"It gives me enormous pleasure, as I celebrate my fortieth birthday (and incidentally I share a birthday with Mozart and Lalo, amongst others), to play and replay these works which are so well written for violin. It was an intense and exhilarating experience to record them in Paris - the very place where Symphonie espagnole had its first performance - with the Orchestre de Paris and Paavo Järvi in the brand new Philharmonie de Paris hall. 

“These three works, all written between 1868 and 1878, are among the most famous in the history of the violin. There is a history of respect and friendship linking the three composers, Lalo, Sarasate and Bruch. Lalo dedicated his Symphonie espagnole to Sarasate. It was also to Sarasate that, not long afterwards, Bruch dedicated his Fantaisie écossaise, while it was the great Joachim who first brought Bruch's concerto to the attention of the world.

"As for me, I was 12 years old when I first tackled these works with Veda Reynolds. The Bruch was my first competition piece, the Lalo was the work I chose when I played for Gérard Poulet for the first time and I performed the Sarasate at my first 'serious' récital.

"I would like to dedicate this album to two great men who were both passionate about the Bruch concerto, two people who were very dear to me but who passed away recently: Jacques Chancel and Gratien Ferrari.”

 

The Diapason d'Or ceremony held last night in Paris was the only event this week not to be cancelled for security reasons at the Maison de la Radio. In a live broadcast on France Musique celebrating "the ambition of classical record labels", the presenters cited Leonard Bernstein: "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before."

Among the albums to receive the unanimous nod from Diapason magazine's critics were two very different operas. First, the revelation of the year: Erato's world-premiere recording of the 1688 opera Niobe, Regina di Tebe by Agostino Steffani, the missing link between Cavalli and Handel.

Lutenist Paul O'Dette, who co-directed the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra and an outstanding cast featuring Philippe Jaroussky and Karina Gauvin, accepted the Diapason d'Or in person. "When I discovered the music of Steffani I searched all the libraries to find his operas, and Niobe was the most beautiful." O'Dette "coached the singers nine hours a day for a month" in preparation for the modern premiere and the first recording of this magnificent Baroque jewel.

From Baroque intimacy to Verdian grandeur, the second album to win the Diapason d'Or de l'Année in the Opera category is Warner Classics' opulent, ambitious recording of Aïda. In the title role, the "unforgettable" Anja Harteros embodies "the grace of Tebaldi, the passion of Callas", at the head of a dream team featuring Jonas Kaufmann, Erwin Schrott, Ludovic Tézier and Maestro Antonio Pappano with his Roman army, the orchestra and chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Diapason hailed this monumental studio recording "an Aïda built to last".

The 2015 Diapason Artist of the Year is maestro Paavo Järvi (who was also recently named Gramophone's Artist of the Year at a ceremony in London). The Estonian conductor, as committed to recording as he is to the excitement of live performance, said he was "proud" to accept the award, particularly for his recording of music by the late French composer Henri Dutilleux with the Orchestre de Paris.

"It is important for the orchestra and particularly for me personally," he said of the award. "I am a big fan and very fond of the music of Dutilleux. Thank you for honouring us."

Diapason has unveiled all the winners on Twitter, with detailed reviews in the current issue of the magazine.

Warner Classics and Erato has taken three of the major prizes in the French Classica magazine's 'Choc' of the Year awards, in a ceremony held last night at the Salle Cortot in Paris.

 

 

The Choc for Opera of the Year went to Antonio Pappano's luxurious Aïda studio recording, made in Rome with an all-star cast. "No doubt this new complete recording was conceived around Jonas Kaufmann, star tenor of his day, but let's not forget that it's not just this Radames - so penetrating, electric, attentive to text (yes, our hero unites all these superlatives), that has earned the prix Choc de l'Année. It's also the sovereign direction of Antonio Pappano that instantly sets the mood... and ties this Aïda, and especially the two leads, to a golden age of the past," declared Classica.

"Ludovic Tézier's burnished baritone brings polish to an Amonasro who knows how to pierce the strongest armour, while Ekaterina Semenchuk proves herself a true tigress worthy of Amneris, with a ravaging bite that devours our Aïda/Anja Harteros in a confrontation that is the highpoint of the complete recording."

The Choc for 'Radio Classique's Choice' went to French coloratura soprano Sabine Devieilhe for her brand new Mozart album, The Weber Sisters. "The disc pays homage to the Weber sisters - Josepha, Aloysia and Konstanze - as so many faces in which the composer found his path to creative liberty through the inspiration of humanity. Sabine Devieilhe follows this path with grace and lightness, an astonishing natural flexibility, audacious high notes, rich tone and a quality of projection that is quite unique today," wrote Classica.

Her husband Raphaël Pichon, directing Pygmalion ensemble, "captures a range of moods and affects that constantly renew the listeners' interest."

