Our village - poor but very intellectual

When I lived there many of the few hundreds villagers who lived there knew each another, their parents and grandparents had lived there before WWII and the village was in good order, not like at the end of last decade of 1900s and start of new millennium when most of its ex-inhabitants had left. By summer 2019 first new and renovated houses had started to bring life and and long lost order back to our village.

At our house only one person  lived there after new millennium arrived - an old lady, Saima Krikk, who for few decades worked as a fashion designer at the Tallinn fashion house Tallinna Moemaja. The fashion magazine Siluett published by them in Estonian and Russian during Soviet era was not famous only in Estonia but known all over Soviet Union. I had to envy Saima for the look at sea that she had from her windows and that I was missing once we moved away in 1979.

We had also an opera singer and few professors living there that time. Tallinn University of Technology has had for long one of their faculties nearby, just a short walking distance or one tram stop from the village, and many children who grow up at that village went to study there after graduating from high school. The spirit at the village felt intellectual and made me to understand already in childhood you do not really need much of those things you buy for money or some fancy title to be a great person.

When Robert Nerman, historian who did a very good job to write and publish books about the history of different Tallinn districts, published a book about Kopli (its the name of bigger area than the small Kopli village nearby sea) that also included many pages about our village, I recognized how other people who had lived at that village have had the very same feelings and memories about our time there.

Growing up there with the Baltic Sea in front of you, and knowing its sea only dividing you from the Finland and Sweden and the rest of the free world it felt like the Soviet empire started behind me and it was our very own corner of the land that belonged fully to us. You could see two Soviet border guards watch-houses there and I saw often late night two border guards making their walk on beach, but there was nothing Soviet at that village - it felt really different.

Anyway, there were rules. Do not go to walk on bay too far in winter when its covered with ice or you might get shot! That rule I knew from the very early years. Sister of the husband of my aunt broke that rule - Vilma was shot to leg by border guards when she was still a child. She told me few years ago nobody ever asked sorry from her or from her mother and after all, she was lucky at least to survive.

We had also some nice not at all Soviet-minded Russian families (and very few not nice) living in that village and some at our house. Some of them had like Estonians lived in that village since pre-WWII time and we had good relations with all good people.

My mucisian father Juhan (1942-1968) and mother Leida who were born few weeks apart in autumn 1942 grew up in the very same village and were friends, sweethearts and classmates since kids there and as soon as they were grown up, got married.

Sea, Grannie and books widening the horizont

I recall my grandmother Elfriede (who had lived at the same village since 1930s with her husband Johan) as my best friend until she left 1979. She was also my very own first history teacher and she also taught me lot of those few things in life that you usually learn - if at all - later in life with years starting to share experiences. She lived close to us at the closest house to sea and I had my own room at her flat that had two windows with one of them so close to sea you could throw a stone from the window into the sea. It has even happened that sometimes during the storm sea waves hit her house, Whenever I went there, she was doing one thing - reading some book - that she always put aside when I had ringed her doorbell and stepped in.

She used to insist me often always to remember I am a Swede, not Estonian but I never really felt it like that. But there was a Swede that had found a place in my heart, like she had found a place in hearts of millions of children around the Baltic Sea and elsewhere and whom I started to adore soon after I learned to read - Astrid Lindgren. I kept reading her books over and over, loving most the story about Melkersson´s family (and their adorable friend Tjorven), Kalle Blomquist and Pipi.

When I called Astrid Lindgren from NK department store in central Stockholm in May 1989, being already 26 then, the very last day of my first visit to Sweden to ask her whether she will be available to give me an interview when I come to Stockholm next time there must have been probably something in my voice that made her to ask me to come to her home right away. Her phone number was not public, but I had got it from the Dagens Nyheter (Swedish daily). I wrote about that warm meeting also at the Dagens Nyheter net site dedicated for her when she passed away and got some really adorable letters from other Lindgren admirers later.

If you listen the few small clips I took from the interview with her to that blog, you will probably recognize what a great respect I felt for her. I was so sad they did not give Astrid Lindgren the Nobel prize in literature that she certainly deserved for being one of the world greatest authors of books for children. It was an extraordinary to meet that woman whom millions have loved but who left me impression as not just a very warm but also a very modest person, a lot like was my grandmother.

