A Haydn project feted at Opus Klassik awards

It's that time of year in Berlin again, when the who's who of the classical music scene don their best and enjoy a weekend of music during the events of the Opus Klassik. The most important awards ceremony in Germany's classical music scene took place over two days, with concerts on October 12 and a gala event at Berlin's Konzerthaus on Sunday, October 13.

Every year, a jury of experts from the music and media industry doles out prizes to the winners in 27 categories, while performances by the likes of pianists Lang Lang and his wife Gina Alice, as well as soprano Ana Prohaska, fill the halls with music.

Among the winners is the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, receiving the Opus Klassik in the best orchestra category for a recent recording of Joseph Haydn's London Symphonies 101 and 103 under the baton of Estonian-American conductor Paavo Järvi. The production will also be featured in a new DW documentary.

Behind the scenes with Haydn

The making of this album was captured in the DW documentary "The Haydn Expedition," which will be released this December. The documentary focuses on the Austrian composer who throughout history has been overshadowed in terms of popularity by Beethoven and Mozart.

The conductor and the orchestra embarked on a mission to bring Joseph Haydn's symphonies into the 21st century through a series of concerts and recordings; the goal was to show that he was more than a straight-laced guy in a wavy white wig. "Without Haydn there was no Mozart, no Beethoven. All the influence came from Haydn — 104 symphonies! Who can write 104 symphonies?" points out Järvi in the DW documentary.

An overshadowed composer

The composer's London Symphonies, 12 in total, were composed between 1791 and 1795 and are considered as some his masterpieces, although they are rarely heard in concert halls.

Järvi, who has conducted the Deutsche Kammerphilhamonie Bremen for 20 years, wanted to ensure that the recordings of these pieces were just right — and that every member of the orchestra was satisfied with the outcome.

Unlike most orchestras, the 41 orchestra members run this ensemble collectively. They are all shareholders who bear both artistic and economic responsibility for the group. This gives the team an extra shared sense of responsibility and ownership, which has surely helped to bring the ensemble to the top of their field. "The great thing about our orchestra is that although we play and even record these pieces over and over, we discover them anew each time and somehow bring our own vitality to them" says Nuala McKenna, the orchestra's principle cellist, in the film.

One might imagine Haydn as a rather stern figure, but to the conductor, this image isn't at all accurate. "When you listen to his music and most importantly, listen to the humor in his music, this cannot come out of a person who is uptight, stiff and boring. It just is not possible," Järvi says.

One thing scholars can agree on is that the composer is largely responsible for developing the standard form of the symphony, which is still used today. This is comprised of a slow introduction and a fast first movement, followed by a slow second movement, a minuet and trio as the third, and finally another allegro. Generations of composers who came after Haydn roughly stuck to the same format.

Part of family history

Aside from the excitement of embarking on a new project with the orchestra, recording these particular pieces was the fulfillment of a childhood dream for the conductor. Järvi hails from a family of well-known Estonian musicians. His father Neeme and brother Kristjan are also conductors, while his sister Maarika is a flautist. The Järvi family emigrated from the former Soviet Republic of Estonia to the United States in 1980 and were only able to return to their homeland over ten years later when Estonia became an independent republic in 1991.

His father, Neeme Järvi, is one of the most important figures in Estonian classical music and had just finished recording Haydn's London symphonies when the family had to flee Estonia. "They were all done, and then we left and they were destroyed. They were never released because he was a traitor in the eyes of the Soviets," says Järvi of the recordings.

Now that Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen are recording the pieces again, it has become a new topic of family conversation, bringing the Haydn recording story full circle. "We talk about Haydn all the time. In fact, I play my recordings and I send them to my father, and he listens very carefully," explains the conductor.

Haydn died in Vienna in 1809 the age of 77, a wealthy man of world renown, but his music lives — now in the new recording by the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

Edited by: Elizabeth Grenier