ESTONIAN SYMPHONIC MUSIC. THE FIRST CENTURY 1896-1996.
In
the foreign policy the dynamic course for preventing nuclear war and maintenance of
world peace was declared. Due to the old-spirited, life-long Communist Party
politicians this well-intended process was hindered and soon bogged. As the official
referendum in Estonia in the summer of 1989 indicated, only 7 % of the Estonians were
still supporting the communist course.1
Many intellectuals and artists of Russia preferred emigration, among them the
worldwide known cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, viola artist Rudolf Barshai, orchestra
conductors Kirill Kondrashin and Maxim Shostakovich, Nobel Prize winner Alexander
Solzhenitsyn.
Two younger artists of the highest class left Estonia – Neeme Järvi in December
1979 and Arvo Pärt in January 1980.
In the middle of the Eighties we observe a broadening of subject matter,
lessening of “taboos” and an appearance of a bold individual expression in all fields of
art and Estonian culture life in general
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