Smiles of a summer night: Paavo Järvi at the Pärnu Music Festival

Paavo Järvi

Jüri Reinvere, Paavo Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra

Mirjam Mesak, Paavo Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra

Pinchas Zukerman, Paavo Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra

By Richard Bratby, 18 July 2023

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“where you feel the basses as a tremor in the air even before you hear them”

Reviewed at Pärnu Concert Hall, Pärnu on 15 July 2023

Reinvere, On the Ship of Fools (World premiere)

Strauss R., Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration), Op.24

Bruch, Kol Nidrei: Adagio on Hebrew Melodies, Op.47

Berlioz, Harold en Italie, Op.16

Telemann, Viola Concerto in G major, TWV 51:G9 (Largo)

Pinchas Zukerman, Viola

Amanda Forsyth, Cello

Estonian Festival Orchestra

Paavo Järvi, Conductor

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Reviewed at Pärnu Concert Hall, Pärnu on 16 July 2023

Reinvere, On the Ship of Fools

Berg, Sieben frühe Lieder (Seven Early Songs)

Strauss R., Morgen! Op.27 no.4

Strauss R., Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration), Op.24

Strauss, Delirien Waltz, (Delirium Waltz) Op.212

Mirjam Mesak, Soprano

Estonian Festival Orchestra

Paavo Järvi, Conductor

Estonian Festival Orchestra make Carnegie Hall debut with Arvo Pärt

David Wolfson, 23rd October

Paavo Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra don’t skirt all the pitfalls of a single-composer program in an all-Pärt evening at Carnegie Hall.

***11

Bizet raises the roof at the Pärnu Music Festival

Peter Quantrill, 13th July

The Estonian Festival Orchestra is on scintillating form in a rare outing for Roma, Bizet's own “Italian Symphony”.

****1

Sol Gabetta shines in Dvořák with the Estonian Festival Orchestra

Chanda VanderHart, 24th January

The Estonian Festival Orchestra revels in Dvořák and Tchaikovsky on the Vienna leg of its European tour with Paavo Järvi.

****1

Blistering Buchbinder, trenchant Järvi at the Elbphilharmonie

Alexander Hall, 16th August

Sometimes artists surprise, but in a wholly positive way: nothing remotely bland about Buchbinder's approach to Beethoven's C minor concerto and a Tchaikovsky 1 streets ahead of Järvi's recent recording.

*****

Estonian Festival Orchestra covers itself in glory in Pärnu

Alexander Hall, 16th July

In a programme of Lutosławski, Richard Strauss and Tchaikovsky conducted by Paavo Järvi, there are no weak links in the playing of the EFO and Stefan Dohr’s versatility on the horn is once again on display.

*****

Business as usual: Paavo Järvi gets the band back together in Pärnu

Mark Pullinger, 15th July

The Estonian Festival Orchestra reunites under its founder at the eleventh edition of the Pärnu Music Festival.

****1

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Richard Bratby

Richard Bratby is a critic and cultural historian writing for The Spectator, Gramophone and The Critic, as well as providing programme notes and concert marketing copy for orchestras, festivals and concert promoters in Europe, the USA and Australasia. Formerly a concerts manager for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, he is the author of Forward: 100 Years of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Classical Music: An Illustrated History. He is currently writing a history of the Academy of Ancient Music. A very rusty cellist and extremely occasional horn player, he lives in Lichfield, UK.