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24.04.2009: Loodame et kohtume jälle

Loodame et kohtume jälle

Tere!

We had a very nice and sunny mini-tour in Estonia last weekend. Our long-awaited familiarization with Estonia and Estonians happened in the form of four concerts all around the country; in Tartu, Pärnu, Jõhvi and Tallinn. The concert promoters had done a very good job organizing everything, so we could just concentrate on the essentials such as enjoying our job and broadening out our world picture.

We were delighted that so many people found their way to the concerts and that our sister nation welcomed us so warmly! We had learnt one very well-known Estonian song, Ei saa mitte vaiki olla, and singing that in the language of our audience was a highlight in every concert. The simple and beautiful composition by Miina Härma and the touching poem of Anna Haava sent a cold shiver down the backs of us singers. By the way, both of the afore-mentioned women of distinction in the Estonian culture were contemporaries of Jean Sibelius, Finland's national composer.

The old university town of Tartu was bathed in sunshine and looked charming in the eyes of someone like myself who admires old-fashioned architecture and loves ancient towns. In the windy town of Pärnu we didn't have a chance to see a lot and unfortunaltely missed the beach area completely. Since we were most of the time accommodated in Tallinn, the visit to Jõhvi was also very brief. On the way there we did spot some great sea views to the Gulf of Finland, and I managed to see some storks in their nests for the first time! The Tallinn concert crowned the whole tour – the Estonia Hall was practically sold-out, and the people were very enthusiastic. What a climax!

On this tour we were exceptionally unanimous in the good quality of our concerts, even our over-straightforward and critical sound engineer and manager. ;-) You see, surprisingly often you have a very subjective view on wheather a concert was musically successful or not. All the others might rave over how great it was, while you can't fully go along with their joy because "this and that didn't go quite as well as I wanted it to". Sometimes it has happened that when listening to a concert recording afterwards you can't tell anymore where the mistake was in the first place. Well, better that way...

The whole tour was a really good experience for us, and we wish to find ourselves in our southern neighbouring country soon again. Loodame et kohtume jälle!

Virpi