Just saw the feature ‘subscriber’ video. Well done as always, David. As I’ve stated before, I was very fortunate to be commissioned and performed by Neeme Järvi back when he ran the New Jersey Symphony. He’s a delightful guy and a great conductor with no ego getting in the way. He’s performed his share of Beethoven and Mozart, but didn’t record them so much, mainly because he’s more interested in both neglected music and promoting living composers. I think his recordings of the Brahms symphonies with the LSO on Chandos is the most repertoire-esqe stuff he’s done. Whatever Neeme Järvi does, is always worth hearing.

I appreciate your love for Neeme Järvi. I fell in love with him years ago through his Shostakovich symphony 8 and his recording of the Shostakovich violin concerti. Over the years, they haven’t been surpassed, except maybe Jansons recording of Shostakovich 8 with Pittsburgh. Thank you for your insight and information I didn’t know. Jeff

The quintessence of Jarvi for me is his set of the Borodin symphonies on DG. There's surely nothing more rumbustuous and joyful in the whole classical recorded repertoire than his prancing through the Scherzo of No. 1.

I always appreciate your enthusiasm. We were very fortunate to have Maestro Jarvi with us, here in Detroit, for a number of years. The orchestra (Detroit Symphony) loved him, and so did the subscribers. We also loved his successor, Leonard Slatkin, but Jarvi filled a very special niche.

Neeme Järvi was an important part of my musical education. First got to know classical music while at Michigan State in the 90s, while he was conductor in Detroit. So I heard a lot of radio broadcasts of his concerts (when that was still a thing), and then went out and bought his CDs.... Now that I live in Detroit, wish he'd come back for a visit, because I've never seen him live.

Such a great series the 10Best! It's so valuable in this year's of overdose of choice to have somebody to guide us! Thank you Dave! It really worth the classics today insider!

I love Jarvi because he did all this stuff others would not touch. Take his native Estonia for example. Who had ever heard about the Kapp family before Jarvi recorded some of their works?

Many thanks for recognizing Neeme Jarvi's many contributions to the neglected composers and others over the years. His Glazunov, Tubin, Dvorak, Gade symphony cycles was my into into Classical music back in the 80's and 90's and I was grateful to hear such a wide variety of music rather than the constant Mahler and Beethoven cycles. I was hoping for a Myaskovsky Symphony cycle but an awesome Manfred Symphony would be great too.

I've enjoyed his recordings of neglected composers for many years. They all are very well engineered for maximum excitement. On a personal note, he was kind enough to autograph his autobiography, which includes a DVD performance, back around 2010. I found it outside the famed Strand bookstore on Broadway. Only autograph I have of a conductor!

I cannot claim to have even scratched the surface of his recorded legacy, but a few discs are standouts in my discovery of certain works: his 2nd Prokofiev Symphony, 2nd Schmidt symphony with CSO (talk about excitement at the expense of cleanliness), his Nielsen with Gothenburg

Completely agree about the respect that Järvi doesn’t get. I never knew he recorded Mahler, on Chandos. Need to have a look at those! I’ve always been an admirer of Järvi, because of his stance with composers that should get more recognition.

One of the Neeme Jarvi recordings that everyone seems to gush over the most is his performance of Prokofiev's Sixth Symphony. I've always liked it but my hot take reaction has always been to say that Mravinsky did it better. Well I went back and listened to the Jarvi and he absolutely smoked Mravinsky! What a scorcher! I think the problem was I was used to listening to the Sixth in context of Jarvi's whole Prokofiev symphony cycle. The whole thing is just so fine that the Sixth can get lost in the high level you come to expect. But when you listen to it alone - wow! It really hits you how amazing a performance it is!

Heard a stupendous Shostakovich 5th with the RSNO - at an Edinburgh Festival It seems he arrived in the city a couple of hours before the performance They knew and trusted each other Amazing !

I love his Grieg sets for DG. Superb playing from the Gothenburg SO; great recordings; real energy and idiom in the interpretations, especially the dance suites.

