150 days later to the day, Johannes Brahms’s “Ein Deutsches Requiem” returns to the place of its triumphal premiere on 10th April 1868, the stunning Bremen Cathedral, thanks to Grammy Award winner Paavo Järvi. He conducts the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen & State Choir Latvija as well as acclaimed soloists Matthias Goerne and Valentina Farcas – “rarely you hear such an insightful performance!” (FAZ) Järvi shows the masterpiece in Brahms’s final version with all seven movements, using the same number of musicians as the composer himself, which is less than what is common practice today.
Fidelio
Since its complete recording of all Beethoven’s symphonies and their performance as a cycle in New York, Paris and at the Salzburg Festival, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and its principal conductor Paavo Järvi are established as truly ideal interpreters of the music of Beethoven. According to The New York Sun they are “the authoritative Beethoven orchestra of our day”.
Ein deutsches Requiem
“A powerful moment of musical history recreated” says Classic FM about the Brahms Requiem interpretation by Paavo Järvi, the Grammy Award-winning Estonian-American conductor, and his orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. The performance corresponds with Brahms’ final version including all seven movements and using the same number of musicians as the composer himself. The premiere of the German Requiem took place on April 10, 1868, in Bremen Cathedral under the direction of the composer himself, although the fifth movement, which was created later, was still missing. On April 10, 2018, for its 150th anniversary, the work is back to the exact place of its premiere in Bremen Cathedral. “Valentina Farcas was the perfect female counterpart to Goerne, which was not easy. She convinced with impeccable phrasing, diction, and legato, she never got shrill and she was not afraid to take risks in the high notes.” (El Pais), “rarely you hear such an insightful performance!” (FAZ)
The Brahms Symphonies
The Brahms interpretations of Paavo Järvi, the Grammy Award-winning Estonian-American conductor, and his Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen have been receiving the highest public and critical acclaim. “A Brahms revelation“ was the headline in the New Yorker, for the Zeit it’s „a reference recording“ and the Hamburger Abendblatt wrote “the greatest experts of Brahms come from Bremen (die besten Brahms Versteher kommen aus Bremen)“. The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen perform Brahms nowadays exactly to the size that the composer himself was accustomed to at the time. This interpretation puts Brahms´ symphonies in a new light, which is explored in the additional documentary through the eyes of the musicians and their artistic director Paavo Järvi. BONUS: The Brahms Code – A music documentary by award-winning film director Christian Berger explores the four symphonies by Johannes Brahms through the eyes of the musicians and their artistic director Paavo Järvi.
Mahler Symphonies Nos. 1-10
The hr-Sinfonieorchester has for decades been numbered among the world’s leading Mahler orchestras. Between 2008 and 2013 it gave its most recent Mahler cycle as part of the Rheingau Music Festival under its then principal conductor Paavo Järvi. The recordings were made in the unique space of the Basilica of Eberbach Monastery, in the magnificent ambiance of the Friedrich von Thiersch Hall at the Wiesbaden Kurhaus and in the outstanding acoustics of the Great Hall of the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. In all of these venues Mahler’s symphonies left a particularly fascinating impression.
Mahler Symphonies Nos. 9 & 10
Gustav Mahler spent 1909 and 1910 working on his final two symphonies. The Ninth has gone down in history as the culmination of his symphonic output and a prophetic anticipation of musical modernism. But owing to his declining health, he had to stop work on the Tenth after a few months and was unable to resume it before his death. Only the first movement,
included here, was orchestrated to a point where it can be performed without non-authorial additions. – The Mahler cycle by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi is appearing complete on DVD and Blu-ray on the C Major label and has already been internationally acclaimed as one of the most important Mahler projects of the new millennium.
“If I knew Mahler only from his music, I would say that he has a huge heart and a deep connection with the soul and humanity.” – PAAVO JÄRVI
Mahler Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6
Symphonies Nos. 5 + 6 will continue the release of the complete Mahler cycle with Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, which since the 80s became a “powerful Mahler orchestra” (Frankfurter Rundschau)
Bonus: Introductions to Symphonies Nos. 5 + 6 with Paavo Järvi
Mahler Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8
In many ways Mahler’s Seventh and Eighth Symphonies are the most unusual works that the late Romantic composer ever wrote. The Seventh was the last in a series of middle-period pieces that were purely instrumental in character. Two movements headed “Nachtmusik“ (night music) and the remarkable writing for a guitar and a mandolin help to create a sequence
of darkly Romantic visions. And even within Mahler’s markedly eclectic output, the Eighth Symphony enjoys the status of an exotic outsider thanks not only to ist two-movement form combining an early medieval hymn and the final scene from Goethe’s Faust but also to the vast forces for which it is scored, earning it the title of “Symphony of a Thousand”.
“If I knew Mahler only from his music, I would say that he has a huge heart and a deep connection with the soul and humanity.” – PAAVO JÄRVI
Mahler Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (HRSinfonie Orchester)
? Symphonies Nos. 3 + 4 will continue the release of the complete Mahler cycle with Paavo Järvi and the
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, which since the 80s became a “powerful Mahler orchestra”
(Frankfurter Rundschau)
? Outstanding soloists: Waltraud Meier (Symphony No. 3), who sung at Bayreuth Festival, MET, Covent
Garden, La Scala etc. with conductors as Muti, ‚Abbado, Thielemann, Mehta etc.
Genia Kühmeier (Symphony No. 4), who sung at MET, Covent Garden, La Scala, Salzburg Festival, Vienna
State Opera, Los Angeles, San Francisco etc.
? Bonus: Introductions to Symphonies Nos 3 + 4 with Paavo Järvi
Mahler Symphony No. 3
? “… excellent prepared orchestra …“ “… Waltraud Meier, a worldwide celebrated singer …“ FAZ
? “… this is simply terrific.“ Frankfurter Rundschau
Mahler Symphony No. 4
? “Genia Kühmeier sang with a trancendental immaculacy tone.“ FAZ
? “Great orchestra, oustanding conductor.“ Bild Zeitung