“Andreas Brantelid has masterfully absorbed the subtle differences in language between these three works and delivers very eloquent renditions throughout. Everything is projected with good taste working in tandem with flawless virtuosity”
Joanne Talbot, The Strad, 2021 (Review of Times of Transition)
“Andreas Brantelid was absolutely fantastic. Because he figuratively speaking sat back, he let the music do the work”
Thomas Michelsen, Politiken, 2021
Read MoreSoloist Elina Vahala was championed in her earliest years by the orchestra’s former chief conductor Osmo Vanska, and has enjoyed a stellar career, but was making her debut with the SSO. She is an authoritative and poised player … full of expressiveness….Vahala’s playing was never showy, but her cadenzas were absolutely compelling and of a piece with the shaping of a demanding work that she and Lintu structured beautifully from start to finish. Glasgow concertgoers … would be unlikely to hear this music played better than it was by these Finns with the home team. - Keith Bruce, The Herald, 4th November 2022
Read MoreAdded to the mix was the formidable American-born Finnish violinist Elina Vähälä, whose unshakeable, coruscating presence in the Shostakovich injected fire, obstinacy, tenderness and pathos into a complex, at times harrowing, late work….Such a vital concoction of responses filled this riveting performance… a piquancy arising from delicate interchanges between the soloist and orchestra principals…But it was in the finale that Vähälä found every opportunity to showcase her combative energy and stimulating musicality. Like a mischievous child, she threw truculent pronouncements at the orchestra…. (Conductor) Lintu played both fellow protagonist and artful arbiter in this electrifying trading of insults, forging a synthesis that held things together while maintained the inexorable swagger. - Ken Walton, VoxCarnyx, 4th November 2022
Read MoreThe young guest conductor of Greek origin, Dionysis Grammenos, took charge of the Orchestre Symphonique des Québec with great mastery. His sobriety, precision and efficiency provided a beautiful shape to the orchestra. He really committed to the music! - Jacques Leclerc , lesartsze.com November 21, 2022
Read MoreFrom Debussy's ‘Prelude, L’Apres-Midi d’un Faun, the conductor (Dionysis Grammenos) stood out with a slow but precise, economical gesture, allowing the various strands of the orchestra to unfold quietly. Grammenos was impeccable here, as he was later, in the orchestral main course, Stravinsky's 1919 Firebird Suite. Again in this latter work, Grammenos brings out absolutely incredible colours, from the first bars of the score through to the Berceuse… This boy is destined for great things in all probability. We hope to see him again soon on the same stage. - Le Soleil online, November 2022
Read More“John Axelrod is a highly imaginative and dynamic musician, whose rich musicological background and historical insights combine with intellectual drive and charismatic enthusiasm for people and for life, to get probing, rigorous and richly characterized interpretations.” -Remy Franck, Pizzicato
Read MoreNot only does Axelrod has a phenomenal stick technique, he also has something you probably can’t learn in school: the power of creative suggestion which fires up even the last stand of the orchestra…Wolfgang Sandner, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Read More“The highlight, and possibly the only one in the history of the ROSS, was the brilliant interpretation of the Seventh Symphony in C Major, Op. 60 of Dmitri Shostakovich. To go into detail in this immense cascade of musical information transmitted by Maestro Axelrod to his orchestra, as well as its extraordinary correspondence to his indications, would lead to an extensive and detailed article, inappropriate for the mere orientation of this comment. However, it is worth mentioning the mastery of global concept that the Maestro has of this great work, how he has managed to attend in detail to each instrumental section, and how he has joined the orchestra predisposing the musicians to listen to each other assuming own and other's expressive responsibilities, one of the substantial secrets of the great orchestral formations. Axelrod and the ROSS transcended the speech of the “Leningrad" Symphony from a wisdom that turned their music into pure ontology of sounds.” Jose Antonio Canton, El Mundo
Read More«The encounter with Shostakovich's 13th Symphony in the Herkulessaal became a stirring experience. Under the sovereign, concentrated direction of John Axelrod, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the BR men’s choir and bassist Mikhail Petrenko devoted themselves to this 1962 opus with great devotion.[…] Barber's streaming string Adagio and Stravinsky's long-lost "funeral song" rounded off the program. Axelrod's precisely directed ensemble took every opportunity to savour Stravinsky's colourful instrumentation almost theatrically. Great applause. » Gabriele Luster, OVB Online 29.06.2018
