From the Archives: Paavo Järvi Conducts Beautiful Music

Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin

iHeartPodcasts

Tv & Film, Music, Music Interviews, Arts, Performing Arts, Film Interviews

4.4 • 8.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

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Summary

Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi is one of the most in-demand maestros in the world, and one of Alec’s favorite conductors. Järvi is currently the chief conductor of the NHK symphony orchestra in Tokyo and the Tonhalle Orchester-Zürich. Over his career, he’s led orchestras in Paris, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Malmö, and, for the decade between 2001 and 2011, here in the United States, as the musical director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He and his musical family are pillars of the thriving classical music scene in his home country of Estonia. Paavo Järvi talks to Alec about how slowing down in the pandemic offered Paavo time to think, his early love of music, what it was like to come to the United States from Soviet-era Estonia as a 17-year-old, and what he took away from a decade of conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Originally aired November 30, 2021

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an IHeart podcast.
0:02.5	Guaranteed Human.
0:06.1	I'm Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to Here's the Thing from IHeart Radio. The That's the NHK Symphony Orchestra,
0:45.7	conducted by my guest today, Paavo Jarvie,
0:48.5	performing Wagner's Dus Rheingold,
0:50.8	the entry of the gods into Valhalla.
0:54.2	Pavo Yarvey is one of the most in-demand maestros in the world.
0:58.8	He's currently the chief conductor of both the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Tom Hall
1:03.9	Orchestra Zurich.
1:05.6	Over his career, he's also led orchestras in Paris, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Malmo, and for the decade between
1:12.9	2001 and 2011, here in the U.S. in Cincinnati.
1:18.0	Paavo Jarvi was born into a musical family in Soviet-era-Estonia.
1:23.3	His father, Nehme, and his brother brother Christian are both also conductors.
1:28.1	The family defected to New Jersey in 1980 when Paavo was 17 years old.
1:33.8	As one of the most respected conductors in the world,
1:37.1	Paavo Yardy travels a lot.
1:40.1	When the pandemic struck last year, he found some freedom in staying put.
1:46.1	It was one of those sort of amazing moments, because first of all, we never thought it
1:52.5	will be three months. We thought, oh, it's going to be maybe a couple of weeks, and then things
1:57.2	will get better, and then you realize it's going to be a bit more,
2:01.2	and then a bit more again.
2:03.0	And then you realize it, okay, this is now indefinite.
	...

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