Paavo Järvi opens his fifth season as a Music Director of Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich on 13, 14 and 15 September at Tonhalle und Kongresshaus Zürich. In the first half, Maestro performs Schumann’s Cello Concerto with the Austrian cellist Kian Soltani, who is the focus artist this season. Paavo Järvi then continues with Bruckner’s Symphony No.9, which will also be recorded on CD as part his Bruckner cycle.

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 five 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 200^th anniversary of the composer’s birth.