A play by Meelis Friedenthal

Director Lembit Peterson

Designer Riina Vanhanen
Musical designers Anna-Liisa Eller ja Taavi Kerikmäe

Actors: Maria Teresa Kalmet, Karel Käos, Tarmo Song, Helvin Kaljula, Jonathan Peterson, Rea Haljasmäe, Mare Peterson
Musicians: Anna-Liisa Eller ja Taavi Kerikmäe

„Cembal d’amour: The legacy of David Kellner” tells the story of old and young love, human bonds and heritage that rust does not eat and moth does not destroy. Music sometimes makes visible the world behind everyday things, reminds us of the past and guides us to the future. This story takes viewers to think about what we do now and what we leave behind. Three hundred years ago, the traditions of Estonia, Sweden and Germany came together, which are passed on by the next generations to this day.

David Kellner (1670–1748) was a composer of baroque music with an extremely interesting sound language, a contemporary of J. S. Bach. Kellner is primarily recognized for his internationally influential treatise on the figured bass, which has been the subject of numerous translations and reprints. Of Kellner’s little surviving musical legacy, the most famous is his excellent collection of lute (and keyboard) music.

Little known is the fact that Kellner spent his important formative years in Tartu: he studied at the University of Tartu, got married in Tartu, and was also the music teacher of his stepdaughter Regina Swartz, later an internationally known poet and composer. Regina Swartz is considered the first Estonian female poet. Kellner is also connected to Estonia through the Northern War, fighting for a long time in the Swedish forces against the Russian invasion.

The play, based on Kellner’s life, is framed by his sensitive sound language. The musical design of the production is presented in a lively presentation on period instruments – while the cembalo d’amour, a musical instrument specially built this year according to the original drawings, sounds. Cembalo d’amour was a clavichord (now lost) made for Kellner’s stepdaughter Swartz in 1721 by Silbermann, one of the most famous instrument makers in Europe at the time.

https://www.theatrum.ee/lavastused/parim-voimalik-muusika/

The December 1st performance will be preceded by an introductory lecture by Toomas Siitan and Taavi Kerikmäe “David Kellner (1670-1748) and his journey from Tartu to Stockholm” in the basement hall of Mustpeade House, Estonian Contemporary Music Center at 6 pm.
Bach’s contemporary composer and music theorist, whose work began in Tartu, left behind a collection of lute pieces with an exciting sound, the music of which will be heard at the Theatrum performance, and the music theory treatise “Treulicher Unterricht im General-Baß” (1732), which was widely known at the time. Toomas Siitan and Taavi Kerikmäe talk about them, as well as Kellner’s stepdaughter Regina Gertrud König and the cembal d’amour, a rare instrument ordered by the latter
The project “Rebirth of Cembal d’amour” was supported by the EV Ministry of Culture from its creative research program (2023).