Conductor Järvi brings fire, dynamism to far-ranging repertoire

Paavo is in Miami this week to conduct the New World Symphony, founded by Michael Tilson-Thomas. Lawrence A. Johnson of the Florida Sun-Sentinel, offers this wide-ranging interview with Paavo to re-acquaint listeners what he's been up to lately.

Conductor Järvi brings fire, dynamism to far-ranging repertoire
By Lawrence A. Johnson
Classical Music Writer
April 10, 2005

It's hard to believe that not too many years ago Paavo Järvi was known as the upstart son of the celebrated Neeme Järvi, a conductor beloved by collectors the world over for the remarkable variety of rare repertoire he has recorded.

Yet more recently, with the younger maestro's fast-rising profile and reputation, it's increasingly likely that Järvi peres will soon be known as Paavo Järvi's father.

Now in his fourth season as music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Järvi has by all accounts re-energized the venerable 110-year-old ensemble with a combination of dynamic performances, venturesome programming, and an approachable, nonstuffy personality. Local concertgoers got a taste of Järvi's blend of intelligence and live-wire adrenaline in the electrifying Scandinavian concert he presented with the New World Symphony three years ago.

Järvi will return to South Florida this week to lead the New World Symphony in music of Mozart, Nielsen and Sibelius, at the Lincoln Theatre.

With a very active conducting schedule and contracts with two record labels, the 42-year old Estonian has been raising his international profile, winning accolades in guest appearances with the world's major orchestras, and racking up several tours, including trips to Japan and Europe with the Cincinnati orchestra. A recent Chicago Tribune article added him to the short list of candidates to succeed Daniel Barenboim as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (a list that also included New World artistic director Michael Tilson Thomas).

Yet for now, Järvi is content to enjoy his popularity and newfound success in the American Midwest.

"I must say this has been above expectations," the conductor said recently in a phone conversation from Cincinnati. "I think I made the right decision."

He is quick to add that the Cincinnati Symphony was a very good orchestra before he arrived. "It's a matter of chemistry. We speak the same language----strangely enough even though we are not from the same environment."

Järvi has quickly become a fixture in his adopted city on the Ohio River. In addition to staying to sign CDs and chat with audience members after every concert, he lives in Cincinnati with his wife and 13-month-old daughter---a far cry from the usual limo-bound European music director, whose feet never touch the pavement of the American cities they conduct in.

After the initial hype and excitement of his appointment in fall of 2001, Järvi believes his relationship with his players has evolved and grown closer, something that is not a given. "There's always a big hoopla in the beginning whenever any orchestra has a new music director," Järvi said. "There's an incredible artificial high that is created and, if it is not organic, that will come down and inevitably it will seem like a bit of a disappointment."

"I must say that, at least as far as I'm concerned and can detect, there's no feeling that the honeymoon is over. There's a huge difference between something that works in a relationship and an artificial, manufactured kind of success. I think we have the real thing here."

NIELSEN RATINGS

The conductor was hugely impressed with the quality of the New World players when he made his first appearance with them 3 years ago, calling them a "fantastic orchestra." He was especially flabbergasted by the verve and virtuosity they brought to Exodus, a difficult piece that fuses heavy-metal rock and classical by Järvi's compatriot, the Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür.

"I don't think that piece has ever worked as well anywhere," said Järvi of those Miami Beach performances. "It takes a little bit of a rock [sensibility] and those kids were so into it. If a piece like that is done that way, it's usually very convincing. They have such energy, it's unbelievable."

This week's program of Mozart and Nielsen reflects Järvi's attempt to blend the standard and offbeat. Even though he has conducted and recorded a wealth of far-ranging repertoire, like his father, Järvi has a special feel for Nordic and Scandinavian music. Carl Nielsen's Symphony No. 6 reflects the conductor's passion for this music, a work he views as Nielsen's "crowning achievement."

In varied ways, Nielsen's symphonies reflect an ordered universe beset by disorder, most famously in his Fourth Symphony, "Inextinguishable", where the harmonic conflicts culminate in an improvised battle between two dueling timpanists. "Nielsen has his own fantastic language,"says Järvi. "In a strange way if one is familiar with Nielsen's language there is a logic to it, harmonically. The more you know it, the more familiar and consistent things sound. Everything is more massive in the last three symphonies than the First but the principles remain the same."

