Sikorski
‘On Christmas Eve 2024, I visited the church in Karula, southern Estonia, which my family and I, along with local pastors and Finnish friends, had helped to rebuild after the collapse of the Soviet Union. There I met the pianist and teacher Olesja Voronjuk, who lives on the island of Hiiumaa in northwestern Estonia. She asked me to write a compulsory piece for the Rudolf Tobias Piano Competition for students, which takes place in Käina on Hiiumaa. Käina is the birthplace of Rudolf Tobias (1873–1918), who is of great importance to us Estonians: he is the one who began the tradition of classical Estonian music, and Tobias later lived in Berlin for many years and worked at the Academy of Music. ‘I was delighted by this request. It is so important that students begin engaging with contemporary music at an early age, especially on the piano, an instrument on which everything seems to have already been said. Night Picture with Java Ferns continues my series of night pictures for various ensembles.’
Almost everyone has seen Java ferns before. Aquariums are often planted with them. They are amphibians that, with their long, delicate leaves, can live both underwater and in the air. The piece demands colorful playing in the delicate realm of dynamics. It is less about power than about nuance. The musical material assumes different states of matter, from chords to arabesques. Wave-like movements can certainly be understood figuratively. There are toccata-like passages in the rapid interlogging of the hands, but sonically they are not meant to be toccata-like, i.e., ‘striking,’ but rather ‘floating’ - if you will: a pianistic amphibian technique. (Jüri Reinvere)