Russia (bbabo.net), - One of the greatest contemporary conductors Paavo Järvi, son of the legendary maestro Neeme Järvi, performed for the first time with the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. The program of the concert included music by Richard Strauss, rarely performed in Russia - "Alpine Symphony" and a fragment from the ballet "The Legend of Joseph". Paavo Järvi spoke about his mission to work with young people and why it is important to listen to symphonic music with an open heart.
What feelings did you have during the rehearsals of this concert, which could not have taken place?
Paavo Järvi: We are in a very difficult situation. At first I was indecisive, and my first thought was to leave and not do this concert. But then I thought it wouldn't be fair. I know for sure that all musicians are brothers and should support each other, do everything so that people of culture can be above politics. This is a different area, and the only thing that will save us and help us is music, culture and love. I am very pleased with the work with the Youth Orchestra, I fell in love with this orchestra very much. Young, talented, enthusiastic musicians played with incredible dedication. As you know, I very often conduct young orchestras, I see my mission in this - to help and play music with the young, because this is our future. I was especially impressed by the fact that there are about fifteen different nationalities in it. I am very, very happy to have the opportunity to meet and perform with such an orchestra.
And you have chosen a difficult program - a huge symphony by Richard Strauss and the music of the ballet "The Legend of Joseph", unknown here.
Paavo Järvi: Yes, I have chosen an unusual repertoire, this music is not played often. But I wanted to offer the young orchestra unknown works to broaden their horizons, it is always useful to learn something new and interesting. "Alpine Symphony" - music for a hundred people on stage, unusually difficult. They did great with her.
Recently, you and the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra released a recording of all the symphonies of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. You interpret each of them as a living extended story, trying to evoke a dialogue with a modern listener. How do you manage to hear the burning modernity in his music without violating the performing traditions?
Paavo Järvi: I am very pleased that you felt them in this way, that you paid attention to this aspect. But in general, this is the job of a conductor. There is no point in multiplying some stereotyped interpretations just because "we have always done it this way". It's like playing the same record all the time. I love Tchaikovsky's music very much, but once it seemed to me that a distance began to appear between me and her. You very rightly noted that a symphony should tell something, speak. It is not enough just to play perfectly, cleanly and virtuoso: music must necessarily lead a dialogue. No composer writes simply in B-flat. Everywhere there will be text and context that the public needs to hear and understand. I think it's stupid to say that Brahms' symphonies are absolute pure music without stories. It has intense internal dialogue and history, not to mention Mahler and Bruckner. In the same way, Tchaikovsky tells the story from the first note. Such, for example, is the beginning of the Third Symphony, where from the introduction we hear his intention to tell us a fascinating musical story. My children know that there is no just beautiful music, they are used to listening as if someone is telling them something in music.
So the conductor's task is to be able to lead the listener in the right direction?
Paavo Järvi: I don't like moralizing, mentoring. It is much more important that the audience finds the answer in the music itself. Therefore, I prefer music without words, which gives a flight of fantasy, when each listener can find his own truth of interpretation. The magic in music lies in the absence of unambiguity, division into black and white, everything coexists in it, as in life. Listening to music is a very intimate process, it's not a musicology class at a conservatory. I see a lot of freedom in this. Listening to music, one must be able to open one's heart, surrender to it without critical prejudice and comparisons. It used to be thought that if you conduct Tchaikovsky differently than Mravinsky, you don't understand anything about it. He was a brilliant conductor of a brilliant orchestra, moreover, a teacher of my beloved father, Neeme Järvi. But this was just a Soviet interpretation of Russian music, and not its only way. In the performance of Golovanov, one could hear a completely different world, especially with Svetlanov. Creating performance templates is a dead end, dictatorship.
No composer writes simply in B-flat. There will be text and context everywhere
What kind of music do people most want to listen to in philharmonic halls today?Paavo Järvi: I think that the most demanded music by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, maybe Shostakovich is "iconic" music. They want Stravinsky, but less Bartok, even less Hindemith. Debussy and Ravel are preferred more than, say, Honegger. They always want a Violin Concerto by Sibelius, Tchaikovsky or Brahms. But in four hundred years of music, so many good works have been written, but the public loves they know. Therefore, our goal is to push the horizons. If we do only what the public wants, we will have ten symphonies left.
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Paavo Järvi, Estonian conductor. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute under Leonard Bernstein. He has led the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, the Bremen Chamber Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchester de Paris, the NHK Symphony Orchestra. Since 2019 he has been Principal Conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich. On the Sony classical and Alpha labels, he recorded all the symphonies of Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Mahler, the works of Messiaen and other composers.
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