It’s that time of year again in Berlin. The Opus Classic event features some of the biggest names in the classical music scene bringing their best to enjoy a weekend of music. The most important awards ceremony in Germany’s classical music scene was held over two days, with a concert on October 12th and a gala event at Berlin’s Konzerthaus on Sunday, October 13th.
Each year, a jury of music and media industry experts awards prizes to winners in 27 categories, and performances by pianist Lang Lang and his wife Gina Aris, soprano Ana Prochaska, and others fill the halls. Fill it with music. .
Among the winners were the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie in Bremen, which won in the Best Orchestra category for its recent recording of Josef Haydn’s London Symphonies Nos. 101 and 103 conducted by Estonian-American conductor Paavo Järvi. Winner of the Opus Classic. This work will also be featured in a new DW documentary.
Haydn had a great influence on Mozart, Beethoven, etc.Image: dpa/picture-alliance
Behind the scenes of Haydn
The making of this album will be included in the DW documentary “The Haydn Expedition” which will be released in December of this year. This documentary focuses on the Austrian composer, who throughout history has been overshadowed by the popularity of Beethoven and Mozart.
The conductor and orchestra set out on a mission to bring Joseph Haydn’s symphonies into the 21st century through a series of concerts and recordings. The goal was to show that he was more than just a straight-laced guy in a wavy white wig. "Without Haydn, there would be no Mozart, no Beethoven. All influences come from Haydn. There are 104 symphonies. Who can write 104 symphonies?” Järvi says in the DW documentary. Pointed out.
an obscure composer
The composer’s 12 London Symphonies were composed between 1791 and 1795, and although they are rarely heard in concert halls, they are considered some of his masterpieces.
Järvi, who has conducted the Bremen Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie for 20 years, wanted to make sure that the recordings of these pieces were appropriate and that all members of the orchestra were happy with the results.
Unlike most orchestras, this ensemble is run collaboratively by 41 orchestra members. They are all shareholders with artistic and financial responsibility for the group. This created an added sense of responsibility and ownership for the team, and definitely helped lift the ensemble to the top of its field. “The great thing about our orchestra is that even though we play and record these songs over and over again, we discover them anew each time and somehow bring our own vitality to them. “It’s about being there,” Nuala McKenna, the orchestra’s principal cellist, says in the film.
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen wins Best Orchestra Award at Opus Classic 2024 Image: Julia Baier
When you think of Haydn, some people may imagine a very tough person, but for a conductor, that image is not accurate at all. “When you listen to his music, and most importantly, the humor in his music, it doesn’t come from someone who’s nervous and formal and boring. It’s impossible. ” says Järvi.
One thing that scholars can agree on is that composers were largely responsible for developing the standard form of the symphony that is still used today. It consists of a slow introduction and fast first movement, followed by a slow second movement, a minuet and trio as the third movement, and finally another Allegro. Generations of composers after Haydn stuck to much the same form.
part of family history
Aside from the excitement of embarking on a new project with the orchestra, recording these particular pieces was a childhood dream come true for the conductor. Järvi comes from a family of famous Estonian musicians. His father Nime and brother Christian are also conductors, and his sister Marika is a flutist. The Järvi family immigrated to the United States from the former Soviet republic of Estonia in 1980, but were only able to return to their homeland more than a decade later, when Estonia became an independent republic in 1991.
His father, Neeme Järvi, was one of the most important figures in Estonian classical music and had just finished recording Haydn’s London Symphony when the family had to flee Estonia. Järvi says of the recording: “When everything was over, we left, but it was destroyed. The recording was never released, because he was a traitor in the eyes of the Soviet Union.”
Paavo Järvi comes from a family of prominent Estonian musicians Image: Julia Baier
Now that Järvi and the Bremen Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie have recorded the song again, it has become a new topic of family conversation and the Haydn recording story has come full circle. “We always talk about Haydn. In fact, I play my recordings and send them to my father. He listens very carefully,” explains the conductor.
Haydn died in Vienna in 1809 at the age of 77, a world-famous millionaire, but his music lives on in new recordings by the Bremen Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie.
Editor: Elizabeth Grenier
