Paavo Järvi for London Philharmonic

[Alison]

New chief conductor for the London orchestra from 2028.

A little surprising as the Ed Gardner partnership still feels pretty new and a real artistic success too.

[pastoralguy]

Excellent news. First rate conductor and an excellent leader. Should be exciting!

[Petrushka]

New chief conductor for the London orchestra from 2028.

A little surprising as the Ed Gardner partnership still feels pretty new and a real artistic success too.

I'm also surprised that the Ed Gardner partnership hasn't lasted longer. He seems to want to prioritise his position at Norwegian Opera.

[Barbirollians]

I have to admit being underwhelmed by the Paavo Jarvi recordings I heave heard - Ed Gardner much more interesting conductor to my ears..

[bluestateprommer]

(Disclaimer: I've not seen the LPO/Gardner combo live in performance.)

This was a sort-of surprise to read, but not completely a surprise, with respect to Gardner moving from the LPO, because his one contract extension announcement was for only 2 more years, after a 5-year initial contract. Normally, with a successful orchestra & conductor partnership, the first contract extension would be more than 2 years, a minimum of 3 at least. The LPO/Gardner partnership does indeed look to be quite successful so far, as Alison notes. But Petrushka's explanation does make sense, that maybe Norwegian National Opera is more of a work sink and time sink that EG may have realized at the start. In any event, assuming that the LPO/EG partnership has gone well, this does look to be a case of Gardner leaving five years too early rather than five minutes too late.

(Of course, the Oslo Philharmonic is also looking for a chief conductor now. Perhaps EG might have thoughts of becoming "general music director of the city of Oslo" [total meaningless snarky speculation that probably isn't true at all, of course].)

The LPO have certainly landed themselves a big name with Paavo J.. I've seen on-line headlines from Swiss newspapers asking the question of "what about the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich?", since Paavo J. is chief conductor there for at least 3 more years. Or maybe it will be only those 3 more years.

[LHC]

Gardner seems not to like staying somewhere for more than 9 years. His music directorships so far have been at ENO (8 years), Bergen Philharmonic (9 years) and LPO (9 years), so this appears not to be unusual for him.

He does still have a post at Bergen as their 'Honorary Conductor' so he obviously likes Norway and Norwegian orchestras. That could also tie in well with his relatively new role at Norwegian Opera. I imagine that his having two posts in Norway already would probably rule out any formal relationship with the Oslo Philharmonic as well.

I realise that Jarvi is considered to be a 'name', but I too have been underwhelmed by the performances/recordings of his I have heard. I think its a downgrade on Gardner, even if he's considered to be a bigger 'name'.

[bluestateprommer]

Gardner seems not to like staying somewhere for more than 9 years. His music directorships so far have been at ENO (8 years), Bergen Philharmonic (9 years) and LPO (9 years), so this appears not to be unusual for him.

He does still have a post at Bergen as their 'Honorary Conductor' so he obviously likes Norway and Norwegian orchestras. That could also tie in well with his relatively new role at Norwegian Opera. I imagine that his having two posts in Norway already would probably rule out any formal relationship with the Oslo Philharmonic as well.

The general career advice in any field is that a change every 10 years or so is healthy (advice that I've never observed, of course, since, to quote Lord John Marbury from The West Wing, "I am, as you know, exceedingly stupid" [though without ever having been educated at either Cambridge or the Sorbonne]). In that context, a range of 7-9 years for EG to hold any given post makes sense. He might also think that two overlapping posts is a bit much for him (unlike other conductors we can all name), although the beginning of his LPO tenure overlapped with the last few years of his Bergen PO tenure, and he's obviously juggling two major posts now.

Perhaps EG also has a sense of knowing just how long to stay in one place and not wear out his welcome. I understand also that his wife is Norwegian, and he's stepfather to her daughter, which is another obvious reason for him to focus on life in Norway.

Regarding the appointment of Paavo J.: presumably the LPO musicians had their say and wanted him as their next musical boss (a bottom-up rather than a top-down choice), regardless of what the rest of us think.

[richardfinegold]

I really like him. I think he tends to be liked by players as well. Congratulations all around

[Nick Armstrong]

The general career advice in any field is that a change every 10 years or so is healthy

How interesting - I’d never heard that before… but oddly enough I spent 10 years at each of the three law firms I was at during my career (plus an extra 2 at the end when the last firm merged with another and basically became a new one - 2 years largely devoted to my exit strategy )

It certainly felt right to me!

In years past I tended to feel that Paavo Järvi’s performances overall were less than the sum of their parts… but maturity may well have cured that. Gut feeling is that he’s a positive and exciting appointment.

[ostuni]

Last night’s Sibelius 2 at the RFH was an astonishingly good performance - I agree wholeheartedly with Christian Hoskins who posted on Bluesky that it blew away all the recordings he knows. I was sitting close to the orchestra, in the side choir seats, and have rarely seen such a high proportion of the players looking so elated post-performance.

[gradus]

Last night’s Sibelius 2 at the RFH was an astonishingly good performance - I agree wholeheartedly with Christian Hoskins who posted on Bluesky that it blew away all the recordings he knows. I was sitting close to the orchestra, in the side choir seats, and have rarely seen such a high proportion of the players looking so elated post-performance.

I haven't heard all his recordings of the Sibelius symphonies with the Paris orchestra but the first is an absolute knockout, so welcome to London!