On February 28, “Sketches of Thule” for saxophone quartet and organ will be premiered in Amsterdam Orgelpark. New piece was commissioned and will be performed by Amstel Quartet and organist Pieter van Dijk. The concert programme includes also arrangements of works by César Franck, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and Giovanni Gabrieli and organ music by Franck and Max Reger. The same programme will be presented in Groningen on April 27.
Tõnu Kõrvits’s last years works have drawn attention in Estonia and elsewhere in the world. Tõnu Kõrvits was awarded The Heino Eller Music Prize in 2001, the Young Artist Prize by the Board of the President’s Cultural Foundation in 2002 and the Annual Prize of the Endowment for Music of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia in 2004. Kõrvits’ symphonic work “Eldorado” won the Third Prize at the International Lepo Sumera Composition Contest for Young Composers in Tallinn in 2003. His works have presented Estonia in the International Rostrum for Composers at two times (1994, 2003). In 2007, Kõrvits had eight premieres, “Sketches of Thule” is composer’s third this year.
Amstel Quartet has been active almost a decade. With that time they have gained an international reputation in the world of chamber music. The original repertoire of the Amstel Quartet varies from the Bach’s Second Cello Suite in D to Michael Nyman’s film music. Ensemble has the technical confidence to tackle the most difficult piece from Iannis Xenakis. They are collaborating also with artists from other disciplines – such as dance, musical theatre, mime and cinema. Quartet has won several chamber music competitions in homeland and abroad and released 4 albums. On CD “Baltica” (2005) the quartet has recorded Tõnu Kõrvits’s “The Assingation”.
Edited by Mariliis Valkonen