Dvorak Järvi

Born in Tallinn in 1962, Paavo Järvi is renowned for his dynamic interpretations and innovative programming. He has held prominent positions with leading orchestras, including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, or the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich more recently. Paavo Järvi's approach combines technical precision with expressive depth, making him a favourite among musicians and audiences alike.

Born in Tallinn in 1962, Paavo Järvi is renowned for his dynamic interpretations and innovative programming. He has held prominent positions with leading orchestras, including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, or the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich more recently. Paavo Järvi's approach combines technical precision with expressive depth, making him a favourite among musicians and audiences alike.

The first of Dvorak's nine symphonies and the last of his symphonic poems come here in a generous coupling, both of them among the longest works he ever wrote in each genre. The only rival version of the symphony on CD is the Kubelik, and that only comes in the six-disc DG set of the complete cycle. As for The Hero's Song, this is a real rarity. It is in fact the very last orchestral work that Dvorak wrote, in 1897 some seven years before his death. Unlike earlier symphonic poems, it has no specific programme, though the journey from darkness to light in the unspecified hero's life is clearly enough established.

Jarvi directs a characteristically warm and urgent performance of this exuberant inspiration of the 24-year-old composer. It is by far the longest symphony that Dvorak ever wrote, and was longer still in its original form, before the composer revised it. As Ray Minshull put it, when commenting on the Kertesz/LSO issue, which he had produced for Decca, Dvorak ''later learnt to be jubilant more concisely''. The jubilation is what matters, and there is plenty of that on this record yet the issue brings my first significant disappointment in Jarvi's Dvorak series.

Dvorák's Stabat Mater, Op. 58, was finished in 1880, wrenched out over several years after the death of the composer's daughter. It is a sizable setting that has been largely overlooked in favor of Dvorák's later works, but increasing interest in Romantic-era choral music has brought new performances. It has few specifically Czech elements, gaining its interest partly from its combination of a rather formal quality with strong personal feeling. This reading, conducted by Estonia's Neeme Järvi, is hard to beat. Start with the live engineering from the London Philharmonic Orchestra's new Royal Festival Hall, getting clarity from very large forces.

In the 1980's, conductor Neeme Jarvi recorded the nine Dvorak symphonies with the Scottish National Symphony for Chandos. Most of the recordings have received favorable reviews, and some critics believe the cycle established Jarvi the interpreter of Dvorak's music. While I do not own all the recordings in the series and for that reason cannot compare it to other Dvorak recordings by Jarvi, I can say it is an excellent recording and one of my favorites in my collection (consisting of nearly 800 recordings). It begins with the tone poem "The Noon Witch." It is a musical telling of a story similar to "Hansel and Gretel" and Dvorak cleverly uses different instruments and themes to tell the story.

The Scottish National Orchestra with Neeme Jarvi has traversed the entire Dvorak symphonic oeuvre with wonderful success. Jarvi brings a sense of live and vitality to each symphony and the orchestra responds wonderfully. Jarvi's rendition of the 5th is, at least in my opinion, the most convincing in the series. The playing is spectacular; the Scottish National Orchestra brings a beauty of phrasing that complements this symphony well. Of equal power and beauty is the Water Goblin, which Jarvi undoubtedly champions. This is a wonderful CD. S

This disc, particularly well recorded in 1986, brings one of the best versions of the symphony coupled with an equally fine delivery of one of the finest for the late symphonic poems. Symphonic is the key word here as this symphony is the most non-nationalist symphony in the Dvorak canon and is without much doubt the most purely symphonic creation as well as being the most tautly argued and dramatic of the nine symphonies. Jarvi's style of conducting these symphonies is to take a straight view and play them very much as Dvorak wrote them. There are therefore no undue changes of tempi, either slowing down to underline climaxes or speeding up to create artificial excitement.

This disc, made in 1987, is one of the many outstanding discs made by Jarvi and his Scottish orchestra during a very productive and noticeably vibrant point in Jarvi's recording career. Jarvi turned this orchestra from a fairly moderate ensemble into a far finer group with increased tonal resources and power and with a 'live' sounding recorded sound that was special then and remains special today. There were many successes but three cycles stand out - the Prokofiev symphonies, the Rimsky Korsakov Suites and the Dvorak symphonies.