PERFORMANCE
HIROSHIMA-NAGASAKI

SYNOPSIS

Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta,

voice effects Iris Oja and Tarmo Johannes,

conductor Andrus Kallastu,

artistic producer Ülo Vihma,

visual desing by Hille Karm and Külli Mariste
Maltis, Hirsch, Kozlova-Johannes, Tulve, Tulev, Birman (all premières)

Hiroshima — Nagasaki is a symphonic piece composed for the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
The work was created by six composers – professors of composition in the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Toivo Tulev and Helena Tulve, and their students, already known composers Liisa Hirsch, Eugene Birman, Tatjana Kozlova-Johannes and Malle Maltis. The musical director of the piece is composer and conductor Andrus Kallastu. The work is unique — never before have so many composers created together a symphonic piece.
In order to create the dramatic line of the work, Estonian poet Doris Kareva wrote haikus for each scene that the composers could use for the music. At the concert, these haikus will be heard from a tape, as read by Britta Soll and Raimo Pass. The performance will be further illustrated by a video representing the scenic idea of the piece, made by Hille Karm
 The piece is based on two intertwining storylines — life, love, creation and war, death, destruction. The main narrative is the love story of a young woman and a man, where one can imagine everything that can happen within this narrative — meeting, falling in love, creating new life, keeping track of the child growing in the mothers belly and all the everyday joys and troubles until the birth of the child. This life full of love and creativity could be unexpectedly interrupted by violence, as is evident from the wars that have happened in history. So, the explosion of the atomic bomb and the birth of the child take place simultaneously in the finale of the work. 
The music of Hiroshima – Nagasaki was composed with the intention of being the musical basis of a dance performance. Despite the tragic incentive and a cautionary message, the finale of the piece expresses the victory of life and love. The possibility of a positive outcome remains – like the young adults who, thanks to love, conquer difficulties in everyday life, small arguments, illnesses, fear for their child and their future, so can humanity overcome great oppositions and challenges of nature, where a remarkable part is controlling the huge amount of energy created by ourselves. The work calls to end conflicts before they grow into nuclear catastrophes. Remembering the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with this piece is therefore a warning to us all — they can never happen again.