Zelenka, a focus on India, new & old seasons: 2026 Viljandi Early Music Festival, Estonia's oldest festival in one of the countries most attractive historic towns

Viljandi is an historic town in southern Estonia, founded in 1283, situated on the north-western shore of Lake Viljandi and surrounded by forest. The town is notable for its ruined castle and collection of historic town buildings, along with green spaces, cultural attractions and culinary delights. We had a pleasant few days there in 2024 on our way to Tartu for a performance of my music.

Amongst the town's cultural attractions is the Viljandi Early Music Festival, the oldest festival in Estonia.  The 41st edition of the festival runs from 15 to 17 July 2026, this year under the joint directorship of Andres Mustonen (who founded the Estonian early music group Hortus Musicus in 1972) and Heili Vaus-Tamm (whom I first met in 2016 when she was part of the team presenting the Brigitta Festival in the ruins of the Pirita Convent in Tallinn, see my review)

The festival opens with Andres Mustonen conducting the Hortus Musicus Baroque Orchestra and Moran Singers Ensemble in Zelenka's Missa Votiva (Thanksgiving Mass). Zelenka wrote this festive mass for Dresden in 1739 where Zelenka had worked at the Saxon court since 1719. 

A new festival tradition is a focus on a particular country, this year India with an evening of Indian ragas and artists from India including Mukesh Sharma (sarod) and Moumala Nayak (Kathak dance) being joined from Estonia are tabla player Arno Kalbus and festival director Andres Mustonen.

Andres Mustonen directs Hortus Musicus Baroque Orchestra a programme focusing on the seasons pairing Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, in a version for cello and orchestra by Marcel Johannes Kits (who plays the solo), with The Seasons, a 12-part cycle by the Ukrainian composer, Leonid Desyatnikov. In 2006 a ballet based on Desyatnikov's The Seasons was premiered in New York by the New York City Ballet. There is a visual element to the concert too as audiovisual artist Iiris-Minda Paemurru will be creating a projection design inspired by the paintings of the artist Navitrolla.

Alongside these concerts are a lively programme of workshops including Indian raga and Kathak dance, craft events, a tour of Viljandi with live music, stage and theatrical workshops as well as archery and shooting!

Full details from the festival website. 

 

BBC Proms: Arvo Pärt at 90

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tõnu Kaljuste - BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

Arvo Pärt, Galina Grigorjeva, Rachmaninov, Bach, Veljo Tormis; Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tõnu Kaljuste, Kadri Toomoja; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 31 July 2025

An iconic Estonian ensemble celebrating the great Estonian composer's 90th birthday with a wide-ranging programme of his music alongside that of contemporaries and influences.

This year Arvo Pärt is 90 and everyone is celebrating. At the BBC Proms, rather than including one of the composer's larger scale works, the focus of the celebrations was a visit by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir which has had a long association with the composer's music. I have heard the choir live before, in Tallinn, performing in the relatively grateful acoustics of a former church [see my review] and the large hall of Kultuurikatel (Cultural Cauldron), a former industrial building [see my review], whilst in 2018 as part of Estonia's centenary celebrations they performed at the Barbican [see our review]. The vast spaces of the Royal Albert Hall are, perhaps, a less sympathetic arena but there is no doubt that an invitation to perform Arvo Pärt at such an iconic venue as part of the BBC Proms was a significant moment.

At the late night Prom on Thursday 31 July 2025, Tõnu Kaljuste conducted the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, with Kadri Toomoja organ, in Arvo Pärt's Da pacem Domine, Veni creator, Magnificat, The Deer's Cry, Fur Jan van Eyck, Peace upon you, Jerusalem and De Profunds, along with Galina Grigorjeva's Svyatki - 'Spring is Coming', two movements from Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil (Vespers), Bach's motet Ich lasse dich nicht, and Curse upon Iron by Veljo Tormis who would have been 95 this year.

Veljo Tormis: Curse upon Iron - Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tõnu Kaljuste - BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

In the Royal Albert Hall there was less sense of the choir's vibrant tone quality that you can appreciate in smaller venues, but throughout the evening there was an impressive strength to the performance, a muscular quality to set against the English style of Arvo Pärt choral singing. Though it is worth bearing in mind that the choir fielded around 27 singers. The BBC producers had obviously decided that as this was a late-night concert of Baltic minimalism, we ought to have a light show too. The pictures here do not quite do justice to the rather lurid light effects that accompanied some of the music.