Sabine said of the prize: "I must tell you how important this Choc de l'Année is to me. This album is the fruit of a long period of reflection, and was a challenge from all points of view, so I'm truly proud to see it acknowledged by Classica with this award."

An orchestral Choc of the Year was awarded to Paavo Järvi's daring album of music by the beloved French composer Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013), with the Orchestre de Paris and violinist Christian Tetzlaff. "What a programme!" declared Classica. "Admirable compositional rigour aligned with dizzying heights of imagination make Dutilleux an instant classic of our time. Paavo Järvi gives these scores a faithful reading." (Métaboles, Sur le même accord, Symphony No.1, spanning the great composer's entire career.)

Paavo Järvi has won the Gramophone Artist of the Year Award, announced in a ceremony today at London's St John's, Smith Square. The Estonian conductor rose above tough competition from nine other nominees including maestro Iván Fischer, pianists Igot Levit and Ingrid Fliter, and harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, to take the magazine's only prize voted by readers and the general public.

“One of the most sought-after conductors of today, and one of the most recorded, Paavo Järvi continues the family tradition," said Gramophone editor-in-chief when presenting the award. "An interpreter of imagination who brings something fresh to everything he tackles, he is a musician well worth listening to.”

Accepting the accolade in person in London, Järvi vowed to "go into the studio reminding myself of the music, the musicians and audiences around the world who voted for me to receive this award.

"It’s a humbling thought to be chosen as Gramophone’s Artist of the Year and I am hugely proud to be standing here today to receive it."

Järvi made headlines internationally last year, when he was forced to hire a bodyguard for performances in his native Estonia of rarely-heard Shostakovich cantatas praising Stalin: he released an album of these controversial choral works on Erato early 2015. Meanwhile, his album of Dutilleux orchestral music has taken a major prize in the ECHO Klassik Awards.

October sees the release of a double album Rachmaninoff collection featuring the Third Symphony, Caprice Bohémien, Vocalise and Symphonic Dances. "Järvi's carefully prepared readings have...character and flair," concluded the Gramophone critic.

It is the conductor's precise, indefatigable approach to recording that swung the Gramophone vote in his favour. According to the magazine, "his mastery of the recording process makes him a much sought-after conductor."

This month, Järvi opened his final season as chief conductor of the Orchestre de Paris - he is set to take over the NHK Symphony Orchestra next season. This weekend, he conducts a major 80th birthday retrospective for his countryman Arvo Pärt at the Philharmonie de Paris.

Paavo Järvi's new album with the Orchestre de Paris, Rachmaninoff Symphony No.3, available 2 October.

Voting for the coveted Gramophone Artist of the Year Award closes on 31 July; have your say here.

Gramophone's in-depth interview with Artist of the Year nominee Paavo Järvi appeared in the May issue of the magazine. “At a time when some other conductors seem to be focusing their recording activity on single-composer projects or on big landmark ventures, Järvi is bucking the trend in...the way in which he views recording as an integral part of his daily musical life.

"One of the key factors behind his diversity of programming is that he is associated with so many different orchestras that have their own traditions, their own sounds, their own strengths.”

The Estonian maestro made headlines with this year's album of controversial Shostakovich cantatas praising Stalin, including The Song of the Forests and The Sun Shines over our Motherland. "I had to have a bodyguard with me," he told The Wall Street Journal of performances in his home country with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the Estonian Concert Choir.

Järvi also had the honour of conducting the historic opening concert of the Philharmonie de Paris this year, with the late French composer Henri Dutilleux's Sur le même accord on the programme. He recorded the same thrilling work with the Orchestre de Paris for a milestone Dutilleux retrospective album released in January.

Don't forget: 31 July is your last chance to choose one of ten superlative musicians nominated for Gramophone Artist of the Year.

The Wall Street Journal today published a revealing interview with Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi, who explains why he felt compelled to shed light on rarely performed Shostakovich works - tainted by their Stalinist associations - in his homeland of Estonia, a former Soviet Socialist Republic.

Järvi recorded these controversial works, The Song of the Forests and The Sun Shines over our Motherland, for a new album of Shostakovich Cantatas with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Concert Choir, released on Erato this week.

Performances in Estonia - a nation scarred by the Stalinist regime, gaining independence as recently as 1991 - were met with such outcry in the media that Järvi was forced to hire a bodyguard.

"After Stalin's death, all the lyrics containing his name were changed. I put it all back to the original," Järvi told The Wall Street Journal. "I had to sign a paper saying that the chorus wasn't singing because of propoaganda." The result is a haunting musical testament to the Russian composer's personal tragedy as well as the suffering of his people.

"It was a necessity to write them," insists Järvi, "otherwise he literally would have died [in the Gulag]...It’s important to show that Shostakovich has two faces. If you listen to these cantatas, you know that he didn’t believe one word. It’s so banal but so brilliant at the same time.

"He was writing about the brutality, the absurdity. That’s why his music is still relevant."

