Symphonie fantastique, Love Scene from Romeo and Juliet

"The Adagio of his Symphonie Fantasique is the most translucent I've heard. This is the point at which the conductor's detailed phrasing, the velvety support of the recording and the pristine beauty of the Cincinnati strings meet at their best. More Berlioz from the team, please."
***** Five Stars BBC Music Magazine (Oct 2001)

The dynamic new Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Jarvi, makes his debut recording with the orchestra on Telarc.

Paavo Järvi, one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation, becomes the twelfth music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in September 2001 assuming The Louise Dieterle Nippert and Louis Nippert Chair.

The Estonian conductor now living in America, Mr. Järvi has been called "one of the young Turks of conducting" and has earned praise from critics on both sides of the Atlantic. "A pupil of Leonard Bernstein, he has much of the latter's charisma and a similar ability to galvanize an orchestra into playing with furious intensity and bravura panache," one critic wrote. "Talent runs in families but Paavo Järvi...has an extraordinary gift," wrote another. A London critic states it simply; "one of the great conducting careers of the 21st century is now, unquestionably, under way."

Born in Tallinn, Estonia, Mr. Järvi studied percussion and conducting at the Tallinn School of Music. Upon moving to the United States at the age of seventeen, he continued his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music under Otto-Werner Mueller and Max Rudolf, former music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, as well as at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute with Leonard Bernstein.

Mr. Järvi has held the post of Principal Guest Conductor with both the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and the City of Birmingham (England) Symphony Orchestra. He is much in demand as a guest conductor with orchestras around the world, including; the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra (his Carnegie Hall debut), NHK Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra and many others.

Paavo Järvi has championed the works of many Estonia composers including Arvo Pärt, Erkki-Sven Tuur, Lepo Sumera, Udo Kasemets and Eduard Tubin.