NDR ELBPHILHARMONIE ORCHESTER – MAY 2019
With Paavo Järvi you get the modern jet-setting conductor who, whatever the repertory, is always responsibly prepared, coaxing orchestras to give of their best. Watching him and the response of his players you get the strongest impression that here is a man one works with, not for. He’s a music-maker first and foremost. A week ago in London he was putting the Philharmonia Orchestra through its paces in Sibelius and Tchaikovsky. On this occasion in Hamburg he was journeying a different emotional road, a late Austrian Habsburg one looking back from Berg to Bruckner, two composers he sees as a particularly intuitive mix.”
Classicalsource.com, Ates Orga, 17 May 2019
“… Das Bruckner-Bild, das Paavo Järvi mit dem NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester malt, ist von konturenklarer Durchsichtigkeit. Der Este bewahrt sich einen kühlen Kopf, er zelebriert nicht, sondern spitzt zu. Seine Exegese der Sinfonie Nr. 2 c-Moll des sehr katholischen Komponisten ist von nachgerade protestantischer Strenge. Die Tempi nimmt der Noch-Chef der Deutschen Kammerphilharmonie Bremen und designierte Music Director des Tonhalle-Orchesters Zürich dementsprechend forsch und straff. Sein Zugriff der neuen Sachlichkeit in Bruckner-Fragen sorgt für durchweg gute Innenspannung und Dichte.”
Die Welt, Peter Krause, 18 May 2019
“Nach der Pause gelingt Paavo Järvi eine unglaublich transparente, ungekünstelte fragile Interpretation der zweiten Symphonie c moll von Anton Bruckner … Paavo Järvi und das NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester finden an diesem Abend die richtige Klangsprache, ziehen die Zuhörer geradezu in die Klangwelt Bruckners hinein und lassen diese im vollen Klang eingebettet.”
opera-online.com, Helmut Pitsch, 19 May 2019
“Järvi immediately pointed up the many structural features, already present in embryonic form in this C minor symphony (Bruckner), which later came to typify this composer’s instantly recognisable style. There was that yearning motif rising from the mists at the start … There was also a lightness of step and quickening of the spirit derived from gazing at the openness of the landscape, with hints of folksy merry-making heard from afar. It all sounded very close to the lyrical freshness which Bruckner’s contemporary Dvořák brings to his own early symphonies.”
Bachtrack.com, Alexander Hall, 17 May 2019