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 Paavo Järvi opens his third season as Chief Conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra, presenting repertoire ranging from Mozart to Bernstein. Their highly acclaimed Strauss recording project continues with the release of the second album featuring Don Quixote, Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche and Der Rosenkavalier Suite. As Artistic Director of The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, he continues the critically acclaimed Brahms Symphonies cycle and launches their Schubert project touring in Europe.

Commencing from the 2019/20 season Paavo Järvi will be Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, while he concluded his highly successful tenure as Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris in summer 2016. He is also Conductor Laureate of Frankfurt Radio Symphony and Music Director Laureate of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In addition to his permanent positions, Järvi is in much demand as a guest conductor, appearing regularly with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Münchner Philharmoniker, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin and Staatskapelle Dresden. Highlights of his recent and upcoming guest engagements include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Teatro alla Scala in Milan and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester.

Paavo Jarvi 1 - Credit Kaupo Kikkas — Paavo Järvi

Paavo Järvi is a dedicated supporter of Estonian composers and Artistic Adviser to the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. Each season concludes with a week of performances and master-classes at the Pärnu Music Festival in Estonia, which he founded in 2010. As a festival celebrating the orchestra at its heart, Paavo Järvi created a new ensemble which has become the uncontested highlight of the summer season: the Estonian Festival Orchestra, which he takes to Europe’s major capital cities for a tour that coincides with the 100^th Anniversary of Estonian Independence in January 2018. Paavo Järvi was awarded the Order of the White Star by the President of Estonia in 2013 for his outstanding contribution to Estonian culture.

With an extensive discography, Paavo Järvi has won a Grammy Award for his recording of Sibelius’ Cantatas and was named Artist of the Year by both Gramophone and Diapason Magazines. He has also been appointed Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture, for his contribution to music in France.

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)