Paavo Järvi was back in Switzerland this month performing with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung asked “Is This the Same Orchestra? … Because suddenly everything is back: the colors, the transparency, the virtuosity of individual desks, the warmth and emotion with simultaneous brilliance of the sound – in one word: the music.”

The Tages Anzeiger agreed. commenting “Not yet in office, but already formative and present … An impudence, this Beethoven! And a rousing impudence, inspiring in every bar and pleasurably presented by a wide-awake Tonhalle Orchestra and its future chief conductor Paavo Järvi.”

“It was evident that the orchestra and the audience have already taken Järvi to their heart” commented Seen and Heard International. “It is rather like the change of a manager of a football team – after a string of indifferent matches and results, a new manager is brought in and suddenly the players look like they are enjoying the game again – and winning.”

On the programme in Zurich was Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.5 with soloist Janine Jansen and Beethoven Symphony No.1 and two little known Messiaen orchestral works – Les Offrandes oubliées and Le Tombeau resplendissant. He returns to Zurich this April for performances of Messiaen’s L’Ascension, Beethoven’s Symphony No.4 and Piano Concerto No.3 with Arcadi Volodos as soloist.