Järvi believes that the Danish composer is finally getting his due in the U.S., in no small part because of the "curious phenomenon" of Scandinavian and Baltic conductors leading several American orchestras: the Finns Esa-Pekka Salonen with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Osmo Vanska in Minnesota, and the Estonian Järvis, himself in Cincinnati and his father, long in Detroit and now in New Jersey.

"It makes me smile every now and then because of course we bring a love of that kind of music," said Järvi. "And surprisingly it's not rejected by the audience; in fact it's very much embraced by them."

MOZART MANNERS

Though Mozart is a considerably better known commodity, Järvi also has strong ideas about performing the Austrian composer's music with informed period elements, which he will bring to the Symphony No. 39, a work more difficult to pull off than many think.

"39 has an incredible operatic slow movement, which needs rubato and also discipline so that's it's not interpreted in a too-personal way, but still has style." Järvi believes that despite decades of period-performance influence and recordings, there is a kind of "protectionist attitude" and an old-fashioned approach to string playing that still dominates American conservatories in 18th-century repertoire.

"We're a little behind in this country in embracing the period-performance traditions," Järvi said. "People used to create a 'fat' sound in Brahms at the expense of nobody hearing the inner voices or the second oboe line. The German-Jewish and Russian schools have really been dominating American string playing. And now all of a sudden these principles are being questioned."

"I'm not saying that one school is right and one is wrong; I just think there should be a larger point of view. Even someone like [conductor Claudio] Abbado has changed his view of interpreting Beethoven. No one today can really interpret Beethoven the same way Bruno Walter did. It's important to do both. I know a younger orchestra is always more open to things. I might even learn something!"

'A LOT OF STRANGE THINGS'

Paavo Järvi has kept up a busy recording schedule for Telarc, with an eye toward quirky programs. In addition to discs of Debussy, Ravel and Prokofiev, his Cincinnati recordings have served up such unlikely CD partners as Stravinsky's Rite of Spring with Nielsen's Fifth Symphony, and Sibelius' Second Symphony with the Symphony No. 5 of Eduard Tubin. Järvi's non-Cincinnati discs for Virgin and Bis rove even farther afield from Arvo Pärt to Bernstein, Sibelius cantatas, Stenhammer and Sumera.

His next Telarc/Cincinnati disc will offer a bracing Czech program combining Dvorak's New World Symphony with Martinu's Symphony No. 2. They will follow that up with the Concertos for Orchestra of Bartok and Lutoslawski. "We're trying to have a little fun," he said. "We do a lot of strange things."

Järvi feels that performing only Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky tends to patronize audiences' intelligence and that challenging programs are much more widely accepted than nervous orchestra execs recognize. Surprisingly, in Cincinnati, he says it is the older, more veteran subscribers that seem most excited by new music and younger subscribers tend to be more conservative.

"Young people will come up and say, 'Well, I didn't care for the first piece but I really loved the Tchaikovsky.' And older, sophisticated music lovers, say 'Bring us more new things!' After the Arvo Pärt Second Symphony, I had 25 people, all over 60, standing in line and telling how much they loved it. So I think it's a little bit of a myth that older concertgoers are more traditional. People want to learn and be brought into a new territory and discover new things."

At a time when the top American orchestras are all without long-term contracts, the fast-growing discography that the conductor has built reflects the energy and renewed sense of purpose he has brought to the Ohio city. Järvi feels that the CD project is not only essential to his growing personal and professional bond with his Cincinnati collagues, but crucial to getting the word out about his orchestra to the greater musical world.

"Larger orchestras like Philadelphia or New York are able to get by on their fantastic reputations alone because they're not really building those reputations anymore," said Järvi. "They are maintaining them. They are not losing out as much as we would be if we weren't recording, because we are still building our reputation."

So, he and his orchestra have something to prove. "Absolutely! On a pragmatic being-seen kind of level. But also just philosophically speaking as well."

"I think if you don't have anything to prove you sort of stop caring really. And I think that if you have something to prove that means you have something higher to achieve."

WHAT: Paavo Järvi conducts the New World Symphony in Mozart's Symphony No. 39 and Nielsen's Symphony No. 6. Conducting fellow Benjamin Shwartz will lead the musicians in Sibelius' Finlandia.

WHEN: Concerts are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. April 17 at the Lincoln Theatre, 541 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach.

TICKETS: $24-$69. Call 305-673-3331, visit the box office or go online at www.nws.edu.