2018 celebrates the 100th anniversary of Estonian Independence and to mark the occasion Paavo Järvi is taking the Estonian Festival Orchestra on its first major European tour in January with concerts in Tallinn, Brussels, Zurich, Cologne, Berlin, Vienna and Luxembourg,  together with soloist, Viktoria Mullova. The orchestra’s debut recording is released simultaneous to the tour on Alpha Classics featuring Shostakovich Symphony No.6 and Sinfonietta, both recorded at the Pärnu Music Festival in Estonia.

Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen are currently in Asia where they are performing the complete Beethoven cycle in both Beijing and Shanghai. The international success of their Beethoven cycle in concert and on CD has now been followed with the release of their first recording in the new Brahms cycle on the RCA Red Seal label. An equally resounding success across the globe:

“A Brahms revelation” raved the New York Times of a guest performance of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and cheered the “triumphant performance” of the second symphony. As in New York, Paavo Järvi and his orchestra have also celebrated successes in Vienna and Tokyo with their Brahms cycle, before they went to the studio to record the four symphonies. Symphony No.2 is now released on CD … Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen model a slim and clear Brahms sound which is already evident in the opening bars of the symphony, when the theme of the horns stands out above the foundation of the deep strings. The horn melody is the prelude to a work in which the sun often shines. Johannes Brahms, then 44 years old, wrote his second symphony in 1877 on vacation at Lake Wörth. The lovely landscape and the friendly climate have, so it seems at least, left their mark on the music. This is felt by Järvi and his orchestra, when they breathe deeply together and allow themselves time before they enjoy the bright sound of the violins. It flows as fresh and pure as a light summer breeze.”   NDR Radio

“Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen toured the Brahms symphonies before they recorded Symphony No.2 in the spring of 2015 at Kurhaus Wiesbaden. They used this familiarity with every angle of the score for an interpretation that gives space to spontaneous ideas and it therefore has a very organic, breathing and lively effect … Järvi penetrates deep into the musical and emotional meanings of the score. He reveals a dense motivic network and a wealth of subtle changes of color and mood … creating a slender and moving Brahms sound.”   Deutschlandfunk

Brahms’ Symphony No.2 is also “one of the eternal brutes that flies through our Philharmonic and Tonhalle. The second provides everything that we expect from Brahms: autumnal melancholy, the wretched sound of the horns, the slackness of the strings and trumpets, memorable melodies, grand climbs, and this specific element of the “evolving variation,” which Schönberg regards as essential to Brahms’ Sinfonik considered. Of course the market is saturated with many good recordings. You can stop with the great George Szell, the unbeatable Günter Wand, the discoverer John Eliot Gardiner. Karajan was always a very, very good Brahms interpreter. Bernstein pounced on Brahms and poured all his heart blood into it … Now comes Paavo Järvi and, with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, he tells the story of this piece as a chamber music composition, the layers of which, as it were, create a symphony … This Brahms is alive, bright, no old master, but a fire-head, which at the same time broadened Beethoven’s principles and filled it with new life.”   Rheinische Post

Paavo Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra’s concert at the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm tonight will be broadcast live on Swedish Radio and filmed as a live stream on the orchestra’s new facebook. Join Paavo and the EFO live in Stockholm for their last concert of their very first tour.

Shostakovich: Symphony No.1
Tüür: Accordion Concerto ‘Prophecy’ with Ksenija Sidorova
Sibelius: Symphony No.2

WATCH IT HERE: Facebook

The Estonian Festival Orchestra, created by Paavo Järvi in 2011 for the Pärnu Music Festival, has just embarked on its maiden voyage, a Nordic tour including the closing concert of the Turku Music Festival, as well as concerts at the Tivoli Summer Classical Festival in Copenhagen and The Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm.
Read more at the orchestra’s new website efo.ee

“What is so enchantingly charming and magical about this time forgotten place? The concentration of the musicians who gather around Paavo Järvi is the one thing. And the absolute absence of any pretention”
Die Welt

“The world-famous Järvi conducting dynasty, hand-crafted musicians, a modern concert hall and the historical buildings are Pärnu’s ingredients for the musical event in the so-called “summer capital of Estonia” … Musicians from all over Europe came to Pärnu to become part of a summer festival of the generations. Many of them are Estonians who work abroad. Others have been infected by their enthusiasm. And the Estonian music scene is concentrated for two weeks in the small coastal town, where the Järvi family opens a window into an ideal music world”
Deutschlandfunk kultur

“Paavo Järvi calls, and everyone comes. The best musicians from Estonia, the Baltics and international orchestras such as Bremen, Paris, Frankfurt and Cincinnati. Now the Estonian Festival Orchestra was performing for the first time outside its musical home in Pärnu — The orchestra was in the magical Latvian seaside resort of Jürmala, located on the Riga Sea, about 12 km from the Latvian capital. Ursula Magnes reports on a touching, Baltic August evening. In January 2018 the EFO will be a guest at the Konzerthaus in Vienna.
Radio Klassik Stephansdom

Audiences at home can also discover the Estonian Festival Orchestra for themselves as tonight’s final Pärnu Festival concert with star soloist Lisa Batshiavili will be broadcast live on Estonian Radio and available to stream. From Saturday 19th August Paavo takes the orchestra on its maiden voyage across the Baltic Sea to perform at festivals in Finland (Turku), Denmark (Copenhagen) and Sweden (Stockholm).

Paavo Järvi has been announced as the new Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich for a five-year term from the 2019/20 season.

On taking up the position Järvi commented “I am extremely honoured to be taking on the role of Music Director of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich – an orchestra that has a great history and an outstanding quality of playing. On the most recent occasion I had the privilege of working with the orchestra, I felt a very strong chemistry with both the musicians and the management and was overwhelmed by their commitment. I look forward to strengthening those musical and personal relationships: with the orchestra, the management and, not least, the audience in Zurich, embarking on a new chapter of our musical lives together.”

Paavo Järvi directed the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich for the first time in 2009. During his second visit last December, when he conducted four concerts, a chord was struck with the orchestra and audiences alike. Peter Hagmann reported: “Järvi does not need to direct light upon himself; he radiates of his own accord. An analytical mind and a sense of tone, experience and spontaneity – that is his secret”. Prior to taking up the post in 2019/20 he will be present in Zurich to give performances with the Estonian Festival Orchestra at the Tonhalle Maag in January 2018 and will also spend three weeks during the 2018/19 season with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich.

For more information, please visit: Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich | Press release

Paavo Järvi makes his debut at Teatro della Scala this month, conducting Don Giovanni. The premiere is on 6 May and performances continue until 6 June.

During his time at the theatre, Paavo also conducts ballet performances set to music from Ravel and Nikolaj Rimskij-Korsakov from 19 April to 13 May, and on 13, 16 and 18 May he leads the Filarmonica della Scala in Mahler’s Symphony No.7.

Ahead of Paavo Järvi and the NHK Symphony Orchestra’s first tour of Europe together, BBC Radio 3 has chosen their new recording of Strauss tone poems as Disc of the Week. Listeners around the world can tune in online to the programme live (Saturday 25 February at 11.45 GMT) or on the BBC iplayer for a week.