Read More«... We must begin, necessarily, by John Axelrod: in the prime of life, is one of the largest and most charismatic guest conductors who have gone through the Maestranza. His work with the orchestra was perfect, and ROSS responded flawlessly. […] The huge orchestral strength and intensity of the score always threaten to noise and confusion, but Axelrod got a clarity and definition such that he got that the "superior human Being, man, woman" ("Übermensch" is that, not just "Superman" ) prophesied by Nietzsche, we could listen with all his tenderness and hope. The musicians excited and delivered; the public, overwhelmed with wonder and joy. We don't remember, though we think, no performance at this level of our Orchestra: equal, maybe, but better, ever…» - José Luis López López, ABC de Sevilla
Read More«…The Music Director of the ROSS has once again demonstrated his deep knowledge of the symphonic thinking of the Hamburg composer [Brahms Symphony N. 4] by performing an interpretation in which he has highlighted the enormous chamber music richness of this work, entering with enormous resolution capacity into all its technical and expressive secrets, knowing how to interweave them into his discourse in such a way that he reached a superior dimension of musical recreation. » José Antonio Canton, El Mundo
Read MoreCD Recording: Brahms Beloved for Telarc: The orchestra breathes and sighs to the rise and fall of his (John Axelrod's) baton...quite simply one of the most all-embracing, humane first movements I’ve heard...all in all, a perfect Fourth magnificently led and played by John Axelrod and his Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra...(and) everything about Axelrod’s Second is perfectly judged and perfectly realized by his outstanding Italian orchestra... I can’t urge you too strongly to acquire this release.» - Jerry Dubins, Fanfare Magazine
Read MoreCD Recording: Brahms Beloved for Telarc: «John Axelrod presents the Brahms Symphonies not at all in the style we have been used to hear them recently, with just straightforward, forceful playing. He allows his musicians to breath, to enrich the music with lovely colors, deep lyricism and some particularly interesting contrasts. That said, this rather unusual Brahms is unusually coupled with 10 beautiful Clara Schumann songs, ravishingly sung by Nicole Cabell and Indra Thomas.» - Rémy Franck, Pizzicato
Read MoreLübecker Philharmoniker, MUK, 2022- Liszt Les Préludes: Under the direction of the American star conductor John Axelrod. …John Axelrod's conducting is so committed and detailed that watching alone is a real pleasure. This sympathetic conductor consistently maintains the most intensive contact with the orchestra or the soloists and instrument groups, his friendly and inspiring smile is reflected in that of the musicians….With his use of his body shows how he is completely absorbed in the music, sometimes caresses it, even tastes or smells it, when he seems to savor the notes with his hand very close to his face. This jumps over to the orchestra and some not quite flawless entries are completely to be gotten over, because all let themselves be carried away by this lovable, turned conducting. - Dr. Andreas Ströbl, 20. Dezember 2022, für klassik-begeistert.de und klassik-begeistert.at
Read More“Although the Finale, with its virtuosic double-stopping and the taut springiness of the rhythms added to the scampering sense of fun, it was the central Romance which impressed me most of all. The solo line was always well integrated in the overall orchestral sound, never drawing unnecessary attention to itself, and in the many high-lying passages Sitkovetsky seemed to be floating into the stratosphere, his intensely singing quality recalling the composer’s assertion that this work was contemplated for a Caruso of the violin rather than for a Paganini.”
Bachtrack (Alexander Hall), October 2022 (Concert Review for ‘From Moravia with love’: the Brno Philharmonic at Cadogan Hall)
Read More“Daniel is a passionate and engaging conductor with a strong vision and musical personality. Danielhas the innate ability to draw enthusiasm out of the musicians he works with as he is a borncommunicator. Every project with Daniel is a great joy’
Laure Chan, violinist
Read More“Daniel Hogan is without doubt one of the finest conductors of his generation. His performances of my 3rd and 4th symphonies were exemplary, clearly revealing a musician of real stature, depth of knowledge, insight and understanding. But of equal importance are the levels of respect and affection which he commands from orchestral musicians of all ages, remarkable and, I feel, almost unprecedented for a conductor still in his twenties. This is because players sense that they are working with a musician of sincerity, integrity and a maturity well beyond his years”
Matthew Taylor, Composer
Read More“Mr. Hogan drew some really soul-stirring sounds from the players… and his energetic style of conducting was clearly much appreciated by the orchestra. No one has replaced the late Richard Hickox as a champion of British music but on this showing, perhaps in a few years, Mr. Hogan may take his place.”
British Music Society, (Paul Jackson) 2021
Read More“… the sparer forces found a more concentrated wiry intensity in the music, spurred on by remarkably crisp conducting from Dionysis Grammenos, who excelled in focusing the rhythmic energies of the score. Seldom in London has that treacherous opening downbeat, with its wafer-thin semiquaver rest, burst forth with such control and promise. Grammenos has thrown a gauntlet down to the other major pit orchestras in London who frequently revive this bread-and-butter work.”
OperaWire (Benjamin Poore) 2022
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