Paavo Berglund

Berglund became music director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (http://www.hel.fi/hki/HKO/en/Etusivu) in 1975 and held the post for 4 seasons. He was also conductor of the mixed voice choir of the Student Union of the University of Helsinki, The Academic Choral Society (Akateeminen Laulu, AL. http://www.akateeminenlaulu.fi) from 1959-1961.

Berglund attained notoriety as a strict orchestral disciplinarian due to his ruthless rehearsals and dedication to musical perfection. As a conductor Berglund often went beyond the printed score in the music of Jean Sibelius and others to improve on what he believed were weaknesses, especially in orchestration, color and balance. Most orchestras he conducted responded well to his non-nonsense approach. He was tireless in studying, preparing and rehearsing. He almost always came to the orchestra with his own materials he had corrected and bowed by his own hand. He would then mark highly detailed instructions on the sheet music of each individual musician. Read Less

06.01.1966 Sallinen, Juventas-variations -Paavo Berglund, conductor -Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

06.09.1966 Salmenhaara, Symphony no. 2 -Paavo Berglund, conductor -Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra Read Less

When a wealthy female conductor spent a few weeks in Finland, and was daily visiting both the Helsinki orchestras and their offices to see whether she could be thought of as a guest conductor. No one really dared to say that she was not really needed, but only in the Radio Orchestra they came up with the idea of sending her to talk to chief conductor Berglund. Berglund greets and welcomes her with a hopegiving murderly look, typical of him. They sit down, and she picks up her CV and concert review copies and gives them to him. Berglund pushes them away and say: "These won't be needed. Make me only one list". "Yes of course", she responds. "What kind of a list", she asks. "A list of all the important orchestras you have conducted twice!", he says.

He's daughter Liisa Kylmänen told in an video interview for the Finnish Broadcasting Company when asked to remember her father, that he very strongly experienced the closeness to Estonians as a sister- or brotherpeople to Finns. That one as a Finn has to take great care of them. This was during the occupation and early independent years. And she tells he visited Tallinn a few times for free or taking only a small fee of his conducting. And for some of his Sibelius Kullervo performances he insisted of having an Estonian Choir, and that they must be paid a really good fee. Read Less

"'Sibelius's music is often ruined because it's too strictly accurate. I think maybe musicians like to play like this' – he makes a series of downward vertical gestures – 'but it's good to do it like this' – his hands, one above the other, oscillate gently in and out of vertical alignment. 'Accuracy against atmosphere: it's not that simple. The early Sibelius conductor Georg Schneevoigt once complained that he couldn't get the details out of Sibelius's scores. Sibelius said that he should simply swim in the gravy.'"

Berglund was highly regarded as an authority on Jean Sibelius by other conductors, including Sir Simon Rattle.

He collaborated with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in recordings of the complete symphonies of Jean Sibelius and Johannes Brahms. The origin for the Sibelius recordings were made when Berglund conducted the orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival in a complete cycle of the Sibelius symphonies. What was especially notable was using smaller string forces than usual in some of the symphonies. The result was highly praised. Read Less

In the UK, Berglund led Sibelius Centenary Concerts with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in 1965, and became their principal conductor in 1972, concluding his tenure in Bournemouth in 1979. Berglund led the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with distinction between 1972 and 1979, significantly raising its performing standards, as can be heard from the many recordings made by it for EMI during this period. He also served as principal guest conductor of the Scottish National Orchestra, from 1981 to 1985.

Guest engagements saw Berglund conducting all the major North American and European orchestras, such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the St Petersburg and Moscow Philharmonics, the Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestras. Berglund was also a member of the Russian National Orchestra's conductor collegium. Read Less