Paavo Järvi conducts Beethoven and a world premiere

“Why did Wilhelm Furtwängler make a ritardando here, but George Szell didn’t? What if the beat should actually come on the minim in this section instead of the usual four crotchets?” Things like this were discussed at the dining table in the house where Paavo Järvi grew up, because he comes from a family of musicians. Both his father Neeme and his brother Kristjan are conductors, his sister Maarika is a flutist, and his cousin Teet is a cellist. After moving to the US, where Paavo Järvi completed his training at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and with Leonard Bernstein at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, historically informed performance practice increasingly became the focus for him. “And that,” says the conductor, “was something that appealed to me quite strongly.” Järvi attracted attention early on, because he approached the standard repertoire from an unconventional perspective and first generated enthusiasm internationally as a Beethoven and Brahms interpreter – with exuberant energy and breathtaking freshness. Today he is chief conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra as well as artistic director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Estonian Festival Orchestra. He made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in February of 2000. He was already familiar with the sound of the orchestra much earlier, however: “I grew up with recordings of the Berliner Philharmoniker. We listened to them almost every day.”

Daishin Kashimoto became 1st Concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2009, at the age of only 30: “It’s a great honour for me to be part of this outstanding orchestra.” The violinist, who grew up in Japan, the US and Germany, appears at least as often as a soloist with other ensembles as in his orchestra position – with Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden and many others, naturally including frequent solo appearances with the Berliner Philharmoniker as well. He is also a much sought-after chamber musician, whose extensive repertoire ranges from works of the Baroque period to contemporary music. At the age of seven, Daishin Kashimoto was accepted into the pre-college programme at New York’s Juilliard School of Music, the youngest student in this division. At the age of eleven, he began studying with Zakhar Bron at the University of Music in Lübeck, then continued his studies in Freiburg with Rainer Kussmaul, who was 1st Concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker at that time. It was by no means a foregone conclusion that Kashimoto would later become one of his successors, however: “Rainer Kussmaul never pushed me into this position, but when it became clear that I would apply for it, he was very supportive.” A stroke of luck, since “one rarely finds a concertmaster as outstanding as the Berliner Philharmonikers’ Daishin Kashimoto, also in other leading orchestras” (Bayerischer Rundfunk).