LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA
OPENING CONCERTS OF THE LUCERNE FESTIVAL

MAHLER: Symphony No. 3
—
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 9, K. 271 ’Jeunehomme’
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 4
with Maria João Pires, piano

“Abbado’s worthy successor … From Mozart to Mahler, Paavo Järvi has set new standards in conducting here in Lucerne, an epicenter of orchestral art. Anyone who competes here with this orchestra in the future will have to be measured by that.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Jan Brachmann, 16 August 2023

“The interaction in and with the orchestra (which also includes quite a few of “his” Tonhalle musicians) worked brilliantly … Long silent seconds after the final chord followed by frenetic cheers of the previously highly disciplined hall.”
Tages Anzeiger, Peter König, 13 August 2023

“Järvi has the ability to see beauties with an uncelebratory eye: his goal is not to become a hero in a novel either. This means that there is a score in front of him that has taken a lot of work to be mastered. It is clear to him that his orchestra should not die in beauty, there is more thought than dreamed here.”
Luzerner Zeitung, Christian Berzins, 12 August 2023

“The result for Mahler’s Third Symphony? Soli of great beauty, with superb colors, but above all which have blended admirably into the orchestral mass. And despite all these individualities, Paavo Järvi managed to give cohesion to the whole and to stay the course, maintaining the musical tension from start to finish … The deep and mystical dimension of the work is fully apparent in the last movement, with splendid strings, joined by radiant brass. A superbly mastered crescendo, which suspended time. The audience was in heaven.”
Concertonet, Claudio Poloni, 13 August 2023

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ON TOUR:
KATOWICE KULTURA NATURA FESTIVAL

SIBELIUS: ‘Finlandia’
LUTOSŁAWSKI: Concerto for Orchestra
SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82

… Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra was a first-rate performance. In terms of the multiplicity of narrative planes, the richness of dynamic shades, the combination of discipline and imagination, the clarity of rhythm and emotional suggestiveness, it was in every way satisfying and thrilling … As with the Finlandia – already performed at full throttle, the predatory and dynamic opening with sharp timpani strokes and feisty string entrances left no doubt that this would be a sensational performance.

.. After the intermission, Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 … a rousing performance in which there was not a single dull moment … a complete triumph. Järvi conducted with economical, circular gestures, and it was clear that he has an excellent rapport with the orchestra.

Katowice Cultura Natura, 22 May 2023

DIE DEUTSCHE KAMMERPHILHARMONIE BREMEN

HAYDN: Symphonies Nos. 93 and 104

“Haydn’s Symphony No. 93 opened the evening, the 104th closed it: complete perfection of form, but with nothing hollow about it … Järvi and the orchestra approached the music in such a subtle way that the sharply defined form was not forced, but merely precisely drawn.”
Frankfurter Rundschau, Judith von Sternburg, 10 May 2023

“The orchestra and Paavo Järvi masterfully understood how to work out the many contrasts in the music and build up a captivating tension. The slow passages were performed with sensitivity and intensity, while the fast and virtuosic passages were executed with playful ease and the greatest precision.”
Online merker, Dirk Schauss, 9 May 2023

“Detailed work but an atmosphere of easy, fluid communication, in a relationship that more than one orchestra and conductor would envy … it is difficult not to feel enveloped in the tide of vitality, of joy of the spirit that these musicians of the DKAM transmit … Järvi’s interpretation did not iron out any edges, in fact he emphasized the search for surprise, the contrast, the richness of accents, making the most of the silences, the vivacity of impulse in the rhythmic drawing and, finally, that general atmosphere of contagious vitality that derives from it all.”
Scherzo, Rafael Ortega Basagoiti, 9 May 2023

“ … these were exultant, richly grained readings, throatily and reedy voiced. Tight articulation, precision dots and slurs, buoyant rhythms, grandly rooted tuttis, breathed solos, civilised conversazione, making the most of accents and hairpin dynamics, alert to the smallest detail and agogic. Järvi’s manner and gallantry lit the music at multiple levels … coaxing every shade and innuendo from his players … “
classicalsource.com, Ateş Orga, 7 May 2023

“A joyful energy governs the musically well-crafted performance … this mischievous interpretation captivates us from beginning to end.”
“crescendo.be, Thimothée Grandjean, 6 May 2023

PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA

MAHLER: Symphony No. 3
with Hogni Wu

“So, did Paavo Järvi and the Philharmonia let the monsters loose? They did. The introduction was thrillingly eruptive, with braying brass, seismically uprushing basses and ear-splitting drums. It was as stupendous and astonishing as it must have been for Mahler’s first audiences … I have never heard a performance of this dizzyingly multifarious symphony that was so clearly and consistently the outworking of a single vision, generated and sustained by a single impulse.”
Seen and Heard International, Chris Kettle, 18 March 2023

“… masterful conducting, effortless in every gear change … The echo-aftermath of the horns’ big summons at the start was especially startling … “
The Arts Desk, David Nice 17 March 2023

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER

MESSIAEN: Les Offrandes oubliées
HOSOKAWA: Violin Concerto (world première)
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3 ‘Eroica’
with Daishin Kashimoto

“From the moment Paavo Järvi raises his arms, there is something hanging in the room that can only be described with the word magic. It is inexplicable why some conductors can conjure up such a fantastic sound from an orchestra like the Berlin Philharmonic and others cannot. Järvi doesn’t actually do much, his gestures are modest, minimalist, he’s not a desk pig. But maybe that’s exactly his secret: Precisely because he is so deeply rooted in his own self, he can let go of the reins and encourage others to work true miracles.”
Der Tagesspiegel, Udo Tadelt, 3 March 2023

“ … the celebrated Beethoven conductor showed how structural awareness and music-making characterised by elemental power can be optimally combined in the “Eroica”. The pale pianissimo in the Funeral March was just as inspiring as the wide-ranging crescendos in the opening movement or the tingling motoricism in the Scherzo. Deservedly, there was frenetic applause in the sold-out Philharmonie afterwards.”
Berliner Morgenpost, Mario-Felix Vogt, 3 March 2023

CONCERTGEBOUWORKEST TOUR:
VIENNA KONZERTHAUS, FRANKFURTER ALTE OPER, PARIS PHILHARMONIE, LYON AUDITORIUM

BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto
PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 5
with Lisa Batiashvili

“ … a twirling, epic, brilliantly contrasting interpretation (of Prokofiev Symphony No. 5), with a bewitching rhythm of diabolical precision under the compelling direction of Paavo Järvi … An evening to mark with a white stone.”
Bruno Serrou blogspot, 23 February 2023

“Järvi had the Concertgebouw Orchestra play slenderly in sound and instrumentation … and the overwhelming dramaturgy of Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 was heard in opulent form.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Axel Zibulski, 22 February 2023

“Paavo Järvi is one of those conductors who want one thing above all: the ideal sound. He demonstrated this at the Musikverein with his Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, of which he will be chief conductor until 2029, and also during his guest performance with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the Konzerthaus.”
Kurier, Susanne Zobl, 21 February 2023

“Paavo Järvi presents a contemporary image of Prokofiev: enough bite and traction, sharpness and elegance to hold the attention and excitement without a second of breathing space.”
Kronenzeitung, 21 February 2023

“Prokofiev’s Fifth is one of those works where, given the right level of brilliance, success is all but certain. It’s all the better that Järvi and the Concertgebouworkest didn’t content themselves with that during their acclaimed guest performance. Precision goes without saying when visiting from Amsterdam, but it is not an end in itself. This reading sounds pithy, full and at the peaks of the wide range of dynamics also excessive.”
Die Presse, Walter Weidringer, 21 February 2023

TONHALLE ORCHESTER-ZÜRICH TOUR:
VIENNA MUSIKVEREIN, LUXEMBURG PHILHARMONIE, PARIS PHILHARMONIE, BASEL THEATER
JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

BERLIOZ: Harold in Italy
BRAHMS (arr. for orchestra by SCHOENBERG): Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25
Antoine Tamestit, viola

“For his second visit to Paris with the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich, Paavo Järvi chose a programme never heard beforein Paris … Conductor and orchestra gave the most beautiful performance that one can remember in concert.”
Diapason, Rémy Louis, 3 February 2023

“Under Paavo Järvi’s wide-ranging and generous leadership, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich offered a dense, vibrant, fiery performance of Johannes Brahms’ “Fifth Symphony”, making full use of Arnold Schönberg’s masterful orchestration, which is at once fluid, energetic, poetic and sensitive. The Estonian conductor and his Swiss orchestra, bringing together one hundred musicians of twenty different nationalities, seized the vitality and fantasy of the original quartet, right up to the invigorating finale alla zingarese, in which the Zurich orchestra shone brightly … “
Brunoserrou.blogspot, 3 February 2023

