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News, Press

Friday 2nd June, 2017

Reviews for Brittens “Billy Budd” in Madrid!

"But after all, Bolton had in general handled the narrative with an intuition worthy of the most sensitive interpreter of Brittens masterpiece. "(atorod.pl, 21.2.2017)   "Ivor Bolton gave his best performance so far as chief conductor of the Teatro Real. The musical discourse flowed with clarity and the strings played masterfully with the different densities of the score, although one could have asked for a more passionate approach. The bony violence of Britten's brass and wind sections was softened by a preference for equilibrium which may also be interpreted as risk aversion." (www.bachtrack.com, 6.2.2017)   "There was impressive musical rhetoric emanating from the pit...

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Press

Wednesday 9th October, 2013

Reviews for Netherlands Opera ‘Armide’

"Every moment of Armide has glorious music, fresh, direct, lively and moving. Ivor Bolton keeps the superb Nederlands Kamerorkest brisk, yet gives the phrases time to breathe and grow... the singing is excellent, from Henk Neven’s thrilling Ubalde and Sébastien Droy’s wholesome Artémidore to Karin Strobos and Ana Quintans as the honey-voiced Phénice and Sidonie. The whole is a musical treat..." - Financial Times "Dans la fosse, le Nederlands Kamerorkest est dirigé avec beaucoup d’amour et de compétence par Ivor Bolton, et ses instruments modernes ont assez de compétence de l’esthétique baroque pour proposer un compromis esthétique parfaitement acceptable." -...

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Press

Sunday 25th August, 2013

Salzburg 2013 reviews: Mendelssohn’s incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream

"Eines der herrlichsten, an diesem Abend zu erlebenden "Wunderdinge", war die Bühnenmusik Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys, die das Mozarteumorchester Salzburg - geleitet von seinem Chefdirigenten Ivor Bolton - fein, prickelnd und strahlend zur Geltung brachte" - Salzburger Nachtrichten ("One of the most wonderful events of the evening, a true thing of wonder, was Mendelssohn's music, performed thrillingly with subtlety and brilliance by the Mozarteum Orchestra, led by Ivor Bolton")   "Ivor Bolton und das Mozarteum Orchester gegen einen wunderbar luftigen Mendelssohn und tragen das Ihre zu einer zauberhaften Sommernacht bei." - Oberösterreichische Nachrichten (Ivor Bolton and the Mozarteum Orchestra perform Mendelssohn with a wonderful...

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Press

Wednesday 6th February, 2013

Reviews for Salzburg ‘Lucio Silla’ with the MOS

"Man wurde mit einer Fülle von farbigen Eindrücken belohnt.  Ivor Bolton legte sich mit der ihm eigenen Verve ins Zeug... Das beudeutet: brillante Spielweisen, denen die Streicher des Salzburger Orchesters mit wendiger Leichtigkeit gerecht wurden, feine Balancen und eine reichhaltige Skala an Bläserbravour..." - Salzburger Nachrichten (We were rewarded with an abundance of colourful impressions. Ivor Bolton conducted with his own personal spirit... This resulted in brilliant playing, executed by the springs with flexible effortlessness, subtle balance, and a rich gamut of brass bravura...)   "...das hoch motivierte Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg unter dem temperamentvollen Ivor Bolton noch so wach, vital und duftig...

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Press

Wednesday 21st November, 2012

Glowing reviews for ‘Alceste’ in Vienna

"Gens is compelling in the title role: intelligent, passionate and husbanding her vocal resources well. Kaiser is her decorative, despairing spouse... both are refined, moving and intense.  The Gustav Mahler choir sings well, the smaller roles are well-cast, and Ivor Bolton keeps the pace taut and the drama high... Under Bolton, the Freiburger Barockorchester makes this music sound as if the ink were still wet on the page." - Financial Times   "Joseph Kaiser singt als Admète ansehnlich, Véronique Gens erbringt als Alceste eine tolle Kraftleistung mit kleinen Schwankungen, Adam Plachetka ist als Hercule tadellos, und Clemens Unterreiner wirkt als Oberpriester kraftvoll....

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Press

Sunday 10th June, 2012

Gramophone magazine acclaims Ivor’s latest Bruckner release with the MOS

The latest release in Ivor's cycle of Bruckner symphonies with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg - Symphony No. 4, recorded live at Salzburg's Großes Festspielhaus in 2008 - receives acclaim from Gramophone magazine: "The quality that repeatedly in all four movements keeps striking one is the delicacy of the performance. Plainly Bolton has achieved a remarkable rapport with the players and I have never heard this orchestra, whether live or on disc, playing better. The very opening, hushed and intense, establishes the delicacy from the start, and so it is in the lyrical second subject. The easy lyricism of the slow movement is...

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Press

Wednesday 30th May, 2012

Praise for Ivor Bolton and the Dresden Festival Orchestra

"Ivor Bolton and The Philharmonics score a hit", writes James Jolly in Gramophone magazine of Ivor's performance with the newly-formed Dresden Festival Orchestra at the Dresden Music Festival this June: "He was a perfect choice to lead the newly created Dresden Festival Orhestra, a period-instrument ensemble that draws on Europe's finest to give the Festival its own ensemble... Bolton, with Giuliano Carmignola as leader, brought this disparate group together and created something exceptional. With players like Mary Utiger, Eric Hoeprich and Michael Neisemann among the line-up, there was a pretty good chance of success, but in a programme that...

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Press

Friday 19th August, 2011

Five-star reviews for sensational Salzburg performances of ‘Iolanta’ and ‘Le rossignol’

The first of Ivor's two performances of Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Stravinsky's Le rossignol at the Salzburg Festival have received rapturous five-star reviews. The two operas in a double-bill concert performance are sung by a sensational cast of today's very finest singers, including soprano Anna Netrebko, and tenor Piotr Beczala, bass baritones John Relyea and Evgeny Nikitin (in Iolante) and sopranos Julia Novikova and Julia Lezhneva (in Le Rossignol). A second perfomance, entriely sold-out, will follow this Saturday 20th August. "Ivor Bolton and the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg supported the singers with their equally colourful and richly detailed orchestral timbre, avoiding unnecessary...

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Press

Monday 8th August, 2011

Press for Salzburg Festival Mozart Matinées

Ivor's first two performances in this year's Salzburg Festival have won high critical praise.  Of Ivor's performance with Julia Fischer and the Mozarteum Orchester on 6th August, Oliver Schneider writes: "Ivor Bolton and the Mozarteum Orchester opened the Matinée with Mozart's 'Paris' Symphony KV 297… The Mozarteum Orchester allowed the festive D major character of the outer movements to ring out with verve.  The trumpets shone brilliantly… As in the first Mozart Matinée, the programme included one of the Salzburg symphonies: the Symphony in C major KV 200… In the introductory Allegro spirituoso, Bolton allowed the dynamic and thematic...

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Press

Monday 1st August, 2011

Brilliant reviews for Bayerische Staatsoper ‘Mitridate’

Ivor's performances of Mozart's early opera Mitridate at the Bayerische Staatsoper in July has won great critical acclaim.  Ivor conducted the Bavarian State Orchestra in a production by director David Bösch, starring Patricia Petibon, Barry Banks, Lawrence Zazzo and Anna Bonitatibus. "Thanks to Ivor Bolton's sizzling conducting of the playing of the Bavarian State Orchestra, four hours in the theatre passed quickly. I've rarely heard Bolton on such dynamic form, justifying his local reputation as a Handel and Mozart conductor of the highest quality." - Hugh Canning, The Times "Bolton's al fresco conducting style delivers a fresh, crisp and rhetorically pithy...

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