The Tallinn Chamber Orchestra continues to demonstrate that a conductor is not always essential to creating a cohesive musical performance. When a charismatic and inspiring concertmaster like Peter Spissky takes the lead, Baroque music transforms into a vibrant, dance-like, and soulful art form.
On the last day of January, the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, together with renowned Baroque musician Peter Spissky, will present a musical experience featuring works by Purcell, Handel, and Vivaldi. The concert will take place on Friday, January 31, at 7 PM at the House of the Blackheads in Tallinn. Music lovers can look forward to an unforgettable celebration of Baroque music.
In the following interview, Peter Spissky shares his vision of the essence of Baroque music and how its performance can be elevated into a true art form.

Foto: Jens Nørbæk
If you had to describe Baroque music in one sentence, what would it be?
Baroque music has been often played very boringly, anonymously, with enthusiastic accents on every note, which enhanced the aspect of its monotonous and static regularity. At best, you would tap your foot in the rhythm or ignore it in hotel elevators.
But you can wake the sleeping beauty into life! The key word is dance. Enchanted feeling of movement and gesture in your body is the key to unlock the simple-looking patterns on your music page. Suddenly you free yourself from the accents, dynamics and barlines. Music transforms into waves, embraces, jumps, runs, caresses, fights, screams… So, with this long introduction, my description of Baroque music – in one sentence – would be:
(Baroque) music is a (dance) movement shared between people.
If you could time travel and meet one Baroque-era composer, who would it be and why?
I would love to have a beer with Telemann (to enjoy his humor). Dinner would be with Handel (knowing his great appetite). With Vivaldi I would take a lesson or two. I don’t think I would dare to talk to Bach, but I would sneak in into his church while he sits at his organ and improvises. Jam session with Purcell sounds like fun, then listen to Lully’s rehearsal (at a safe distance), and possibly I would go to a recital with Farinelli (to hear the real thing and ask him if he could imagine a countertenor in his place some 250 years later). I would then finish my trip having one more beer with Telemann (this time for a serious advice how to make a successful career as a freelance musician).
What do you see as the advantage of performing without a conductor? Does it influence the music-making, and if so, how?
I claim that Baroque music is a dance, movement and gesture, shared between people. Sharing presupposes a freedom of those involved in dancing. Such element of freedom we encounter in folk music, pop music and jazz. And as I can’t imagine someone waving hands in front of Charlie Parker, The Beatles or in front of a gypsy band, so it does not make any sense to soundlessly control and manipulate the communication between the musicians playing Handel or Bach. Let them dance…
Peter Spissky is the concertmaster of Concerto Copenhagen, one of Europe’s leading Baroque orchestras, and the musical director of Camerata Øresund, an ensemble of next-generation early music performers based in Copenhagen and Malmö. Since September 2022, Spissky has also served as the artistic director of the Confidencen Opera & Music Festival in Stockholm. As a guest concertmaster and conductor, he regularly collaborates with Barokkanerne (Norway), the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Jönköping Sinfonietta (Sweden), and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra.
Annika Lõhmus