A huge debt of gratitude is indeed due to Neemi Jarvi, his intrepid artistry and vision, and his recording legacy. What he did on behalf of, say, Tubin, Glazunov, Prokofiev, Part, Nielsen, cannot at all be overlooked. Jarvi was also well accomplished as a theatrical conductor (his recordings of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa and his ballets continue to be held at very high esteems, as his Delibes endeavors). I, however, do wish for Jarvi to explore more of Estonian music and record the symphonies and other works of Artur Kapp (his First Symphony is wonderful, especially the theme and variations final movement), Eugen Kapp, Villem Kapp, Heino Eller, and so on. It's also regrettable that he had never touched the music of Erkki Melartin, given his high credentials in Scandinavian music. But with that said, a huge thanks indeed remains warranted.

I agree entirely with your assessment of Järvi senior and I have tons of his (especially Chandos) recordings. It seems he was a workaholic and there is a lovely story that he once rang Brian Couzens - the CEO of Chandos at the time - during the middle of the night with something like "Brian, I've just been thinking. We must record (such and such)", to which Couzens replied, "Neeme, do you know what time it is? I was fast asleep" (or something to that effect). His Prokofiev symphonies are superb, especially No. 6 and I have that Reger disc you mentioned and love it (with the alternative Böcklin "Isle of the Dead" that is fascinating and rather different from the Rachmaninov).

For the record Dave I enjoy looking at you.

Järvi has been my favorite conductor for many years, not because of his championing of less-known music, but because of his definitive interpretations of mainstream and "second" stream classics (excluding the way over-recorded works, like Beethoven symphonies). I have his wonderful, complete Prokofiev symphony cycle, which blows me away, and even bonbons like Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" are incomparable. His consistent four- and five-star reviews on Amazon show I'm not alone.

Jarvi's recordings have brought me much happiness over the years & I would luv to shake his had. Somebody told me back in the day that Jarvi owned a piece(how much I don't know) of one of the record labels he worked for...does anybody know if that's true?

I have just gotten Mahler 4 with the RSNO on CD Dave, the 3rd movement is absolutely gorgeous, not quite Neumann gorgeous, but incredibly colourful where Neumann isn't. Not quite stepping over into the other side, but there's more of a happy acceptance of fate. Jarvi Sr. is simply my favourite conductor, I have his Dvorak, Schmidt, Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov and Martinu sets (what you are saying around 9:00 is apt) and have been through the Martinu multiple times and except maybe the 3rd and 5th the other 4 are reference recordings for me (strangely enough, Neumann is reference for those two!), Jarvi lets the music go, he adds colour. What Shosty he recorded with Chandos is absolutely superb. Blows anybody away. As you say, he is a collector's dream, I really, really, really want the Stenhammar and Nielsen (shame there's no Langgaard!). If there is one man I would like to meet, it's Neeme Jarvi. All the best Dave and other Hurwizt fans!

It's strange to think when I was a kid Jarvi was very much second fiddle to Rattle at Birmingham. Maybe because they didn't play to the strengths mentioned here, or maybe because he looked like Droopy McPoodle and the chicks wouldn't turn up. Who knows. I've enjoyed many of his records, especially the Shostakovitch with the Scottish orchestra.

ha! I can finally look down my nose at you 'non-insiders!' Thanks Dave!

EDITED TO ADD: FYI Dave, I think the video you’ve uploaded to the Insider page is actually this preview video rather than the rundown itself. Could simply be my device or my brain isn’t working. N. Jarvi is one of my favorite two or three maestros of all time. He is indispensable for us musical Russophile, people who love Nordic music, and people who love hearing hidden gems. I’ve been eagerly awaiting this one and can’t wait to hop over to the Insider video.

I'm a thoroughly happy subscriber, but I cannot see how to search for videos on the Classics Today site. No problem finding review of Järvi's releases, but I cannot find that video, despite poking around for a while. I must be missing something.

