Artistic Director Mihhail Gerts
The TubIN Festival introduces the work of Estonia’s greatest symphonist Eduard Tubin and his contemporary composers, reflecting on the events and themes associated with them. The festival takes place in Tartu. Welcome to the TubIN festival!
IV Festival Tubin
3–6 October 2024
Young innovative masters Beethoven and Tubin
The main theme of the fourth TubIN festival is courage – the basis of survival art. It takes courage to go public with ones innovative first symphony, as both Beethoven and Tubin did. Every post-Beethoven composer needs courage to break free from the canons and expectations when writing his ninth symphony or first violin concerto. It takes a great deal of courage to undertake a dangerous escape: this year marks the 80th anniversary of the mass escape of Estonians, which also brought Eduard Tubin to Sweden.
Tubin’s letters from the refugee camp to his wife reveal gentle and caring nature of the composer, his courage to face the unknown, to enter a new world, while being patient and curious, and offering support to his loved ones with positive and realistic outlook on life. These are the qualities that resonate in the music of this year’s programme. During his lifetime, Eduard Tubin was very attentive to nature and the world around him. This is a trait that links him to composer Erkki-Sven Tüür whose “Solastalgia” marks a motif of care for the environment at the closing concert of the festival.
