ELBPHILHARMONIE TALK WITH PAAVO JÄRVI

Elbphilharmonie

08.11.2022 

ELBPHILHARMONIE TALK WITH PAAVO JÄRVI

The conductor on his tearful beginnings in his training, why half of all conductors cannot conduct and the differences in acoustics between the Tonhalle and the Elbphilharmonie. #Interview #podcast #talk

Endlessly wide streets, endless cars, endless expanses, built-up and undeveloped: everything suddenly seemed “larger than life” here. It was quite a culture shock when Paavo Järvi, at the age of 17 and not a word of English on his tongue, moved with his family from his tranquil hometown of Tallinn in Estonia to New Jersey in the USA. That was in 1980 and seems more than a lifetime ago. Paavo Järvi's father, Neeme Järvi, is an Estonian conductor legend who lives in the USA. His brother Kristjan Järvi, who is nine years his junior, also stirs up the classical music scene from the USA. And after a rigorous conducting training at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Paavo Järvi chose Europe as the center of his life and work – despite a long-standing position as chief conductor in Cincinnati.

Paavo Järvi is probably the conductor with international appeal who, apart from the heads of the local orchestras, can be heard most often in the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle. Above all with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, but also with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Orchester de Paris, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Estonian Festival Orchestra or, as in November 2022 for three evenings en suite, with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, whose Musical Director Paavo Järvi has been for a few years.

In the "Elbphilharmonie Talk" Paavo Järvi talks about his tearful beginnings in his conducting training in the USA, the exciting differences in the acoustics between the Tonhalle and the Elbphilharmonie and what he sees as the common ground between Bruckner, Messiaen and Pärt. He explains why half of all conductors cannot conduct and what an invaluable advantage one has when the mentor for one's own conducting career lies in the family. He's also a professed hedonist and says he's almost 60 years old and feels a lot better than he did when he turned 50 in 2012. And Järvi does away with the prejudice that no conductor can conduct Mahler and Bruckner as well. At least he's trying.

https://www.elbphilharmonie.de/de/mediathek/elbphilharmonie-talk-mit-paavo-jarvi/796