Paavo Järvi in conversation with Gunars Upatnieks (16 min.)

In May 2019, Paavo Järvi conducted a work by Anton Bruckner with the Berliner Philharmoniker for the first time: the relatively unknown Second Symphony, which the orchestra had not performed for twelve years. In an interval feature with the Philharmoniker’s double bass player Gunars Upatnieks, Järvi explains why the composition is, on the one hand, a “genuine” Bruckner, but, on the other hand, requires a different interpretive approach to the later symphonies. In addition, the conductor talks about the different versions Bruckner left of almost all of his great works, and about the first half of the concert, which included Anton Webern’s arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Ricercar and Alban Berg’s Seven Early Songs.