Intensely energetic transformations form the main characteristic of Tüür’s output, with instrumental music making up the main body of his work. To date, he has composed nine symphonies, a number of works for symphony and string orchestra, nine instrumental concertos, a wide variety of chamber music and an opera.
Tüür wishes for his music to raise existential questions and to ask: "What is our mission?" He states that, as this is a recurring question asked by thinkers and philosophers from different cultures, one of his goals is to reach the creative energy of the listener. "Music, as an abstract form of art,” he says, “is able to create different visions for each of us, for each and every individual being, as we are all unique."
His approach to composition is not dissimilar to how architect might design a building such as a cathedral, a theatre, or other public space, though he says that the responsibility of the composer goes further, constructing drama inside the space with different characters and forces, creating a certain living form of energy.
Tüür has a well-established reputation in Estonia and has worked with leading Estonian musicians, including the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. His first great success outside of Estonia came in Finland with Insula deserta (1989), and since then he has received commissions from major orchestras and outstanding musicians from all over Europe, North America and Australia, including the hr-Sinfonieorchester, Philharmonia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Hilliard Ensemble, Münchner Kammerorchester, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Australian Chamber Orchestra.
It is clear that Tüür particularly enjoys composing for symphony orchestra. His work has been performed among others by the BBC Orchestras, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Münchner Philharmoniker, NDR Sinfonieorcheste, NHK Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra in renowned venues such as the Wiener Musikverein, Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, Berliner Philharmonie, Salle Pleyel in Paris, the Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Tüür has formed close relationships with conductors including Paavo Järvi, Tõnu Kaljuste, Olari Elts, Arvo Volmer and Anu Tali among many others.
Renowned soloists and musicians to have worked with Tüür include Dame Evelyn Glennie, Pedro Carneiro, Colin Currie (percussion); Isabelle van Keulen, Gidon Kremer, Leila Josefowicz, Pekka Kuusisto, Christian Tetzlaff, Carolin Widmann, Richard Tognetti, Florian Donderer (violin), Lars Anders Tomter, Lawrence Power (viola), David Geringas, Tanja Tetzlaff, Nicolas Altstaedt, Ivan Monighetti, Jan Vogler (cello), Michael Collins, Jörg Widmann (clarinet), Lars Vogt, and Thomas Larcher (piano).
Wallenberg, Tüür’s only opera, was first performed in Dortmund in 2001 and was taken up by the Estonian National Opera in 2007, and then by the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe in 2013. Recent works include his Clarinet Concerto ‘Peregrinus Ecstaticus’, commissioned by YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, which received its premiere in Helsinki in September 2013 with clarinettist Christoffer Sundqvist and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hannu Lintu. Sow the Wind… premiered with the Orchestre de Paris and Paavo Järvi in 2015, with the storming piece reflecting how irreversible processes such as climate change have consequences for future generations, with sonic gusts growing into veritable whirlwinds. He has recently received commissions from the National Orchestra of Belgium, Orchestre de Paris, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra.
From 1991 to 2011 Erkki-Sven Tüür was artistic director of the International Festival NYYD in Tallinn, for which he received his second Annual Prize of the Endowment for Music of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia in 2005, the first came in 2003 for CD Exodus. He has also received the annual Estonian Music Prize (1987, 1988), Estonian Culture Prize (1997), Baltic Assembly Culture Prize (1998), Great Bear Prize (1996, 1997) and Annual Prize of the Estonian Music Council (2003). In 2014, Tüür was awarded the Culture Prize of the Republic of Estonia for his Clarinet Concerto ‘Peregrinus ecstaticus’ and the orchestral work De Profundis. Peregrinus Ecstaticus was also awarded prize ‘The Young Musicians Favourite Choice’ of the Foundation of Prince Pierre of Monaco in 2015. In the same year, Tüür was given the Christoph und Stephan Kaske Stiftung's prize in Munich.
