Review: Tonhalle with Paavo Järvi and Sol Gabetta

On 13-14-15 March, we had another great cellist at the Tonhalle Zürich, Sol Gabetta, performing Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto in A minor.

She had that highly lyrical voice: very much like a singer, and an unpretentious virtuosity that is so rare nowadays. Everything felt and sounded so natural in her playing, like someone sitting down to just have a conversation with the audience.

The concert started with Debussy’s Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, featuring solo performances within the orchestra, with the most prominent being for the principal flute- our new member Alberto Navarra handled that beautifully.

In the second half, we performed the young Sibelius’ Lemminkäinen Suite, op. 22 (Four Legends from the Kalevala). It was a new experience for most everyone in the orchestra, including me and probably majority of the audience as well. As an Estonian conductor, Paavo mentioned that the music is really close to his home, since Sibelius was a Finnish composer - it is always a nice thing to perform a work, who is naturally familiar with it.

It consisted of four movements, featuring highly folkloric and nordic-style music. In each movement, a solo part was to be performed by section leaders, including the concertmaster, the principal cellist, and many more. But the biggest performance was the English horn solo by our Martin Frutiger, in the second movement named “The Swan of Tuonela”- for which he received a big applause.