Paavo Järvi, Alexandre Kantorow & Estonian Festival Orchestra

The Estonian Festival Orchestra comes to Shanghai in October for a single night at the SHOAC Concert Hall. Paavo Järvi assembled the orchestra in 2011 around the festival he had started in his home town of Pärnu, inviting every player himself — half of them Estonian, half drawn from leading European orchestras, reconvening in Pärnu each summer. It became the first Estonian ensemble to play the BBC Proms in 2018 and made its North American debut at Carnegie Hall in 2025. An orchestra built to serve one musician's idea is a different animal from a house band that works together all year. Three works. It opens with Tüür, an Estonian of Järvi's own generation, in a 1993 piece whose full title is Action – Passion – Illusion; the published programme lists only the last two movements. Then Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto, with Alexandre Kantorow, who won the piano first prize at the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition and with it the Grand Prix the jury has given only three times. After the interval, Sibelius's Fifth, whose finale carries the swinging brass figure he took from sixteen swans noted in his diary in 1915. Five price bands, 180 to 880 yuan, the top one marked VIP. Tickets open on 21 August at 14:00, six per person per performance, sold under real-name registration. The presenter has published a 90-minute minimum running time; the full length and whether there is an interval are not yet stated.

1. 01

   Erkki-Sven Tüür 埃尔基-斯文·图尔 (1959–)

   Action – Passion – Illusion

   《行动 激情 幻象》

   The published programme lists this as "Passion Illusion", the second and third of the work's three movements.

2. 02

   Rachmaninoff 拉赫玛尼诺夫 (1873–1943)

   Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18

   c小调第二钢琴协奏曲，作品18

   c小调 / C minor

3. 03

   Sibelius 西贝柳斯 (1865–1957)

   Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82

   降E大调第五交响曲，作品82

   降E大调 / E-flat major

Conductor

Paavo Järvi

Soloist, Piano

Alexandre Kantorow

Orchestra

Estonian Festival Orchestra

Five bands: 180 / 280 / 480 / 680 and VIP at 880 yuan, on sale 21 August at 14:00. Six tickets per person per performance, real-name registration, no refunds or exchanges. SHOAC's own channels — its website and its WeChat mini-program — carry the house member discounts.

• Limit 6 tickets per order
• Name-registered ticket and entry
• Children under 1.2 m are not admitted; children over 1.2 m need their own ticket.

• Permit no. 沪文旅许[2026]4190号granted

  Issued by the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism · issued Jul 31 · 梶本（北京）文化传媒有限公司

• Permit no. 沪文旅许[2026]4715号amended

  Issued by the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism · issued Aug 26 · 梶本（北京）文化传媒有限公司