KRATT review highlights

KRATT

review highlights

Paavo Järvi

Estonian Festival Orchestra

Alpha Classics

Released July 2023

“Energetic and virtuosic, effective and concise, these pages have in common that they

combine mass effects and solo spirit, and call on a wide range of nuances and timbres

(the surge of power in the Moderato in the Music for Strings!). In Paavo Järvi and the

Estonian Festival Orchestra, the performances are sure-footed and fully committed. The

interpretation of the Funeral Music, in particular, surpasses in intensity many previous

versions (Dohnanyi on Decca and even Lutoslawski on Warner).”

* * * * * Diapason, Anne Ibos-Augé, November 2023

“One can clearly hear in these state-of-the-art recordings the virtuosity of the brilliant

ensemble assembled by Paavo Jarvi to perform these powerfully accomplished

readings; better accounts could not be imagined ... This release is recommended to all

those interested in the less well-known paths of 20th century music.”

musicwebinternational.com, Gregor Tassie, 16 October 2023

“This "New record" features the music of composers from countries close to us, Poland

and Estonia, performed by Paavo Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra, which brings

together the greatest talents of Estonia and the most famous musicians from all over the

world in Pärnu every summer. The conductor and orchestra are not limited to concerts

alone - they immortalize their original programs in recordings. This album features the

fourth recording of these musicians with "Alpha Classics", named after the first Estonian

ballet - “Kratt”.

LRT.lt, Paulina Sofija Nalivaikaitė, 3 October 2023

"This fourth release from Paavo Järvi and his peerless Estonian Festival Orchestra – think

along the lines of Claudio Abbado’s last ten years in Lucerne – follows the previous two

in featuring music from his native Estonia ... The playing is as vivid as we’re ever going

to get, with brass so impressive in the outer movements – the trombones especially so in

the visceral Dance of the Exorcists – and strings ushered in by leader Florian Donderer

bringing rustic charm to the central Peasant Waltz.”

* * * * * BBC Music Magazine, David Nice, September 2023

KRATT

review highlights

"Another riveting performance from Paavo Järvi’s army-of generals Estonian Festival

Orchestra ... the music-making absolutely thrills. "

Gramophone, Andrew Mellor, September 2023

Järvi “conducts a full-blooded, vigorous performance of Bacewicz’s piece, especially in

the finale where the composer combines neat counterpoint with rhythmic punch. Finally,

we get a searing rendition of Musique funèbre, where the parallels to Bartók’s Music for

Strings, Percussion and Celesta are underlined as a basis for exploration. Sound quality

in this imaginative program is excellent.”

Limelight Magazine, Phillip Scott, 30 August 2023

“... Paavo Järvi conducts his Estonian Festival Orchestra with force and brilliance ... An

exciting disc, with a good share of rediscovery, mixing Estonian and Polish musical

history with also works by Witold Lutosławski and Grażyna Bacewicz.”

* * * * Le Soir, Gaelle Moury, 8 August 2023

“Järvi and his Estonian orchestra serve these two works (by Tubin) in masterful fashion,

the strings covering themselves with glory ... This fourth album by the Estonian Festival

Orchestra for Alpha demonstrates, like the previous ones, a perfect harmony between

the members of this formation and their conductor.”

crescendo.be, Jean Lacroix, 29 July 2023

Sound: 9 Record: 9 Repertoire: 10 Interpretation: 10

"On this (now fourth) album, Paavo Järvi explores the lines of communication between

the two former Eastern Bloc countries with the Estonian Festival Orchestra and it must

be said that the results are more than excellent and certainly leave us wanting for even

more .... Fascinating to hear the many differences but also similarities between the

music brought together on this album. Or actually, experiencing is a better description,

because that is what it is: a true experience in sound.”

opusklassiek.nl, Aart van der Wal, July 2023