PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA – MAY 2019
“Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi led the Philharmonia Orchestra in a diverse programme spanning nearly a century of music. Opening with Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, the orchestra played with solemn pathos, the searing silences in between the opening chords pregnant with anticipation. A measured and nuanced performance set the mood for the rest of the evening: one of genuine, idiomatic music-making.”
Bachtrack.com, Vishnu Bachani. 14 May 2019
“This ‘Pathétique’ emphasised beauty of tone and ensemble … Järvi went for a segue reading, effectively turning the work into a fantasia in four tableaux, further subdivided. It made for a powerful, theatrical re-focussing of familiar landmarks, their unconventionality primed in provocative, almost operatic light …”
Classicalsource.com, Ates Orga, 12 May 2019
“Mullova and Järvi together drove the closing movement (of the Sibelius violin concerto) into a whirlwind ride, always beautifully controlled and never without a sense of Nordic cool behind the full-throttle interactions of violin and orchestra. Both conductor and soloist inhabit this music with an exhilarating inwardness: a marriage made in a pine-dark, lake-fringed heaven.”
Theartsdesk.com, Boyd Tonkin, 13 May 2019
“Drame encore après la pause. Paavo Järvi persiste et signe en offrant au public de l’avenue Montaigne une interprétation originale, et aujourd’hui assez inhabituelle, de la Symphonie n° 6 de Tchaïkovski dont il propose une vision quasi expressionniste, dramatique et rugueuse, comme taillée à la serpe qui n’est pas sans rappeler le grand Mvravinski … L’Adagio lamentoso justifie à lui seul le nom de la symphonie, pathétique, déchirant, résigné et douloureux, conclu par un grave et saisissant choral de cuivres… suivi de longues minutes de silence, signe des grandes interprétations.”
Resmusica.com, Patrice Imbaud, 17 May 2019