Paavo Jarvi High Res - credit Kaupo Kikkas_4

Paavo Jarvi High Res - credit Kaupo Kikkas_3

Paavo Järvi

Conductor

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“And the Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi? He makes the Staatskapelle Berlin sound completely different … a Beethoven of high transparency and attractive expressivity.“
(Berliner Morgenpost, November 2016)

Chief Conductor: NHK Symphony Orchestra
Artistic Director: Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Chief Conductor and Music Director Designate: Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich (from 2019/20 season)
Artistic Director and Founder: Estonian Festival Orchestra
Artistic Advisor and Founder: Pärnu Music Festival and Järvi Academy
Artistic Advisor: Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Laureate: Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
Music Director Laureate: Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

The Estonian conductor and Grammy Award winner Paavo Järvi is widely recognised as the musicians’ musician. On his farewell tour with the Orchestre de Paris, of which he was Music Director for six years, the Wiener Zeitung wrote: “One rarely experiences such an immediate connection between orchestra and conductor, such an extraordinarily attentive presence on both sides so that with economical means an understanding of the most subtle shades is possible.”

Paavo Järvi’s close association with orchestras is evident through his long standing relationship with The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen of which he has been Artistic Director since 2004. This autumn he opens his fourth season as Chief Conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra and in Autumn 2019 he starts his first season as Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. He is also Conductor Laureate of Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Music Director Laureate of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Adviser to the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to his permanent positions, Järvi is in much demand as a guest conductor, returning to perform with the Orchestre de Paris and regularly appearing with the Berliner Philharmoniker, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, Münchner Philharmoniker, Staatskapelle Dresden and Leipzig Gewandhaus. Highlights of his recent and upcoming guest engagements include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic and Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

Each season concludes with a week of performances and master-classes at the Pärnu Music Festival in Estonia, which Paavo Järvi founded in 2011. The success of both the festival and its resident ensemble – the Estonian Festival Orchestra — has led to a string of high profile invitations to perform across Europe, most recently at the BBC Proms and Hamburg Elbphilharmonie.

Paavo Jarvi 1 - Credit Kaupo Kikkas — Paavo Järvi

With an extensive discography, Paavo Järvi’s upcoming projects include the second recording in the Brahms Symphony series with The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the complete Sibelius Symphony cycle, which he recorded with the Orchestre de Paris, It was for this performance and recording project that Järvi was honoured with the Sibelius Medal, in recognition of his work in bringing greater attention to the Finnish composer’s music to French audiences. He was also awarded the Order of the White Star by the President of Estonia in 2013 for his outstanding contribution to Estonian culture.

Born in Tallinn, Estonia, Paavo Järvi studied Percussion and Conducting at the Tallinn School of Music. In 1980, he moved to the USA where he continued his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music and at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute with Leonard Bernstein.

Gallery

Paavo Järvi - Shostakovich: Symphony No.5 (excerpt) with NHK Symphony Orchestra © NHK

Paavo Järvi - Mahler: Symphony No.1 (excerpt) with NHK Symphony Orchestra © NHK

Paavo Järvi - Strauss: Ein Heldenleben (excerpt) with NHK Symphony Orchestra © NHK

Paavo Järvi - Shostakovich: Symphony No.5 (excerpt) - Opening of Philharmonie de Paris © Philharmonie de Paris & Orchestre de Pa

Paavo Järvi conducts Berliner Philharmoniker © source: www.digitalconcerthall.com

Paavo Järvi - Beethoven: Symphony 7 (excerpt) © Sony Music

Paavo Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra Shostakovich Symphony No. 6 live from the 2016 Pärnu Festival © Pärnu Music Festival

“You can’t have too much Dvořák in a single evening, at least not when the works in question operate at the highest level of volatility and melodic abundance like last night’s overture, concerto and symphony. “Febrile centrists” might look like an oxymoron, but that just about sums up conductor Paavo Järvi and cellist Gautier Capuçon: superlative techniques, feet firmly planted only so that the music can fly, moving dexterously through the turbulence but never pushing too hard. With the Philharmonia burning for both, this was an incandescent event.”

(theartsdesk, David Nice, February 2018)

“Dmitri Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony of 1939 ended the great evening: Paavo Järvi did not disappoint the audience’s expectations for precision and a sensual sound. On the contrary — he gave the event remarkable depth, summed up the developments in nowhere declining suspense. An exciting, but also highly, demanding concert evening for listeners and musicians alike!”

(Kronen Zeitung, Florian Krenstetter, January 2018)

“The fourth symphony by Johannes Brahms, premiered in 1885 and a concentrated summit of the the romantic symphony, became a real event: rarely have I heard such gentle chastity in the soft-sounding woodwind chorales of the “Andante moderato”, so much harsh attack in the basses or in the tutti and a melody in the high strings, which sounds so emphatic again and again.”

(Süddeutsche Zeitung, Klaus Kalchschmid, December 2017)

“Järvi captured Sibelius* unique and powerful sense of time. On top, the music flowed and expanded, it looked out at the changing world around it. Underneath, the internal foundation rotated on its axis, meditating on memories and imagination. This was deeply evocative and true to Sibelius’ art”

(New York Classical Review, George Grella, October 2017)

“The rich program of the Pärnu Music Festival reflects the human concept that the conductor Paavo Järvi embodies as its guiding spirit … Under his unpretentious, collegial, always professional direction, the ensemble is thus imbued with the spirit of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra – and is already of an amazing standard.”

(Die Presse,Walter Weidringer, August 2017)

“The NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo surprise with a blazing virtuosity in Shostakovich. Chief conductor Paavo Järvi smuggles the Japanese into the top league … The strings created an ardour that connoisseurs usually ascribe to the Vienna Philharmonic. From Berlin came the bluster with which the violas probed. Moreover, in the lion’s mouth [of the Concertgebouw] the Japanese musicians produced an Amsterdam trump card …”

(Der Volkskrant, Guido van Oorschot, March 2017)

“At the close of Friday night’s Mostly Mozart concert in Geffen Hall, Paavo Järvi and the Festival Orchestra brought down the house with Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony — and how many times do you get to say that of anyone these days? … And let’s not waste words about the performance: it was magnificent in virtually every way. Järvi is musical down to his toes, and watching him work is almost as much fun as hearing the result.”

(Christopher Johnson, Huffington Post, August 2016)