Estonian National Symphony Orchestra

The Eesti Riiklik Sümfooniaorkester ( Estonian State Symphony Orchestra, ERSO ) is the leading symphony orchestras in Estonia. It has its headquarters in the opera house and concert hall in Tallinn, Estonia.

ERSO was founded as the Radio Orchestra of the Estonian national broadcasting and became effective on December 18, 1926 for the first time on. 1939 included the Raadio - Ringhäälingu Sümfooniaorkester ( "Radio broadcasting symphony orchestra" ) is already 39 orchestra musicians, 1956, the number grew to 90.

In the 1950s, the ERSO one of the first symphony orchestra in the Soviet Union, the works of the so-called modernists was (including Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Carl Orff ) Detailed, who had been considered during the period of Stalinism as frowned upon. The orchestra put a further emphasis on Estonian composer Eduard Tubin like, Arvo Pärt, Lepo Sumera and Erkki -Sven Tüür. 1975 was the orchestra under its chief conductor Neeme Järvi its present name.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the restoration of Estonian independence in 1991, most orchestral musicians left the ERSO to find employments in the West. As of 1993, the ERSO was rebuilt under the direction of conductor Arvo Volmer, most notably the strings in the opinion of the critic Friederike Westerhaus initially due to the restricted budgets were considered as " mediocre ". Nevertheless, the musicians of the ERSO received in 2004 for a recording with cantatas by Jean Sibelius, Paavo Järvi, the Grammy Award.

Today, the ERSO has about 100 musicians and dealt 60-65 concerts a year. Chief conductor from 2001 was the Russian Nikolai Alekseev. Since September 2010 Neeme Järvi, despite resignation in November 2010 due to lack of subsidies, re- artistic director of the orchestra.

Known guest conductors in the history of ERSO include Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Kurt Masur, Leif Segerstam, Paavo Jarvi, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Sanderling and Igor Stravinsky.

Chief Conductor

  • Olav Roots (1939-1944)
  • Paul Karp (1944-1950)
  • Roman Matsov (1950-1963)
  • Neeme Järvi (1963-1979)
  • Peeter Lilje (1980-1990)
  • Leo Krämer (1991-1993)
  • Arvo Volmer (1993-2001)
  • Nikolai Alekseev (2001-2010)
  • Neeme Järvi ( since September 2010)
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