Paavo Berglund

Paavo Berglund ( born April 14, 1929 in Helsinki, † January 25, 2012 ibid; actually: Paavo Allan Engelbert Berglund ) was a Finnish conductor.

Career

Berglund studied violin at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and was a member of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 1949 he founded his own chamber orchestra, and in 1953 participated in the foundation of the Helsinki Chamber Orchestra. In 1956 he became conductor of the Finnish Radio Sinfomieorchester and was followed from 1962 to 1972 chief conductor of the orchestra. In 1975, he became music director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

Paavo Berglund also headed outside Finland many leading orchestras and was its chief or principal guest conductor, so the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (from 1965-1979 ), with whom he recorded many works for the record for EMI. At the Scottish National Orchestra from 1981 to 1985 he was principal guest conductor. In addition, he has conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, St. Petersburg and the Moscow Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Reception

Berglund was particularly appreciated for his interpretations of the works of his compatriot Jean Sibelius and took all of whose symphonies three times for the record on. Sibelius himself was the mid-1950s in old age still hear led by Berglund performances of his works and liked him very much. Berglund also conducted the first recording of the Kullervo Symphony and was involved in the new edition of the 7th Symphony. Except for Sibelius Berglund campaigned for other Scandinavian composers of the 20th century, such as Aulis Sallinen and Joonas Kokkonen for.

His discography also includes works by Johannes Brahms, among others (complete symphonies at Ondine ), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Edvard Grieg, Carl Nielsen (complete symphonies on RCA Red Seal ) and Dmitri Shostakovich.