Tamsin Waley-Cohen and renowned percussionist Colin Currie have recently performed the world premiere of Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Memoirs for Violin, Percussion and String Orchestra at the Two Moors Festival with the United Strings of Europe.Tüür is one of the most sought-after composers of today, known for the rhythmic grooves and tonal beauty of his works, and has been commissioned by orchestras and soloists all over the world. This piece was commissioned by the Festival to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
In the three movements of this piece, Tüür explores how memories can mislead us while thinking about the past. The first movement “Shimmer” evokes how memories seem wrapped in a shimmering, idealised light—but when we try to focus on the details, they dissolve. This is further developed in the second movement “Misty Mirrors”, to give a sense of searching and shifting, where slow harmonic developments give rise to contrasting chords in the highest and lowest registers. The third movement, “Dancing Patterns”, leads somewhere wholly unexpected where “the spirals of memory have carried us into unfamiliar waters, where long-lost images and forgotten scents suddenly rise to the surface from the depths of oblivion”, as Tüür describes the development.
More information on the work can be found here:
www.wisemusicclassical.com/work/81051/Memoirs–Erkki-Sven-T%C3%BC%C3%BCr
www.wisemusicclassical.com/work/81051/Memoirs–Erkki-Sven-T%C3%BC%C3%BCr
The work has also been the focus of a feature article and interview on ERR News in Estonia:
“The Two Moors Festival collaboration between Tüür, Currie and Waley-Cohen is more than simply a meeting of musical minds. Supported by the Estonian Cultural Attaché to the U.K., it also represents a genuine cultural connection between distinguished representatives of the two countries.”
Read the full article here:
news.err.ee/1609846551/feature-from-estonia-to-exmoor-a-musical-communion-in-rural-southwest-england
Photos: Neda Navaee