PAAVO JÄRVI AND TONHALLE-ORCHESTER ZÜRICH LAUNCH THE NEW SEASON WITH BRUCKNER
Following acclaimed performances at the BBC Proms and the summer festivals of Bonn, Prague and Bucharest, Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich are back home ready to launch their fifth season with performances of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 this week.
Coinciding with the start of the new season Alpha Classics has just released Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 recorded live in concert at the Tonhalle earlier this year. “How to Tame a Symphonic Beast” was the headline of The Times review. “If Bruckner could ever be made to sound light and athletic, Jarvi’s your man … The finale is cumulatively magnificent, with life’s struggles gradually clearing, leaving a final ringing peroration in the brightest of key signatures: C major. “
The BBC Music Magazine awarded the new recording 5 stars, commenting “Very few Bruckner outings compel from start to finish, but this one does. It marks out Paavo Järvi as one of our greatest living Bruckner interpreters”.
And Rob Cowan exclaimed “Paavo Järvi and his Zürich-Tonhalle Orchestra have the whole scenic spectrum securely within earshot, whether rugged rock faces or the wider skies beyond. There’s not a ‘Bruckner-cliché’ cathedral in sight. This is a magical mystery tour and make no mistake. Fanciful? Not as played on this magnificent performance … as soon as Järvi and his players had galloped elatedly across the Symphony’s closing straight, wherever it was they’d transported me to I wanted to go there again. And I did precisely that.”
This week’s performances of Bruckner Symphony No. 9 will be recorded by Alpha Classics for release next year to tie in with the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth.