deFilharmonie . Olari Elts . Storioni Trio

Two ensembles celebrating anniversaries - the Storioni Trio ten years and deFilharmonie fifty - joined forces and asked Kevin Volans (b. 1949) to step into Beethoven's shoes and write a triple concerto for piano trio and symphony orchestra. Knowing him this will yield a heavenly feast for the ears, because if there is one thing for which this Irish South-African has become renowned, it is his sincere quest for the right musical identity. Taking the best of the western avant-garde and African folk music, he has composed a unique and very sound body of work. The programme also includes Tüür's fantastic 1999 orchestral piece 'Exodus', in which this Estonian chameleon gives us a dramatic minimalist orchestral reading of man's desire to defy gravity. The concert opens with Charles Ives' innovative Second Symphony from 1902. Whereas his First Symphony was still very tentative, in the Second this visionary of sound opened all the registers, experimenting for the first time with popular hymns and American ditties.