Paavo in Paris

While I was out of town last week at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C. (more about that later), Paavo Jarvi, music director of the CSO, accepted another post -- as music director of the Orchestre de Paris. His negotiations with that orchestra were known to the Cincinnati Symphony, which has just extended his contract here to 2011, annually renewable thereafter. To show his commitment to Cincinnati, he invited president Steven Monder to be in Paris for the announcement last week.

Something will have to give, Jarvi admitted to Agence France Presse. His contract with the Orchestre de Paris requires him to be there for a minimum of 14 weeks and 28 concerts per season, with about an equal amount required on this side of the lake. He currently holds two other positions: artistic director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie in Bremen Germany (with which he is undertaking a series of recordings of the nine Beethoven symphonies) and principal conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony.

"I feel that an orchestra like Orchestre de Paris requires much more focused attention. Of course, there is no doubt that this would be my priority above all the projects," he told AFP.

The orchestra was founded in 1967, but has its roots in the first French orchestra established in 1828. Jarvi will succeed Christoph Eschenbach. Other collaborators have included Herbert von Karajan, Sir Georg Solti and Daniel Barenboim.

And here's another interesting point: He arrives shortly before the planned opening of the new Philarmonie de Paris, a 2,400-seat concert hall that is to be the orchestra's new home. Jarvi says the hall, and presumably his appointment, could "reconfirm Paris as the musical center of Europe."

Jarvi will take the CSO to Paris to make its debut in the famed Salle Pleyel next spring.

Meanwhile, there is no news on the planned renovation of Music Hall...