Deutsche Grammophon announces an exciting cooperation this month with Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra to rediscover the music of Franz Schmidt – a composer of the late romantic and early modern period, who in the last years has been celebrating a comeback with audiences.
The BBC has announced that Paavo Järvi will conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Prom at the Royal Albert Hall on 9 September, replacing Esa-Pekka Salonen who is unable to travel to London.
For the third consecutive year, the Gramophone Classical Music Awards will be naming an Orchestra of the Year. The only award decided on by public vote, Orchestra of the Year celebrates collaborative music-making at the highest level.
How has Corona virus affected Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle Orchester-Zürich’s plans for their second season together and what can audiences look forward to?
Watch the interview with Paavo about Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Pärt and much more.
Meanwhile the second of four short concerts, recorded live in Tonhalle Maag in June and marking the return of live music in Switzerland, is now available to watch free online:
R. STRAUSS: Serenade for Winds, Op.7
DVOŘÁK: Serenade for Winds, Cello and Double bass
and next month the final two concerts will be uploaded for viewing:
7. August 2020
DUKAS: Fanfare from La Péri
STRAVINSKY: Dumbarton Oaks
R. STRAUSS: Le bourgeois gentilhomme
14. August 2020
LUTOSŁAWSKI: Musique funèbre for Strings
HONEGGER: Symphony No.2
The sun is shining and the musicians are gearing up for this year’s Pärnu Music Festival. But for those who are unable to travel to Estonia this summer, the good news is that all main 8 events will be available to watch online. The new streaming platform parnumusicfestival.tv gives access to live concerts and a replay for a further 30 days. Ticket price per concert is 7 euros.
This summer celebrates the 10th anniversary of both the Pärnu Music Festival and the Estonian Festival Orchestra. It also looks back at 50 long years of music-making in Pärnu, as begun in the 1970’s under the baton of Neeme Järvi. Although Neeme Järvi will not be able to join the celebrations this summer, Paavo and Kristjan Järvi will be leading the festivities.
Paavo Järvi opens the festival with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra (16 July) and goes on to lead the Estonian Festival Orchestra in three concerts (19, 22 and 23 July). Due to current limitations, the EFO will perform with less musicians than usual, but joining them will be Florian Donderer, the orchestra’s founding concert master, and 20 international musicians who return to Pärnu to be reunited with their Estonian colleagues.
There are five Estonian composers featured on this year’s programme with music spanning from 1977 to the present day. The festival opens with Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten and pays tribute to Lepo Sumera in the 70th anniversary of his birth, with performances of both his Symphony No.3 (1988) and Cello Concerto (1998/99). Jüri Reinvere’s Double concerto for two flutes, string orchestra and percussion, premiered at the Pärnu Music Festival in 2016, makes a welcome return as a highlight of this year’s anniversary gala and Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Violin Concerto No.2 (2017) is the focus of the first Järvi Academy concert. Bringing us to the present day is Tõnu Kõrvits‘ To the Moonlight, which will be premiered by the Estonian Festival Orchestra and Paavo Järvi on 19 July.
Paavo Järvi’s second season as Music Director of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich was unveiled this week, with the announcement that Arvo Pärt will be making his contribution to the opening concert on 23 September as the orchestra’s next Creative Chair, with a new version of La Sindone. Also on the opening programme are Beethoven’s Symphony No.7 and Violin Concerto Op.61, in a piano arrangement by one of this year’s selected Focus artists, the Finnish pianist, conductor and composer Olli Mustonen.
In addition to a focus on the music of Arvo Pärt, Paavo Järvi’s second season in Zürich sees the conclusion of the Tchaikovsky cycle and the start of a new cycle dedicated to Mendelssohn. Also in March 2021 – with a delay of one year – the orchestra will perform Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Concerto for Accordion, Prophecy, with soloist Ksenija Sidrova, a concert which was cancelled earlier this year just as the corona virus pandemic struck.
The Tonhalle team will remain open and flexible to their planning for the start of the next season and retain plans for the orchestra’s next tour to Paris, Luxembourg, Moscow and Vienna in November and a residency at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie in March 2021.
Alpha Classics will release the first of the Tonhalle-Orchester’s Tchaikovsky CD recordings with Paavo Järvi this Autumn, commencing with Symphony No.5 and the overture Francesca da Rimini.
Last month Paavo Järvi returned to Zürich for his first concerts with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich since the outbreak of corona virus in March. With a reduced orchestra and audience, the newly programmed concerts in the Tonhalle Maag were a special moment in the comeback of live music and the four programmes will now be streamed online on the orchestra’s website between 3 July and 14 August.
