Let the Antarctic feeling enter into your musical experience

  • 2012-05-02
  • By Sam Logger

COLD AS ICE: This concerto has as its inspiration the South Pole.

TALLINN - There is not a single day when we cannot marvel at the beauty of our planet Earth. Every corner of it seems to be complete, although we might not think so. Everything about it is unique. Thus, there is no wonder that we are used to hearing the music which is exclusively dedicated to a certain place on the planet. This time the lucky lot is raffled by the Antarctic continent, as top musicians gather together to perform their vision of the continent, in the “Antarctic Concerto,” which will take place on May 10 at Nokia Concert Hall in Tallinn.

It can be said that the concert is going to be handled by four creative individuals who all have their special impact on the overall picture. “I have no data on anyone ever creating a major work on the theme of the Antarctic, which is why it is a great challenge for me as a composer,” the author of the composition Peeter Vahi, whose trip to the White Continent has served as an inspiration to write such work, says; he also outlines the mastery of the conductor of Tallinn Sinfonietta Andres Mustonen, the virtuosity of guitarist Remi Boucher and video projections created by Aivo Spitsonok.

Remi Boucher is possibly the most interesting attachment to the Antarctic concerto. Born in 1964 in Canada, he has become one of the most successful guitar players in today’s music. “Remi Boucher has fire, passion, zest and poetry and he has them in spades. There is hope for the guitar when it is played like this,” is what International Guitar Magazine writes about the artist, and these words only emphasize his effort, which has led him on this musical journey. Travelling around the globe, winning many international awards and playing with major symphonic orchestras, Boucher has established his sound and given extra value to his compositions.

There is a popular phrase which states that music is the language that everybody understands. Still, it is also a method which lets people talk about things which seem logical, yet rarely expressed, with the help of sound. This concert is one of these peculiar moments when sound is ready to bring the imagination further than the mind. How can Antarctica be portrayed through music? This is definitely the most important question to be answered. Musicians will try to do that as they face a serious task – to bring life to the continent, which is probably seen as empty and inanimate and which is usually associated with snow and cold.

However, there are other aspects of this continent, and they guarantee the processes of nature in the world. Antarctica is beyond the place where nothing grows, and now there is a chance to see this Antarctic completeness through the eyes, and ears of artists. So what can the audience expect? The confirmation or the denial of the subjective opinion about the White Continent! The best thing about music has always been the fact that it lets the listener choose how it speaks to him, as the emotions are really the ones which cannot be interfered with by anything. Hence this concerto will carry the listener over Antarctica’s surface with a single obligation – to introduce with the depth of it. It is the listener’s decision whether to take this concert as a turning point in the perception of the world.

Yet, there is no doubt that the concert will offer the edge, power, vividness and passion of Antarctica, making it the most exciting place on the planet. There is a good possibility to learn from somebody who has been to the continent (like Peeter Vahi) and has seen it, so why not use it? Who knows when there will be the next time when Antarctica is brought directly to you?


The ticket information can be found on www.piletilevi.ee.