Beautiful experience of chamber music
ESTONIAN NATIONAL OPERA CHAMBER CONCERTS
The chamber concert series “Musical Journeys” invites audiences on a sonic journey through different countries, moods, and seasons. Across the series’ five concerts, operatic voices, chamber ensembles, and distinguished instrumentalists come together to bring listeners works by Rossini, Bellini, Vaughan-Williams, Holst, Beethoven, and Mozart, as well as by Estonian composers Oja, Mägi, and Eller. The programme moves between Alpine lyricism, the longing of wandering roads, the sensitive poetry of winter nights, the passionate colours of the Mediterranean, and the freshness and awakening of spring. “Musical Journeys” offers audiences a diverse and vividly evocative chamber music experience, where each evening opens up a new place, emotion, and sound world.
Curator of the chamber concerts series is Lauri Sirp.
Doors to the Chamber Hall open at 6 PM, with the café ready to welcome you.
ALPINE SERENADE
On October 22, 2026 in the Chamber Hall of the Estonia National Opera
Performers: Kristel Pärtna (soprano), Helen Lokuta (mezzo-soprano), Heldur Harry Põlda (tenor), Raiko Raalik (bass), Edmunds Altmanis (clarinet), Tarmo Eespere (piano)
The chamber concert “Alpine Serenade” takes the listener into the enchanting world of Italian music, where brilliance, sensitivity, and refined chamber expression meet. Gioachino Rossini’s song cycle “Serate musicali” (“Musical Evenings”, 1835) offers elegant and life-affirming miniatures in which wit is interwoven with the cantabile quality characteristic of bel canto. Songs by Vincenzo Bellini add a romantic breath to the programme, highlighting the lyrical beauty and deep emotional tone of his music. Nino Rota’s Clarinet Sonata (1945), by contrast, opens up a more colourful and playful musical language, combining classical expression with the wit and charm of the twentieth century.
WANDERERS UNDER THE STARRY SKY
On November 19, 2026 in the Chamber Hall of the Estonia National Opera
Performers: Tamar Nugis (baritone), Jaan Ots (piano)
This concert invites the listener on a journey through longing, movement, and introspective moods. Ralph Vaughan-Williams’s song cycle “Songs of Travel” (1904) opens up the wanderer’s inner world, where the yearning for freedom, solitude, and the poetry of being on the road come together. The work’s songful and deeply human expression gives the programme a reflective and romantic foundation. Gustav Holst’s Wind Quintet, Op. 14 (1903), adds freshness, lightness, and chamber brilliance to the evening, bringing out the rich colours of wind instruments. In this way, a multifaceted whole emerges, in which the road of wandering becomes at once an inner quest and a musical voyage of discovery.
WINTER NIGHT
February 18, 2027 in the Chamber Hall of the Estonia National Opera
Performers: Kadri Raalik (soprano), Karis Trass (mezzo-soprano), Kristina Kriit (violin), Kristjan Saar (cello), Jaanika Rand-Sirp (piano)
The concert “Winter Night” creates an atmosphere in which silence, sensitivity, and Nordic lyricism intertwine. Songs by Eduard Oja and Ester Mägi reveal to the listener fragile moods, inner warmth, and profound emotional subtlety. Heino Eller’s “Ten Lyric Pieces” (1942–1943) add dreamlike radiance to the programme and paint the nuanced beauty of winter nature in music. The distinctive sound world of these Estonian composers highlights the intimate connection between word and music, creating a reflective and poetic whole.
CHANSON AND CANCIÓN
On March 25, 2027 in the Chamber Hall of the Estonian National Opera
Performers: Elena Brazhnyk (soprano), Heldur Harry Põlda (tenor), Csaba Zoltan Marjan (percussion instruments), Tiit Joamets (percussion instruments), Ave Wagner (piano)
The concert brings the listener the brightness, passion, and richly shaded beauty of southern music. In the works of Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924), Henri Duparc (1848–1933), and Claude Debussy (1862–1918), one encounters the refinement characteristic of French music, impressionistic luminosity, and expressive sensitivity. The music of Pablo Sorozábal (1897–1988) and Agustín Lara (1897–1970) adds Spanish temperament, rhythmic vitality, and Mediterranean warmth to the programme. In this concert, elegance, melancholy, and joy in life are interwoven, creating a rich and colourful musical whole. “Chanson and Canción” invites the audience on a journey into a sun-filled sound world, where each work carries within it the breath of the South.
SPRING
On April 29, 2027 in the Chamber Hall of the Estonia National Opera
Performers: Sigrid Kuulmann (violin), Elisabeth Härmand (violin), Toomas Nestor (viola), Andreas Lend (cello)
The concert “Spring” brings together the many faces of spring – the awakening of nature, brightness, movement, and joy of life. Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 5 (“Spring Sonata”), Op. 24 (1801), is filled with spaciousness, lyricism, and fresh vitality. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s String Quartet No. 14 (“Spring”), K. 387 (1782), brings classical clarity, elegance, and brilliant ensemble playing to the programme. Ástor Piazzolla’s spring piece “Primavera porteña” (1969) adds passionate rhythm, tango energy, and southern colour to the evening. Thus emerges a varied and vibrant whole, in which spring reveals itself sometimes as gently lyrical, sometimes as vigorously pulsating and full of life force.