One of Neeme Jarvi's wackiest recordings is his Mahler 7 from The Hague. He treats the first four movements as a prelude to the finale, dispensing with them in record time (those two Nachtmusik movements!). But then he does a knock-out job on the finale, which he does not start-out with all guns blazing. He's somewhat stately with the finale's opening, but then permits the movement to gain momentum and become more 'unbuttoned' as it goes along. He gets all the kaleidoscopic sound effects just right, but without over emphasizing them. I keep it around just for that finale. Otherwise, I really think Paavo is better at Mahler in general.

whoooppp....! the videos on insider is the same of you tube preview videos.....so....just tell....i like recording of neeme jarvi with detroit symphony orchestra on chandos...schmidt symphonies,copland barber etc...i think this is a good period for this conductor in u.s.a....and the orchestra is so mutch beautiful....!

Have you ever had to reinforce your floors (or the ceilings below them) to accommodate the weight of all those CDs? I ask only because a friend of mine, here in Syracuse, is a 78-album collector, and he's had to reinforce the floor of his music room. True, shellac discs are heavier than CDs, but even so...

Neeme was my hometown conductor when I lived in Detroit from age 12-15. Unfortunately that was not the right age to appreciate him. For one thing, he has an all business podium style, no histrionics or fluff, which I'd appreciate a lot more now than I did as a kid. (Actually he conducted while sitting, due to an ongoing health problem.) We got to see Tubin 5 live, which I was too young to really enjoy, and also my first ever exposure to Bruckner, but in Neeme's eccentric interpretation, which led my mom to complain afterwards, "why do they call that the romantic symphony? That's not romantic at all!" Would be curious to go back in time and re-experience some of those concerts now as an adult more familiar with the music.

The ironic thing is that Neeme never recorded much from the Classical Era, yet his qualities as a conductor seem to match what I would have expected from a conductor of that era. Ya know, a general strategy and direction and support, but not the kind measure-by-measure intense control and oversight that a modern conductor brings. "Big Band" Haydn and HIP Haydn can differ greatly in tone and sound and texture (and both styles have produced excellent results), but whether it is Harnoncourt or Karajan at the podium, there is still a modern approach to the conductor. I would have liked to hear Neeme conduct some Haydn where he just gives the orchestra a kick in the tail and then lets them rip in his energetic and free-wheeling style.

The insiders video is the same as this one :-\ The list with the 10 best recordings is there but not the insiders' video

Ooh, can I borrow a cd? 😆

At this point I care much more about a conductor’s Shostakovich than their Beethoven or Brahms. Everyone knows the German repertory so well that it takes incredibly bad choices to perform less than satisfactorily.

Thanks for noting a great conductor. I've long been a fan of the elder Järvi. His recordings of the German romantic repertoire may not be earth shattering, but I've heard far worse.

Someone I spoke to in the Detroit Symphony told me that the problem with Jarvi was he didn't rehearse enough.

One Shostakovich piece that it seems he never recorded was The Execution of Stenka Razin. Perhaps that is a work he just does not like. I always found it excitedly fun to listen to, especially the Kondrashin version.

I have N. Järvi in high esteem for the reasons you mentioned. His focus on less-recorded repertoire has provided us lots and lots of good stuff. My favorite ten recordings with him at the podium are: Tubin/BIS (all of it) Martinu/BIS (all of it) Pärt/BIS (Symphony no. 3, etc.) Dvorak/Chandos (all of it) Prokofiev/Chandos (all of it) Langgaard/Chandos (Syms. 4-6) Taneyev/Chandos (Symphony no. 4, etc.) Strauss/Chandos (all of it) Reger/Chandos (Hiller Variations, etc.) Glazunov/Orfeo (all of it)

Gerd Albrecht was of the same mould, methinks !

Whoever thought of making an entire disc of music by FUCIK (not a typo!)? Indispensable!

Why would you think his Manfred would be so great? His Tchaikovsky symphony set on Bis was a major disappointment and easily outclassed by others. The ballets on Chandos were even more dismal. And he seems to have passed his genes on to Paavo, whose Tchaikovsky cycle is proving to be nothing special. Jarvi has made some brilliant recordings and I've collected enough of them and still hope that we would get a Gliere Ilya Murometz out of him!