Violin Concerto No. 3 'Kõnelused Tundmatuga' (2020)
(Conversations with the Unknown)

This title "Kõnelused Tundmatuga" / "Conversations with the Unknown" refers to different possible conversations with an ‘other self:’ an inner voice (conscience), divinity (in the most abstract meaning), or with someone you do not know but wish to have as a close friend. The conversation is always a dialogue with a certain projection of imagination which is always changing and evolving. The violin soloist is like an individual in the middle of a jungle of ideas, values and so on, trying to bring light and better understanding to one’s journey through the life, seeking answers for the most existential questions.

My orchestral music always uses polyphonic textures consisting of several layers and individual lines, the density of which gradually grows or falls away. This general approach is present also in this concerto. The three movements of the concerto are performed attacca (slow – fast – slow). However, there is always a feeling of different tempi sounding simultaneously in different layers. The first movement ends with a short cadenza which leads into a groovy middle movement. After the huge orchestral culmination, we enter into a different sound world: this is the door to the third movement, more mysterious and atmospheric, sometimes sombre and opaque. The solo violin plays against constantly-shifting acoustic conditions. It is surrounded by ‘overpainted’ musical spaces. At the very end we come to a different light - perhaps this is the moment of full understanding of the qualities that the “Unknown” always tried to gently lead us to.

Erkki-Sven Tüür