Among other things she told me she was blessed to have had two environments to grow up when she was a child - a farm and a nice town very close to that farm. She also said the childhood she had was a lot like she describes in her book Bullerby and that her father loved a lot her mother and told it so every day.

The other author I enjoyed most while teen was Ernest Hemingway, his Farewell to Arms was among my most favorite books.

1979, piece of harmony left behind

Even that probably no other kid at that village had a luxury to grow up with such a grandmother as I did, most of them had a privilege to go to the same school as me and that nowadays is called Tallinn Art High School, that was at the other side of the park from our village.

It was a a unic school that time in all Soviet Union because it was the very first and one of very few also later that got the right to use a special teaching program on arts since first grade to last grade. It made the school also to have some international touch as we had often visitors from West. The man behind the idea and also the Head of the Art Classes for decades at the school was Leo Tõnisson who was like a moving monument-reminder of the-once-upon a time free Estonia at our school. Leo Tõnisson lived in Tallinn until he perished in 2015 (and if you happen to know some Finnish you can find my interviw with him published at the Finnish daily Turun Sanomat at my blog in Finnish.) His father Aleksander Tõnisson was a Mayor of Tallinn when Soviets took Estonia over. And most of all Aleksander Tõnisson was known as a famous Estonian military commander during the Estonian War of Independence 1918-1920.

When I went to Tartu University in 1981 I learned first time with a surprise how some young Estonians also from my generation had grown up to be really Soviet-minded and spoked and acted that way. So it probably has a really great role who are the people who play the greatest role in your life when you just start to discover that world and to figure out for what you have been sent here.

I lived at our small Kopli village since 1963 to 1979 and when we moved to new place to one of those Soviet era built apartment blocks after my mum got a flat there in winter 1979 (we finally had warm running water, central heating and even first bathroom at home) I got a cultural shock - I didnt care about these modern things but felt like I had left Republic of Estonia behind, and had to get settled now in that Soviet environment, partly because I had to leave the village and partly because few weeks before we moved my grandmother Elfriede had also left me and this world.

And I am telling it all only because when you go to that village that looked for few decades a ghetto and has gone into rebirth by now you know that for me it is one of those places that I always feel like sacred when I go there, that I have done at least once in summer during all these years since we left the village in 1979.

The Universe, Yours to Discover -

it is the official slogan of the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

The International Year of Astronomy 2009 gives you a great chance to attend several regional and global astronomy events, and search lot of new websites, aimed to broaden at least a bit the knowledge of people on Earth about the universe.

In addition to my favorite that was launched by NASA in 2008 with brilliant photos about the universe (the direct link is at the link list in my blog at -

http://sunnyestonianews.blogspot.com/2008/10/planets-mother-earth-and-other-planets.html

there are also many new sites warmly worth recommending like

take short imaginary trips out from our planet at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgg2tpUVbXQ -

you get there directly also clicking the headline of this story

plus another related video is at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9HLIOnTapE&feature=channel

and

at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGxRWCmwSDE

or search sky photos at

http://www.twanight.org/newTWAN/photos.asp?ID=3001762&Sort=Region
(regional galleries at right)

or site of the Hubble Space Telescope,
the joint project between ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA:

http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/

The year 2009 was proclaimed to be the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations General Assembly.

The official site of The International Year of Astronomy 2009 is at

http://www.astronomy2009.org

"One hundred years ago we barely knew of the existence of our own Milky Way. Today we know that many billions of galaxies make up our Universe and that it originated approximately 13.7 billion years ago. One hundred years ago we had no means of knowing whether there were other solar systems in the Universe. Today we know of more than 200 planets around other stars in our galaxy and we are moving towards an understanding of how life might have first appeared," Catherine Cesarsky, IAU President writes at the astronomy year 2009 webpage.

"Astronomy is one of the oldest fundamental sciences. It continues to make a profound impact on our culture and is a powerful expression of the human intellect. Huge progress has been made in the last few decades. The International Year of Astronomy 2009 is a global effort initiated by the International Astronomical Union and UNESCO to help the citizens of the world rediscover their place in the Universe through the day- and night-time sky, and thereby engage a personal sense of wonder and discovery."