Quebec music lovers who attend the Festival de Lanaudière certainly remember PaavoJärvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie in Beethoven’s symphonies, then in Brahms. The tandem recorded this, as well as Schumann, for RCA. The main characteristic was this almost carnal relationship that the listener had with the music and these musicians taken by the desire to do battle. So we were very happy and curious to see them embark on Haydn. And hell! First problem: the sound recording, produced in the great hall of the Bad Kissingen Festival, which establishes a distance and trivializes the orchestra. Then there’s the conductor, in “L’Horloge” and “Rolling the Timpani”, who just can’t relax. Admittedly, he takes audible pleasure in rapid movements, but his minuets are excessively tense and his slow movements advance as if the air were limited at the end of the race. Paavo Järvi records everything; he doesn’t have to succeed in everything either!
To see in video