Olari Elts is Estonian

(first published in The Cincinnati Post Feb. 24, 2005)

Olari Elts will be away from his country on Estonian Independence Day (today), but no Estonian is ever away entirely.

"Never," he said.

"It’s the mentality of a small country. If we are not thinking about those things, who is? Wherever I am, my brain vibrations go through Estonia. I think always through Estonia."

Elts, 33, countryman of Cincinnati Symphony music director Paavo Järvi and one of Europe’s most promising young conductors, will make his U.S. debut on CSO concerts this week.

He brings a thought-provoking program with him. Counterbalancing Shostakovich’s sardonic Ninth Symphony and the funereal "Black Gondola" by Liszt (as orchestrated by John Adams) will be ballet music from Mozart’s "Idomeneo" and Ravel’s jazzy Piano Concerto in G. Guest artist is noted Finnish pianist Olli Mustonen in his CSO debut.

Elts spoke from Riga, where he is music director of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. "Paavo has told me a lot about Cincinnati. I am thrilled to meet this marvelous orchestra."

Elts and Järvi shared the same podium in Tallinn last summer, when both conducted at Estonia’s famous Song Festival before a crowd estimated at 100,000 people. Focus of Estonia’s "Singing Revolution," the festival is a national event (Estonia re-gained its freedom after 50 years of Soviet occupation in 1991). "For us as Estonians, one of the top moments is if you can conduct in the song festival," he said.

A native of Tallinn, Elts won first prize in the Second International Sibelius Competition in Helsinki in 2000. The event launched his international career.

"Before that I had mainly done chamber music with my ensemble. After that, it changed completely."

Elts is founder/artistic director of the contemporary music ensemble Nüüd (Estonian for "new"). Founded in 1993, the 13-member ensemble is similar to the New York-based Absolute Ensemble led by Paavo Järvi’s younger brother Kristjan, but with a more purely classical focus.

The Nüüd Ensemble performs annually at Estonia’s new music festival and in venues all over Europe. Their four recordings (to date) include works by Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür, whose music Järvi has performed with the CSO at Music Hall and on tour.

Straw in the wind? Earlier this month, Elts led the world premiere of Tüür’s Symphony No. 5 in Stuttgart, a work for symphony orchestra, big band and electric guitar (Elts led the Latvian premiere Feb. 18). Guitarist Adrian Belew, a Northern Kentucky native, has been in contact with Tüür about the work, the Post’s Rick Bird reported last week.

"That’s definitely a piece the orchestra (CSO) should play. It suits American orchestras very well," said Elts.

The entire program in Riga was for symphony orchestra and big band, he said. In addition to the Tüür, it included German composer Rolf Liebermann’s 1954 Concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra and Duke Ellington’s "Night Creature."

The son of a theater director and dance teacher, Elts majored in choral conducting at the Estonian Academy of Music. Even then he had his sights set on orchestral conducting.

"It wasn’t possible in Estonia officially to study orchestra conducting, and I thought the closest thing I can get is choral conducting. But I took it very seriously. I had my own choir and we won some amateur choir competitions."

After Estonian re-independence – Feb. 24 celebrates Estonia’s first independence, when it threw off two centuries of czarist rule in 1918 – Elts went to Vienna to study conducting. "Most Estonian conductors studied in Moscow or St. Petersburg (including Järvi’s father Neeme Järvi)."

There were a lot of Finnish connections in Vienna, he said, including connections to Finland’s great conducting teacher Jorma Panula. Panula became Elts’ mentor and private teacher.

Elts also studied with Neeme Järvi at Järvi’s summer conducting academy in Pärnu, Estonia. "I just adored the Russian school. That was one of the reasons I went to Neeme’s master class. I think he has the best technique in the world."

Elts remembers the years of silence when the Järvi name was not spoken in Estonia. One of the most famous conductors in the Soviet Union, Neeme Järvi emigrated to the U.S. in 1980 to escape official persecution (Paavo was 17 at the time). He had come under censure for programming music unacceptable to the Communist regime, such as Estonian Arvo Pärt’s "Credo," a work containing text from the bible.

"If you look at the official press at the time, they just disappeared," said Elts. "They even took all (Neeme’s) recordings from the radio. If somebody played on the radio music he was conducting, then it just wasn’t allowed to say who was conducting. You cannot imagine how big was his comeback years later."

Estonia has opened up to the world in a big way since re-independence, said Elts. "Estonians are very open-minded and very much interested in things that are quite innovative (it is one of the most "wired" countries in the world, for instance). There is a passion to do a lot - to develop Estonia. They’re still in a really fast tempo. For somebody to come back now, you see how much it’s changed. It changes almost too fast."

Elts’ world is changing, too. Much in demand, he conducts all over Europe and increasingly, in Asia. A popular guest conductor in Australia, he will make a big Pacific tour next season, he said.

His wife ("not officially married," he said) and son Rasmus, 5, sometimes travel with him, "but not as much as I want.

"They have a father calendar and if I’m away, they cross every evening until I’m back."

Guest conductor Olari Elts leads the CSO in music by Liszt/Adams, Shostakovich, Ravel and Mozart at 11 a.m. Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday at Music Hall. Guest artist is pianist Olli Mustonen. Tickets and information: (513) 381-3300.