3. July 2020
SIBELIUS: Rakastava
DVOŘÁK: Serenade for Strings
10. July 2020
R. STRAUSS: Serenade for Winds, Op.7
DVOŘÁK: Serenade for Winds, Cello and Double bass
7. August 2020
DUKAS: Fanfare from La Péri
STRAVINSKY: Dumbarton Oaks
R. STRAUSS: Le bourgeois gentilhomme
14. August 2020
LUTOSŁAWSKI: Musique funèbre for Strings
HONEGGER: Symphony No.2
With the good news that the Pärnu Music Festival will go ahead with its 10th anniversary celebrations follows the even better news that 20 international members of the Estonian Festival Orchestra will be able to travel to Pärnu next month to be reunited with their Estonian colleagues for 8 days of sunny music-making on the Baltic coast and a focus on both young and established Estonian talent.
“When I sat down and started to think about how to re-programme this year’s festival given all the limitations that needed to be taken into account, I realized that it gave us an opportunity to celebrate just how far we have come in our first 10 years of summers in Pärnu” says Paavo Järvi. “At the beginning my goal was to nurture Estonian talent by bringing in as many international artists as possible, so that young Estonian musicians would have the chance to play with top colleagues from around the world and develop their musical careers. Now I realise that our goal has actually been achieved and we have top class Estonian talent welcoming back their colleagues, for genuine musical reunions.”
This year’s programme presents three Estonian soloists – Kalle and Kristjan Randalu (piano), Triin Ruubel (violin) and Theodor Sink (cello) who perform in addition to guest international soloists Olli Mustonen (piano), Alena Baeva (violin) and Stefan Dohr (horn).
Featured composers Arvo Pärt, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Jüri Reinvere, and Tõnu Kõrvits all have strong links with the Festival. Arvo Pärt has visited Pärnu regularly for performances of his works; three of Erkki-Sven Tüür’s compositions were the focus of the Estonian Festival Orchestra’s latest CD, Mythos; Jüri Reinvere’s orchestral work And Tired from Happiness .. they started to Dance and Concerto for two Flutes were both premiered at the festival; and Tõnu Kõrvits was presented with the Lepo Sumera Award on the last night of the festival in 2018.
All of the main 8 events of this year’s Pärnu Music Festival will be performed with reduced audience and streamed live on the festival website. The Järvi Academy masterclasses will also be streamed live so that young conductors who are unable to travel can still participate.
The NHK Symphony Orchestra has been nominated for Orchestra of the Year Award by the prestigious Gramophone Magazine. It is the only award decided on by public vote so now is the time to cast your vote for Paavo Järvi and the elite Tokyo ensemble.
Voting opens at noon on Friday, June 12 and remains live until 8am (London time) on Monday, September 7. Votes can be cast on Gramophone’s website – www.gramophone.co.uk/awards. The Orchestra of the Year will be revealed on October 6 at the 2020 Gramophone Classical Music Awards.
James Jolly, Editor-in-Chief of Gramophone says ‘This is not a poll to find the “best orchestra in the world”, but rather to shine the spotlight on an orchestra that consistently offers high- quality music-making that is exciting, moving and which demonstrates what a fine ensemble working at the peak of its powers can achieve. Many of these orchestras also highlight the indefinable and unique magic that happens between an inspiring conductor and his or her players. And with the majority of orchestras now silent, we hope this will focus attention on one of the glories of music-making on a grand scale. Just listen and be impressed!’
Gramophone has created 11 Apple Music playlists – one for each ensemble, as well as a dynamic playlist that will be updated throughout the summer, exclusively available to listen to on Apple Music. Listen HERE. To support the voting process, Gramophone will be hosting an Orchestra of the Year Online Festival for 10 days from July 24 featuring 10 filmed evening concerts from each of the nominated ensembles in a programme that reflects its individual style and character.
Paavo Järvi returns to Switzerland this month to conduct the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich in four programmes spread over twelve short concerts on the stage of the Tonhalle Maag.
Following government regulations, the orchestra will perform as an ensemble of between 30 and 40 musicians and the audience will be limited to 240 per concert. The programmes on 25 and 26 June will be filmed for later streaming on the orchestra’s website.
“These concerts will be a special experience for all of us,” says Paavo Järvi, “I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be able to come back to Zurich and start making music with our wonderful Orchestra!”
19 June at 12:15, 18:30 and 20:30
Sibelius: «Rakastava» (The Lover), Op.14 for strings, percussion and triangle
Dvořák: Serenade for Strings in E major, Op.22
20 June at 12:15, 18:30 and 20:30
Richard Strauss: Serenade in E-flat major for Wind Ensemble, Op.7
Dvořák: Serenade in D minor for Wind Instruments, Op.44
25 June at 12:15, 18:30 and 20:30
Dukas: Fanfare for «La Péri»
Stravinsky: Concerto in E-flat major “Dumbarton Oaks”
Richard Strauss: «Le bourgeois gentilhomme» Orchestral Suite, Op.6
26 June at 18:30 and 20:30
Lutosławski: «Musique funèbre» für String Orchestra
Honegger: Symphony No.2
Advance tickets sales begin on June 10th at 11:00 a.m.:
Tickets are available at a unit price of CHF 45.
More details to be found at www.tonhalle-orchester.ch