Dirigent Paavo Järvi

»Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich has still that old-world-Klangkultur, that way of making music that is now rapidly disappearing, because uniformity and efficiency is valued greatly over individuality in music making… They play with inner agogic understanding, something that is already missing even in some of the famous big orchestras.«

The Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi sees Beethovenfest Bonn as a »home away from home« – that's how often he has made guest appearances here. In 2023 he will return with his Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and perform two concerts from the »Trilogy of the Ninth« on the opening weekend: Bruckner’s and Dvořák’s ninth symphonies. In the festival podcast, he talks to artistic director Steven Walter about what it was like to grow up in Soviet Russia, about the shock of moving to the USA in the 1980s and about his respect for the different sound cultures of the great orchestras.

bee.contemporary is the podcast of Beethovenfest Bonn. Here we invite guests from musical life, culture and society to talk about current artistic projects and contemporary discourses.