Mozart with a touch of jazz

Text Mark Taylor
Photo Rene Jakobson

On April 18, the concert series “Aavik in Salzburg” will continue at Mustpeade Maja in Tallinn’s old town. At the concert, a new jazz and Mozart-inspired composition by Kristjan Randalu will be premiered.

Composer Kristjan Randalu invited the Estonian violin virtuosso Hans Christian Aavik to perform the new piece at the “Aavik in Salzburg” series. According to Aavik, he has always been fascinated by jazz, and after listening to Randalu’s arrangement, he became interested in how jazz-flavoured Mozart would sound on a violin.

“Aavik’s bright timbre and playing that forgets technical boundaries was fresh to my ears. At the same time, the idea connected with one of my ongoing interests: how to find material from the older repertoire that creates a new impulse with its melodic, harmonic or rhythmic elements. I have been attracted to a large part of opera music, while the aesthetics of opera singing is somewhat foreign to me in today’s context. So the question arose, could one aria also function as an instrumental piece? The premiere gives the answer, said the composer,” shared Randalu.

The new work is entitled Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / Kristjan Randalu O wie will ich triumphieren (1782/2024) and it will be performed by Hans Christian Aavik and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra on April 18 at Mustpeade Maja in Tallinn’s old town. In addition, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4 and Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 (the Jupiter Symphony), will be performed by the same musicians at the concert.

To learn more about this and similar topics
Classical Music Concert Hans Christian Aavik Jazz Music Live Music Mustpeade Maja Old town Tallinn