MAESTRO CONCERT SERIES • ERSO Concert Series 2026/2027

MAESTRO CONCERT SERIES 

Great conductors in your concert hall 

Supported by Nordaid Vitamins

These concert programmes serve as a dedication by the maestros to the successive principal conductors of ERSO: Olav Roots, Roman Matsov, Neeme Järvi, Peeter Lilje, and Nikolai Aleksejev.

The ERSO anniversary season opens with Heino Eller’s timeless symphonic poem Dawn, conducted by the orchestra’s Chief Conductor Olari Elts. In Schumann’s fantasy-like Piano Concerto, the soloist is South Korean pianist Yekwon Sunwoo, whose global career was launched by a spectacular victory at the Van Cliburn Competition in 2017. The concert concludes with Ludwig van Beethoven’s brilliant Fifth Symphony, featuring the iconic “Fate knocking at the door” motif known to every music lover.

“Mozart’s music is the great love of my life” says pianist Kalle Randalu. He celebrates his upcoming 70th birthday with his most significant artistic partners –  Maestro Neeme Järvi and ERSO. The program includes the Rondo in D major and the joyful Piano Concerto in F major, works that Randalu has also recorded with ERSO and Järvi. Additionally, the audience will hear the picturesque symphony In Autumn by German composer Joachim Raff.

In February, conducted by Chief Conductor Olari Elts, the orchestra performs Gustav Mahler’s grandiose and pantheistic Third Symphony, which, according to the author, reflects the harmony of the universe. While influenced by the philosophies of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, the direct impulse for the work was a poetic imagery of creation from the poem Genesis by the composer’s friend, Siegfried Lipiner. Mahler employs a massive orchestra, boys' and women's choirs, an alto soloist, and off-stage instruments to achieve a truly spatial sound.

Maestro Arvo Volmer, ERSO’s Chief Conductor in the 1990s, has programmed a work by his predecessor, another long-time Chief Conductor Olav Roots: Variations and Passacaglia on a Theme by Artur Kapp. Featuring the acclaimed violinist Benjamin Schmid as soloist, the program includes Niccolò Paganini’s virtuosic Violin Concerto No. 1. The second half of the evening is dedicated to Dmitri Shostakovich’s First Symphony from his youth, a work that blends vibrant, grotesque themes with intense lyricism and drama.

I: 100th SEASON OPENING CONCERT. BEETHOVEN’S FIFTH

Friday, 11 September 2026 at 6 p.m. (pre-concert) and at 7 p.m. at the Estonia Concert Hall

Heino Eller
Dawn

Robert Schumann
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54

Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67

YEKWON SUNWOO piano, ERSO, conductor OLARI ELTS

II: JÄRVI AND RANDALU

Kalle Randalu 70 

Friday, 9 October 2026 at 6 p.m. (pre-concert) and at 7 p.m. at the Estonia Concert Hall

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Rondo in D major, K. 382

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Concerto in F major, KV 459

Joachim Raff
Symphony No. 10 In Autumn

KALLE RANDALU piano, ERSO, conductor NEEME JÄRVI

III: ELTS AND MAHLER’S THIRD

Friday, 5 February 2027 at 6 p.m. (pre-concert) and at 7 p.m. at the Estonia Concert Hall

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 3 D minor

SANDRA LAAGUS soprano, EAMT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, ERSO, conductor OLARI ELTS

IV: VOLMER AND SHOSTAKOVICH

Friday, 12 March 2027 at 6 p.m. (pre-concert) and at 7 p.m. at the Estonia Concert Hall

Olav Roots
Variations and Passacaglia on a Theme by A. Kapp

Niccolò Paganini
Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor, Op. 7

Dmitri Shostakovich
Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 10

BENJAMIN SCHMID violin, ERSO, conductor ARVO VOLMER

CONCERT SERIES PRICES: 

Category I tickets: €180 / €150*

Category II tickets: €135 / €105*
Category III tickets: €114 / €84*
Category IV tickets: €75 / €45*

A concert series ticket includes admission to four concerts. 

*Discounted prices apply to students, university students, and pensioners upon presentation of a valid ID at the ticket check.

Some Category IV tickets may be for seats with limited visibility. 

BY PURCHASING THE CONCERT SERIES, YOU SAVE 25% in each price category — that’s 1 concert ticket for free!