Getting to Know You: Paavo Järvi's Second Season in Cincinnati

program book, 2002-2003 CSO season

(Part two of a continuing series)

Paavo Järvi's second season as music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (2002-2003) was a "getting to know you" experience, not just in Cincinnati, but on the orchestra's first tour with him, to the East Coast in March-April, 2003.

Included on the seven-day tour were visits to New York's Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall in Boston and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

Here are some images from that season, dubbed "The Paavo Touch":



Introduction to the 2002-2003 CSO season from The Cincinnati Post.  Opening concert featured Estonian composer Lepo Sumera's Symphony No. 6 in its CSO premiere, Carl Nielsen's Symphony No. 5 and the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 with guest artist Lars Vogt.  Guests that season also included pianist Radu Lupu, cellist Steven Isserlis, trombonist Christian Lindberg and on tour in the spring to the East Coast, violinist Vadim Repin. Heard in Cincinnati and on the tour were the Sibelius Violin Concerto, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10, Estonian Erkki-Sven Tüür's "Exodus." Stravinsky's "Firebird" Suite, Ravel's "Bolero" and Sibelius' "Finlandia."



Announcement in The Cincinnati Post of the East Coast tour, which included Järvi and the  CSO's first visit to Carnegie Hall together.



Cover of the souvenir book of the tour, compiled after the return to Cincinnati.  There were stops in Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts and Washington's Kennedy Center in addition to Carnegie Hall in New York.  All earned outstanding reviews ("Wow!" "Look out, here's another one," etc.).



Program performed at Carnegie Hall ("powerful chemistry").



Järvi with (left) Cincinnati Post critic Mary Ellyn Hutton and (right) Cincinnati Enquirer critic Janelle Gelfand backstage at the Kennedy Center, April 5, 2003.



On June 4, 2003, Järvi's 2001 CSO inaugural concert was telecast nationally by PBS.

Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn, Estonia, February, 2003

In the fall of 2002, Järvi became artistic adviser of the Estonian National Orchestra or ERSO (Eesti Riiklik Sümfooniaorchester).  The position involved recording activities and occasional concerts, but no definite schedule. Here is the Estonia Concert Hall in Tallinn with a banner advertising one of his concerts there in February, 2003.