“Paavo Järvi conducted with a masterly hand, striving for a wonderful balance between the finest, silvery orchestral sound and fulminant outbursts in both Berlioz and Brahms/Schönberg. What Järvi has shown again and again with the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in many concerts and recordings now seems to continue with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, of which he has been principal conductor for four seasons, with exciting, extremely dynamic interpretations, sonorous and very colourful music-making and a very clear, audible architecture.
Pizzicato, Alain Steffen, 1 February 2023

“When a conductor who is always on the lookout for the ideal sound meets an orchestra that follows him with devotion in every phase and a virtuoso who takes us to other worlds with the truthfulness of his playing, extraordinary things can happen. This is what happened when Paavo Järvi and “his” Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich guested with violist Antoine Tamestit at the Musikverein in Vienna … No wonder no orchestra will let a conductor like him go.”
★★★★★ Kurier, Susanne Zobl, 31 January 2023

TONHALLE ORCHESTER-ZÜRICH
ELPHILHARMONIE HAMBURG RESIDENCY
November 2022

Bruckner. Symphonies No. 3, 6 & 8

”Järvi’s Bruckner performances have their very own character. Nothing escapes him in breadth, the long increases are prepared consistently and stringently, he avoids any excessive exaggeration in dynamics and sound balance. There is an organic flow of structure, a subtle gradation of the layers of sound and a sure feeling for this unique magic that only Bruckner is able to create … When listening, you breathe with the musicians and the conductor, who doesn’t need that much gesture and movement to achieve the desired results.”
Hamburger Abendblatt, Helmut Peters, 12 November 2022

”As the first movement (Bruckner Symphony No.6) builds to a climax, Paavo Järvi spreads his arms as if to embrace his entire orchestra. Horns, trumpets, trombones and tuba ignite a majestic and at the same time always warm and round sound …”

”… With his top orchestra, he exploits a wide range, from radiant fortissimo to very quiet and intimate moments. Especially in the wonderful Adagio (Symphony no. 8), in which Bruckner indulges himself in unusually voluptuous tones.”
NDR radio, Marcus Stäbler, 12 November 2022

”With any Bruckner symphony the key watchword is never to hurry. Järvi understands this so well. He controlled the ebb and flow of the melodic lines, whilst making full use of the many Luftpausen, allowing his musicians to do all the talking as he guided and shaped the musical argument without any need for fussy micro-management … Sometimes at the end of a performance you are left thinking, “Yes, this is exactly the way the music should go.”
Bachtrack.com, Alexander Hall, 11 November 2022

TONHALLE ORCHESTER-ZÜRICH
November 2022

Bruckner Symphony No. 6

“Järvi remains true to his approach … the music does not rest in itself like architecture made sound, nor is there any trace of religious consecration; rather, everything pushes forward powerfully, and so it is precisely here, in the ceaselessly pulsating rhythms of the Sixth, that a gripping dynamic develops. This is as distinguished as it is contentious, for this style stands in contrast to the still predominant Bruckner tradition from the 19th and 20th centuries, in which his symphonies are often exaggerated into monumental cathedrals of sound. Järvi avoids the weight of meaning; instead, he focuses on vividly developed details and, not least through his flowing tempi, achieves a rarely heard clarity of form.”
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Christian Wildhagen, 29 October 2022

DEUTSCHE KAMMERPHILHARMONIE BREMEN
October 2022

Haydn: Symphony No. 96
Beethoven :Piano Concerto No. 3
Soloist: Lang Lang
Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 2

“… From the precisely spotted playfulness to the great dynamic outbursts, everything is gripping to experience here (Haydn Symphony No. 96) and conductor Paavo Järvi knows how to fill every note with meaning with his sense of dramatic moments, but also with wit. A rarely experienced closeness between conductor and orchestra, which then produces such magnificent musical blossoms.”
Nordwest Zeitung, Volkmar Stickan, 11 October 2022

“This first of Haydn’s great London symphonies comes with a historically sharp sound, lively and original, with a festive shine and delicate charm. At the same time, the spirit of Sturm und Drang, self-confidently triumphant …”
Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, Anke Demirsoy, 11 October 2022

”The Haydn sounded pithy, the rapid whispering of the strings in the finale was perfect. And in the Brahms symphony, after their speed recorded album of 2019, the Bremen musicians had taken out the pace, but not the explosive fire.”
Ruhr Nachrichten, Julia Gass 10 October 2022