Paavo Berglund

Paavo Allan Engelbert Berglund (April 14, 1929) is a Finnish conductor.

Born in Helsinki, Berglund studied the violin as a child, and played an instrument made by his grandfather.[1] By age 15, he had decided on music as his career, and by 18 was playing in restaurants. He joined the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Finnish RSO) in 1949, unique among the instrumentalists in being accommodated for seating to account for the fact that he is left-handed.

Berglund's conducting career began in 1949, when he founded his own chamber orchestra. In 1952, Berglund co-founded the Helsinki Chamber Orchestra (partly inspired by the Boyd Neel Orchestra,.[2] In 1956, he was appointed Associate Conductor of the Finnish RSO, and served as chief conductor of the Finnish RSO from 1962 to 1972. Berglund became music director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra in 1975 and held the post for 4 seasons. Berglund attained notoriety as a conducting "dictator" due to his ruthless rehearsals and dedication to musical perfection. In the UK, Berglund led Sibelius centenary concerts with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in 1965, and became their principal conductor in 1972, concluding his tenure in Bournemouth in 1979. Berglund led the Bournemouth Orchestra with distinction between 1972 and 1979, significantly raising its performing standards, as can be heard from the many recordings made by it for EMI during this period. He has also served as principal guest conductor of the Scottish National Orchestra, from 1981 to 1985.

Guest engagements have seen Berglund conducting all the major North American and European orchestras, such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the St Petersburg and Moscow Philharmonics, the Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestras. Berglund is also a member of the Russian National Orchestra's conductor collegium.[3]

Berglund is particularly associated with the music of Sibelius, and has recorded the complete Sibelius symphonies three times.[4] During the mid 1950s, Sibelius heard Berglund conduct some of the symphonies and the Suite Rakastava, and told Berglund how much he had enjoyed the performances.[2] Berglund made the first recording of the Kullervo Symphony.[5] Berglund's source-critical research on the Sibelius Seventh Symphony began in 1957, when he conducted the Seventh with the Helsinki Philharmonic, and noticed that they played from parts that Sibelius had corrected. He saw that the printed parts had numerous errors. His subsequent research led to the publication of a new edition of the symphony by Hansen in 1980.[6] He has now recorded the work four times.

In an interview in 1998 with the London Sunday Times, Berglund spoke of his interpretative ideas on the music of Sibelius:

"'Sibelius's music is often ruined because it's too strictly accurate. I think maybe musicians like to play like this' – he makes a series of downward vertical gestures – 'but it's good to do it like this' – his hands, one above the other, oscillate gently in and out of vertical alignment. 'Accuracy against atmosphere: it's not that simple. The early Sibelius conductor Georg Schneevoigt once complained that he couldn't get the details out of Sibelius's scores. Sibelius said that he should simply swim in the gravy.'"

Other conductors highly regard Berglund as an authority on Sibelius, such as Sir Simon Rattle.[6]

Berglund has also recorded works of Aulis Sallinen.[7] He has also collaborated with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in recordings of the complete symphonies of Jean Sibelius[8] and Johannes Brahms.[9]

Berglund's made his New York debut in 1978 with the American Symphony Orchestra at the Carnegie Hall, in a concert of Shostakovich and Sibelius.[2] Since the 1990s he has become a regular guest conductor in the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra.[10]

Contents

Awards

Berglund was nominated for a Grammy [11] and has won a Diapason d'Or.[10]

Selected discography

References

  1. ^ Wimbush R. Here and There: Paarvo [sic] Berglund. Gramophone, June 1971, p22.
  2. ^ a b c Nott C. Here and There: Paavo Berglund. Gramophone, October 1978, p658.
  3. ^ Vadim Prokhorov (18 March 2004). "Batons at dawn". The Guardian. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1171738,00.html. Retrieved 2007-09-01. 
  4. ^ Tim Ashley (11 November 2005). "Sibelius: Symphonies Nos 2 and 7, LPO/ Berglund". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2005/nov/11/classicalmusicandopera.art2. Retrieved 2010-05-16. 
  5. ^ Ottaway, Hugh, Review of HMV recording of Kullervo (1971). The Musical Times, 112 (1544): p. 975.
  6. ^ a b Vesa Sirén (1999). "Sibelius - the View from the Podium". Finnish Music Quarterly. http://www.fmq.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=107&Itemid=122. Retrieved 2010-05-16. 
  7. ^ Northcott, Bayan, Review of recordings by Finnish composers (Merikanto et al.) (December 1978). Tempo (New Ser.), 127: pp. 48-50.
  8. ^ A.A. (October 1998). "Back to Sibelius". Gramophone. http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/October%201998/112/853276/. Retrieved 2010-05-16. 
  9. ^ Andrew Clements (20 July 2001). "Chamber of wonders". The Guardian. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/fridayreview/story/0,,734631,00.html. Retrieved 2007-09-01. 
  10. ^ a b "Paavo Berglund". ex.Virtual Finland. Archived from the original on February 25, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080225125501/http://virtual.finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=26161.  2008-archived at Wayback Machine
  11. ^ Y, YL Male Voice Choir Website retrieved 10/04/09.

External links

Preceded by
Nils-Eric Fougstedt		 Principal Conductor, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
1962–1971		 Succeeded by
Okko Kamu
Preceded by
Constantin Silvestri		 Principal Conductor, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
1972–1979		 Succeeded by
Uri Segal
Preceded by
Jorma Panula		 Music Director, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
1975–1979		 Succeeded by
Ulf Söderblom
Preceded by
Yuri Ahronovich		 Principal Conductor, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
1987–1990		 Succeeded by
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky
Preceded by
John Frandsen		 Principal Conductor, Royal Danish Orchestra
1993–1998		 Succeeded by
Michael Schønwandt