NAPOLEON IN MUSIC

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir

Estonian State Symphony Orchestra

Conductor OLARI ELTS

Olari Elts is mostly known in Estonia as the founder and conductor of NYYD Ensemble, now he is working as an artistic adviser of Orchestre de Bretagne and the principal guest conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Elts has always been providing exciting and carefully designed concert programmes, his musical interpretations have been very individual and loaded with fresh innovative ideas, even in case of the traditional repertoire.

Under the title Napoleon in Music he has been focusing on two great masterpieces of music, which were created one after another in five-year intervals and were inspired by Napoleon Bonaparte. Ludwig van Beethoven was fascinated by the ideas of the Great French Revolution and initially dedicated his Symphony No 3 to Napoleon, but later on he became disappointed with him and he renamed his work as the Heroic Symphony to glorify the memory of the great man.
However, Haydn created his Mass to sympathize with Austria as the defeated country, and glorify the memory of the greatest English naval commander, Admiral Horatio Nelson, who destroyed Napoleon's fleet.