The new album of Shostakovich Cantatas is out now.

 

 

Following international acclaim and Estonia’s first Grammy Award (for their Grieg, Sibelius, Tüür and Pärt recordings on Erato), the Estonian-born conductor Paavo Järvi and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra turn to rarely performed choral works by Dmitri Shostakovich: Song of the Forests Op. 81, The Sun Shines on our Motherland Op. 90, and The Execution of Stepan Razin Op. 119.

The new release confirms Järvi’s reputation as a conductor with a deep understanding for the music of Shostakovich, as well as a particular affinity for choral music, which has a strong tradition in his homeland. These cantatas have a particular significance in Estonia – a former Soviet Socialist Republic under Stalinist rule – where, according to Järvi, the orchestra’s performance of the works was “scandalous”.

“It got so out of hand that I actually had to have a bodyguard with me because the local papers started publishing articles about me praising Stalin in my concert program,” he told Estonian World. “It was because the lyrics in one of the cantatas were praising Stalin but during the Brezhnev time, the texts were changed so that Stalin’s name was not mentioned. I put all the original lyrics back together…so you get something really scary.”

Shostakovich composed Song of the Forests in 1949, a year after he had been publicly condemned by Stalin’s regime for the anti-Soviet nature of his music and forced to publicly apologise. A large-scale patriotic oratorio for tenor and bass soloists, children’s choir and mixed choir with orchestra, Song of the Forests is set to text by the Soviet poet laureate Yevgeny Dolmatovsky that rhapsodises about Stalin’s post-World War II reforestation programme in Russia and Siberia – a message that takes on renewed environmental urgency today. The work earned Shostakovich the Stalin Prize in 1950.

Shostakovich composed The Sun Shines on our Motherland in 1952 to another text by Yevgeny Dolmatovsky for mixed chorus, boys’ chorus, large symphony orchestra and a brass band of trumpets and trombones. The sun symbolises the Communist Party, leading Russia toward the future. By the time Shostakovich composed The Execution of Stepan Razin for bass, concert chorus and orchestra in 1964, Stalin had died and the composer felt able to take a few risks under the regime of Nikita Khrushchev. The cantata is set to a grisly poem about a 17^th-century Cossack revolutionary. Järvi calls the work an “absolute masterpiece” and a “critical view of the Soviet regime”.

“It is very interesting to see all those three cantatas under the same label, on the same record, because you see the two extremely opposing sides of the great genius composer,” he explains.

Shostakovich Cantatas is available now.

Following a week of tragedy in Paris, the French capital's long-awaited new arts complex the Philharmonie de Paris will open its doors to the public on 14 January, bringing people together to celebrate music and culture at a crucial time.

It is fitting, then, that the Orchestre de Paris - with conductor and music director Paavo Järvi - this week inaugurates the concert hall as the Philharmonie's main resident ensemble, playing the music of the late French composer Henri Dutilleux. The work for violin and orchestra, Sur le même accord, features on the Orchestra de Paris' new album out today.

Regarded by many to be the most important French composer of the second half of the 20th century, Dutilleux passed away on 22 May 2013 at the age of 97. The Orchestra de Paris today releases a new recording devoted to the music of this unassuming giant of French music, who synthesised an intensely modern idiom with the orchestral colours and harmonic lushness of music by his countrymen Debussy and Messiaen.

"In his Nocturne for violin and orchestra, Sur le même accord, Dutilleux uses a six-note chord as the basis for the development of his musical ideas and after a short introduction alternates 'Rapid Music' with 'Lyrical Sections'," explains maestro Järvi. "It was composed for Anne-Sophie Mutter, who premiered the work in London on the 28th April 2002 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Kurt Masur."

Dutilleux is in good company at this week's grand opening concert, an all-French program also featuring music by Fauré and Ravel, with pianist Hélène Grimaud and soprano Sabine Devieilhe among the French soloists.

The Orchestre de Paris' new album also features Dutilleux's Symphony No.1 and Métaboles. Although the performance of Sur le même accord at the Philharmonie gala will feature French violinist Renaud Capuçon as soloist, the recording was made with another internationally acclaimed virtuoso.

"Christian Tetzlaff is one of the greatest living musicians and certainly one of the most respected and accomplished violinists," enthuses Järvi. "He is, of course, reputed for his interpretations of the Germanic repertoire (Bach, Brahms), but I find his reading of the Dutilleux particularly natural and polished, even though he had not played it very often. He is totally in phase not only with the piece's architecture but also with its lyricism.

"After Bizet, Fauré and Poulenc, with this recording of Dutilleux works we continue our journey in French music, begun when I took over as musical director of the Orchestre de Paris, and henceforth on disc," Järvi adds. "The journey began with classic works of the French repertoire, and we are now gently arriving at the major works of the modern era. Unfortunately, Dutilleux's death reminds us that this period is coming to an end. This recording is in homage to this great French composer."