Correspondent in Leigo
The following story was submitted by Kristiina Mulari
of Pärnu, Estonia.
Kristiina attended this year’s Leigo Lake Music Festival in Estonia,
driving south from Pärnu, Estonia’s summer capital on the Baltic Sea, to its
winter capital Otepää, in the hill country in the South. Leigo Lakes and Leigo Lake Music were created by Tõnu Tamm, a retired
biologist and documentary film maker, who found the perfect environment for his
love of music and nature among the trees and lakes near Otepää. (See “No Place Like Leigo” in “Features”
on this site.) While at Leigo, Kristiina and Juhan Mulari attended two
days of concerts performed on barges on the lake, climaxing with Beethoven’s
Ninth Symphony and “Wellington’s Victory” with fire effects on the
shore. Conducting the Estonian National
Youth Symphony Orchestra was Neeme Järvi, who led a master course for young
conductors August 9-15 at Leigo. All photos are by Kristiina Mulari.
After
some mistakes we found the right way and the right place, but I must say it was
not easy for me, even though I am a local, to find it. Leigo is in the middle of a forest – or the
middle of nowhere -- and anyone who doesn’t know the road is not going to find
the way there as it is now. Maybe this is good
in a way, as it makes the place more mysterious.
The first day there
were probably around 3,000 people there.
One of the security men told us that because the first day was light music
and it was Friday, that may have affected the audience. And, of course, the weather is everything
here. All outdoor activities depend upon
the weather, and the weather was not on our side on the 14th.
The
first group was called Jääär (Estonian acoustic band) with friends. There was a different soloist in the rain,
but the people enjoyed the music anyway. It was on the small stage in the small
lake. After Jääär, Maarja (Estonian
singer) performed on the big stage with orchestra, but again it was under
really heavy rain. The concert was delayed
more than 45 minutes because the orchestra did not arrive in time. Their bus had broken down, or something like
that.
However, when it
started it was quite a good concert, as Maarja is a beloved singer in Estonia. She sang love songs that are very dear to Estonian
audiences, so it couldn’t go wrong even if the weather was bad. After Maarja’s
concert, I noticed many people leaving.
It had been a long day, the concert was delayed and it had been raining
heavily since the first concert began. After Maarja’s concert on the big stage, they
asked people to move to the small stage to look and listen to some kind of cell
phone concert, but people who had been been sitting in the rain and listening to
Maarja didn’t want to move for a short time and then come back to see
and listen to the Pink Floyd tribute. People divided into
three parts. One moved to look at the
cell phone performance, the second stayed at the big stage to wait for the next
concert and the third part, including us, left Leigo for the day.
When we reached our car in the parking spot there, we were quite tired, frozen and wet. I thanked God we had a car. Otherwise, I have no idea how we would
have been able to leave. There was
definitely no taxi there to help us in middle of nowhere in the darkness ,surrounded by hundreds of people. Regardless, we
managed to leave the site in our car, but we saw many cars that were stuck and
needed a tractor to help them get out, since the ground was so wet and cars
were not able to get on the road.
I was quite happy
when I woke up on the 15th (Saturday) in the hotel in Otepää and saw the
sun shining outside. That was the chief day for me in Leigo, as it was the classic
(classical music) day, so we were quite happy and positive, and things started nicely. Since the first Leigo concert started at
17.00 (5 p.m.), we had lots of free time during the day, and we explored in and
around Otepää. We visited tourist spots
in Otepää and then drove out a bit and looked at the landscape, etc.
We found a very nice castle 7 km outside
Otepää called Cantervilla Castle (www.cantervilla.ee). We really enjoyed our time there to look
inside and outside the castle. There was
a very welcoming staff to show us the castle. Later, we had coffee and cake
there, and a person told us that Friday’s Leigo artists had also eaten there. After visiting the
castle, we went to Leigo. We got there
on time, but we still didn’t see any sign showing the way to Leigo. However, we already knew the way.
The first concert with
Neeme Järvi’s conducting students started on time at 17.00 on the small stage.* Things were totally different on Saturday at Leigo,
as the sun was shining.
All the people
were feeling very comfortable on the grass and really enjoyed the young conductors
and the orchestra.
Before the concert,
Neeme Järvi thanked the students and the orchestra. He said he hoped they had
learned something during the week and asked them to come back. Also on the stage was Mr. Tamm (Tõnu Tamm, the man who owns Leigo Farm and runs the festival). He thanked Neeme Järvi for coming back to Leigo
and for holding his master class for the first time in Leigo.
The concert went very well and afterwards Neeme
conducted a piece with the orchestra as a way of thanking his students and
asking them to come back again.
After the concert came Annely
Peebo (Estonian mezzo-soprano) on the same stage. It went
quite well also, as Estonians love that opera singer. She is living and working in
Vienna right now.
After that, everyone moved to the big stage to listen to the orchestra, Neeme Järvi and Beethoven’s “Ode
to Joy.” It was wonderful, since the music
was perfect and the weather was fantastic.
With the audience and the choirs, it was one big great performance.
The whole lake had candles floating on it and
small boats sailed in the lake during the Beethoven. Everything -- the music, the landscape, the candles
and the boats -- made it so memorable.
Everyone
was thinking, WOW, that was something!
I didn’t
think that “Wellington’s Victory” could top that, but it did. It came after Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” and a
30-minute break. They asked people to
move again to look and listen to a cell phone performance. But as I said, the weather was great and after
such a concert and what Neeme gave with the Beethoven, no one felt like moving
to the other area and stayed in the same place to wait for “Wellington’s Victory."
The last concert
started on time and it was really something, with great music
and singers from different choirs and lots of candles and fireworks. It looked like a real battle.
The entire audience enjoyed it, as it was the
last concert, and Neeme did great work with the bonfires and fireworks accompanying
the music to make it a really great performance.
They used the opposite side of the lake to
make a great big fireplace, with different figures, bonfires, etc.
The concert ended before
midnight with great emotion, and everyone left Leigo very happy. The classic
day was great and the weather was on our side.
I noticed that there were many more people there that day. I don’t know if it was because of the
weather or because of the music or because it was the weekend and a day off,
but the day was memorable for certain!
*Neeme Järvi's annual Summer Academy for young conductors was held August 9-15 at Leigo and Otepää. This year's class included Atvars Lakstigala (Latvia), Hans Petter Maehle (Norway), James Lowe (Great Britain), Jean Philippe Dambreville (France), Julia Tai (Taiwan), Mikk Murdvee (Estonia), Kaspar Mänd (Estonia), Naoki Takuoka (Japan), Sameer Patel (USA), Yuri Kashimoto (Japan), Channing Yu (USA), William Richard McKay (USA), Evgeny Khokhlov (Russia) and Aigars Meri (Latvia). For information, see www.jarviacademy.ee
.
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