Dirigent Paavo Järvi

»Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich has still that old-world-Klangkultur, that way of making music that is now rapidly disappearing, because uniformity and efficiency is valued greatly over individuality in music making… They play with inner agogic understanding, something that is already missing even in some of the famous big orchestras.«

The Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi sees Beethovenfest Bonn as a »home away from home« – that's how often he has made guest appearances here. To mark his 2023 festival concert with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Artistic Director Steven Walter spoke with him about Bruckner’s and Dvořák’s Ninth Symphonies, about what it was like to grow up in Soviet Russia, about the shock of moving to the USA in the 1980s and about his respect for the different sound cultures of the great orchestras.

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