Paavo Järvi’s first season with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich will be devoted to his Nordic roots. Estonia, Russia, Finland, Latvia and Sweden are the countries which will be the principal musical destinations of the 2019/20 season which opens on 2 October with Sibelius’ Kullervo, featuring guest artists Johanna Rusanen (Soprano) Ville Rusanen (Baritone) and the Estonian National Choir.

The new occupant of the Creative Chair will be Estonian composer, Erkki-Sven Tüür, who this year celebrates his 60th birthday and the In Focus series will also feature the talents of Nordic artists, including appearances by Martin Fröst, Pekka Kuusisto and Ksenija Sidorova, both with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under Järvi’s baton and in chamber music ensembles.

A major focus of the first season will be the complete symphonies of Tchaikovsky which Paavo and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich will perform and record live in concert. Having grown up under Soviet occupation in Tallinn, Russian music was a major part of the cultural landscape for Paavo in his youth. “Tchaikovsky was virtually a saint,” he commented. “There were several gurus who specified how he should be played.”

The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Paavo Järvi are awarded the Rheingau Music Prize 2019. The award, initiated by the Rheingau Music Festival, will be presented on July 12 on the occasion of Paavo and the orchestra’s concert with Daniel Trifonov at this year’s festival. The prize of € 10,000 will be provided by the Hessian Ministry of Science and the Arts.

On announcing the prize the Rheingau Music Festival commented: “The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen is a unique phenomenon in the cultural landscape: it fills concert halls all over the world, inspires audiences with its stirring style of music-making, organizes itself democratically and finances itself predominantly on its own. The orchestra was founded in 1980 by music students, and today it is a figurehead: for classical music, for the city of Bremen – but also for entrepreneurial spirit and social commitment. Paavo Järvi and Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen have made interpretation history with their groundbreaking projects on the symphonies of Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms. In 2016 the ensemble was awarded the title “Orchestra of the Year” by Deutschlandfunk Kultur.”