Neeme Järvi to Suisse Romande Orch.

[listener]

The Geneva-based orchestra said 73-year-old Jarvi, who shook the former Soviet Union's music world when he left for the United States in 1980, would take over the post next January and become its chief conductor in 2012.

In both posts he will replace Polish-born Marek Janowski, who has headed the orchestra since 2005 -- the latest in a series of top conductors who have led it since its foundation by Swiss maestro Ernest Ansermet in 1918.

As musical director, he will prepare the orchestra's programme for the three years that he will be conductor.

full story at http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69D1RU20101014

[Scarpia]

He made a number of recordings of works by Stravinsky with the OSR which were pretty good.  But why toss Janowski?

[Brian]

Järvi has recovered from his lengthy illness/fatigue, which left him forced to quit the Detroit Symphony to take a part-time job with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra when I lived in Detroit. I just saw him with the London Philharmonic last week, and he is able to stand while conducting again, able to communicate very well with the musicians again, and able to find a tempo setting other than "sluggish." However, he still has his signature personal style, that is to say, not a drop of charm, and no knowledge whatsoever of how to smile or otherwise acknowledge the audience. He is a very good conductor, but he is 73 and I can't help wondering why OSR would choose him over somebody entering, rather than reclaiming, their prime.

[Scarpia]

Järvi has recovered from his lengthy illness/fatigue, which left him forced to quit the Detroit Symphony to take a part-time job with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra when I lived in Detroit. I just saw him with the London Philharmonic last week, and he is able to stand while conducting again, able to communicate very well with the musicians again, and able to find a tempo setting other than "sluggish." However, he still has his signature personal style, that is to say, not a drop of charm, and no knowledge whatsoever of how to smile or otherwise acknowledge the audience. He is a very good conductor, but he is 73 and I can't help wondering why OSR would choose him over somebody entering, rather than reclaiming, their prime.

He had a stroke or brain hemorrhage, no?