Youth, experience and a warm reception: our visit to the Glasperlenspiel Festival in Tartu, Estonia

Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5 - Hans Christian Aavik, Neeme Järvi, Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta - Glasperlenspiel Festival at St John's Church, Tartu

Named for Hermann Hesse's last full-length novel, Das Glasperlenspiel (The Glass Bead Game), the Glasperlenspiel Festival in Estonia is just two year shy of its 30th birthday. Founded in 1996 by composer Peeter Vähi and producer Tiina Jokinan, the festival fills St John's Church in Tartu with music for a long weekend every July. This year the festival runs from 4 to 9 July, with eleven events spread across the six days.

St John's Church dates from the 14th century and is notable for its brick construction and the enormous number of terracotta statues that featured on the exterior; there were originally over a thousand and some 200 survive. The church was badly damaged by fire in World War Two and left semi-derelict for some 50 years before being restored in the 1990s, creating a handsome wooden-roofed interior with a very fine and sympathetic acoustic.

This year's festival line-up includes Gidon Kremer (violin) and Stathis Karapanos (flute) with Kremerata Baltica in music by Vivaldi, Beethoven, Schubert, Grazyna Bacewicz and Sofia Guubaidulina; the Swiss ensemble Aventura Barocca with Israeli mezzo-soprano Maya Amir in a programme mixing Baroque music with that of the Middle East; the Estonian vocal ensemble, Vox Clamantis, directed by Jaan-Eik Tulve in a programme of Gregorian chant dedicated to St John the Baptist, including the Tournai Mass; the contemporary ethnic music group Zetod in a programme of  music from Setoland; Quatuor Akilone from France in Mozart, Boccherini and Arriaga; the Estonia National Male Choir in music by Estonian composer Rein Rannap; the New Baltic Sound Quartet (violin, cello, and two percussion) in contemporary programme with an Estonian cast to it including one of Peeter Vähi's pieces; the Lithuanain ensemble Musica Humana

And tucked away in the late-night slot on Friday 5 July, Ben Vonberg-Clark (tenor), Jonathan Eyers (baritone) and Nigel Foster (piano) in Out of the Shadows, the programme of my vocal music that we originally premiered in February 2023. The church's acoustic proved ideal for vocal music, and the audience, which mixed festival regulars with visitors including some from the Estonian LGBTQ community, gave the music a really warm reception.

Robert Hugill: Out of the Shadows - Nigel Foster, Ben Vonberg-Clark, Jonathan Eyers
Glasperlenspiel Festival at St John's Church, Tartu

We were lucky enough to be able to catch the festival's opening concert when a packed house heard veteran Estonian-born conductor Neeme Järvi conducting the Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta in a programme of Haydn, Mozart and Albinoni including Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major with Estonian violinist Hans Christian Aavik. The evening might easily have been called youth and experience, the soloist is 26 and Maestro Järvi is 87. On this showing, Järvi's music making is as vital as ever and he seemed to have a warmly responsive relationship with the orchestra and with the soloist.

Things began with Haydn's Serenade for Strings, Op.3 No. 5 which showcased the sinfonietta's light and delicate sound, almost aetherial at times, full of elegance and style with the acoustic lending the sound a lovely clarity. In the violin concerto, Hans Christian Aavik played with lithe elegance and a graceful clarity of sound. He created a fine sense of long-breathed line and seemed to have responsively enjoyable relationship with Järvi, the pair's sheer enjoyment of the music conveying itself in the performance. After the interval, Albinoni's Adagio in G, where the sound quality had an almost suave elegance to it. We ended with Mozart's Symphony No. 29, with sprightly vivacity in the first movement, graceful transparency in the second and ending with fast finale that was full of engaging energy. There was an encore, Boccherini's Minuet.

Next year's festival runs from 10 to 15 July 2025, and will feature the Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta, the European Union Baroque Orchestra, Weiner Kammersymphonie and Kremerata Baltic, a return from Hans Christian Aavik with his piano trio, plus Estonian composer Märt-Matis Lill.