BBC PROMS PRESENTS
PROM 42: GRIEG PIANO CONCERTO
Monday 13 August 2018 7:30pm
On Monday 13 August, Paavo Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra make history with the ensemble’s debut at the BBC Proms, celebrating both Estonia 100 and the first ever occasion that an Estonian orchestra performs at the world famous British festival. The Royal Albert Hall concert, which sold out within days of going on sale, will be broadcast live on both BBC Radio 3 and filmed by BBC TV to air on 17 August. Joining Paavo Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra on stage will be the world-star pianist Khatia Buniatishvili for a programme featuring Grieg’s Piano Concerto, Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 and Arvo Pärt’s Symphony No. 3.
The Estonian Festival Orchestra’s debut at the BBC Proms follows an extraordinary year in which the ensemble has also charted debuts across Europe including Stockholm (Berwaldhallen), Brussels (Bozar), Berlin (Philharmonie), Vienna (Konzerthaus), Zurich (Maag) and Luxembourg (Philharmonie). Following their performance at the Proms, Paavo Järvi takes the Estonian Festival Orchestra to Germany for yet another important debut – at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie on 15 August.
The Estonian Festival Orchestra was created by Paavo Järvi in 2011 as the resident ensemble at the Pärnu Music Festival in Estonia. His long dreamed of ambition to create a hand picked orchestra, bringing together the best of Estonian talent and leading musicians from from around the world, has now become a reality, establishing itself in the top-league, “imbued with the spirit of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra” (Der Standard, Austria).
“An important component in creating the orchestra was to “match-make” the players” says Paavo Järvi. “If you are a young player in Estonia, it doesn’t matter how good you are, it’s not often easy to make contact with a top player in the west. Now we can give these young musicians the advantage to play with elite players from abroad and get to know them as new friends. This spirit is what drives the orchestra and it is a delight each summer to see how those relationships have grown naturally, creating a melting pot of national and international talent where nationality is happily and importantly no boundary.”
