European Christmas. <i>Hortus Musicus</i> - 40. Middle Ages and Christmas
Estonian ancient music ensemble Hortus musicus celebrates their 40th anniversary with a series of concerts featuring the music from the Mediterranean region and Eastern countries. The creative imagination and impassioned performing style characteristic of this ensemble offers an evening saturated with sensual improvisations.
The first concert of Hortus Musicus was given in 1972 under the guidance of Andres Mustonen, founder of the ensemble. Thus, Hortus Musicus can be deemed to be the oldest of the still performing ancient music ensembles in Eastern Europe and one of the most long-working ones in the whole Europe. Under the conditions of Soviet isolation, the ensemble was formed by a group of enthusiasts who dedicated their youthful energy to discovering the actual and single face of Hortus Musicus. Andres Mustonen’s irreconcilability with the narrowness of the ideas offered by the regime as well as his rock-hewn conceptions of music skilfully and creatively guided the group’s activity into the previously little-known world of pre-Bach music. Hortus Musicus does not stand in opposition to the so-called practice of authentic performance, but such type of historical performing has never been an end in itself for the group. Therefore, concerts and recordings of Hortus Musicus sound so effervescently, understandably and impressively – it is vivacious music making by contemporary people. In the course of forty years, the ensemble Hortus Musicus has created and performed the most varied programmes comprising music from the 8th to the 20th century: Gregorian chants, medieval liturgical drama, hymns and motets, music of the Flemish school, 16th century polyphony, French songs, Italian madrigals, Renaissance dance suites from all around Europe, 17th and 18th century Baroque sonatas as well as secular and sacral opuses, and 20th century opuses frequently having been written exactly for Hortus Musicus. The ensemble has performed almost in all European countries, in the USA, Japan, Israel, and in the most part of the former Soviet Union, and has participated in the most important ancient music festivals. Hortus Musicus has recorded about forty programmes having been recorded by labels such as Erdenklang, Musica Sveciae, Forte and Finlandia Records.
During his teens, Andres Mustonen was keen on contemporary music, but at the beginning of the 1970s, his interest sharply turned to ancient music. Since the foundation of Hortus Musicus, Mustonen with his ensemble have been frequently seen in ancient music festivals as well as on the stages of significant world concert halls. Andres Mustonen is simultaneously a violinist and a conductor. As a conductor he has performed together with outstanding orchestras, among them Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, Moscow National Academic Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, symphony orchestras from Finland, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia, and Lithuania, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of Helsinki, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, etc. For a number of years, Mustonen has been regularly cooperating with Tallinn Philharmonics and Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. The musician’s range of interests includes Classicism, Romantic and contemporary music which, in the 1960s, inspired the young talented musician to discover the world of avant-garde and happening. Mustonen has performed opuses by Philip Glass, Giya Kancheli, Vladimir Martynov, Ksistof Penderetski, Arvo Pärt, Valentyn Silvestrov, Tōru Takemitsu, Avet Terteryan, and other composers. Several composers have dedicated new works exactly to Mustonen. The conductor has worked with first performances of Estonian composers such as Erkki-Sven Tüür, Galina Grigorieva, Peeter Vähi, and Helena Tulve. Andres Mustonen is making music spontaneously and radiantly, he willingly improvises. His friends include Natalia Gutman, Alexei Lubimov, Dmitri Sitkovetski, Inese Galante, Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Ramon Jaffe, Pascal Gallois and others. “I never mount the stage together with musicians whom I don’t know, do not regard as my friends or do not love.”
Programme
Eastern and Mediterranean music
Participants
Ensemble Hortus Musicus
Artistic director Andres Mustonen