Nielsen, Haydn: Paavo Järvi Philharmonia ****
Paavo Järvi
© Julia Bayer
Royal Festival Hall, 19th November 2015
It was the percussion which took the starring role as Haydn and Nielsen engaged in a lively skirmish at the Royal Festival Hall. In his “Military” Symphony, Haydn holds his Turkish Janissary battery back until the second movement, where drum, cymbal and triangle join the fray in a display of pomp. Nielsen’s percussion is less polite. In the first movement of his Fifth Symphony, he instructs his snare-drummer to disrupt the music “at all costs”. Paavo Järvi urged the Philharmonia on in bracing performances, allied to a spirited account of Nielsen’s Flute Concerto.
Read the full review on Bachtrack.