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Reviews
JONATHAN BERMAN
BBC Radio 3 | Record Review | Andrew McGregor
Sat 14 Aug
Franz Schmidt - Symphony Nr.1
BBC National Orchestra of Wales | Jonathan Berman
Accentus Music
"A potent performance from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Jonathan Berman. Full of life, energy and optimism. Berman communicates the natural organic quality he finds in the music which seems so simple he says but takes a great amount of work to achieve. Excellent recording as well and I'm delighted to say that they're going to complete the series of all four symphonies in the run-up to the composer's 150th birthday in 2024. It is going to be a physical set when it is released and, in the meantime, they will be available as downloads from the ACCENTUS label."
listen to the 4th mvmt Finale here ( from 1hr 13m)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000yth8
BBC Radio 3 | Record Review | Andrew McGregor
Sat 14 Aug
Franz Schmidt - Symphony Nr.1
BBC National Orchestra of Wales | Jonathan Berman
Accentus Music
"A potent performance from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Jonathan Berman. Full of life, energy and optimism. Berman communicates the natural organic quality he finds in the music which seems so simple he says but takes a great amount of work to achieve. Excellent recording as well and I'm delighted to say that they're going to complete the series of all four symphonies in the run-up to the composer's 150th birthday in 2024. It is going to be a physical set when it is released and, in the meantime, they will be available as downloads from the ACCENTUS label."
listen to the 4th mvmt Finale here ( from 1hr 13m)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000yth8
JONATHAN BERMAN
WALES ART REVIEW
FRANZ SCHMIDT | SYMPHONY NO. 1 IN E MAJOR | BBC NOW
"... energy and optimism fully realised under Berman’s invigorating baton ... "
"Berman [] and his Cardiff team make a strong case for the revival of Schmidt’s overlooked, yet sumptuously scored music."
"... a fine introduction and is well worth exploring."
READ IN FULL ...
WALES ART REVIEW
FRANZ SCHMIDT | SYMPHONY NO. 1 IN E MAJOR | BBC NOW
"... energy and optimism fully realised under Berman’s invigorating baton ... "
"Berman [] and his Cardiff team make a strong case for the revival of Schmidt’s overlooked, yet sumptuously scored music."
"... a fine introduction and is well worth exploring."
READ IN FULL ...
JONATHAN BERMAN
4 Stars **** from Erik Levi in the BBC Music Magazine
Schmidt: Symphony No. 1 (BBC NOW/Berman)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Jonathan Berman (Accentus Music)
"Jonathan Berman and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales deliver a terrific performance .... what really makes this new recording so enticing is the sheer energy and enthusiasm with which conductor and orchestra communicate the vigour and optimism ... "
MORE ...
Jonathan Berman
4 Stars **** from Erik Levi in the BBC Music Magazine
Schmidt: Symphony No. 1 (BBC NOW/Berman)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Jonathan Berman (Accentus Music)
"Jonathan Berman and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales deliver a terrific performance .... what really makes this new recording so enticing is the sheer energy and enthusiasm with which conductor and orchestra communicate the vigour and optimism ... "
MORE ...
Jonathan Berman
London Sinfonietta, Jan 2019:
... The Sinfonietta gave the composer’s intentions with absolute assurance and no little conviction, guided with evident precision by Jonathan Berman, a conductor demonstrably in the lineage of David Atherton and Oliver Knussen in terms not just of realising the score but interpreting it such that its essence was made readily perceptible to those listening.
...
The evening opened with Coursing (1979), what could have been Knussen's response to Elliott Carter's Concerto for Orchestra but instead emerged as this six minute précis of a potentially larger unfolding – and no less vital or involving because of it.
Classical Source, 2019
Ensemble Modern, Nov 2016:
Jonathan Berman securing a dedicated response from Ensemble Modern
Classical Source, 2016
Vibrant world premier…a programme of modern classics
The Guardian, 2016
GAIDA Festival, Lithuania, Sept 2016:
Berman really knew how to get the most out of this fine orchestra who tend to be a bit shy when it comes to twentieth century and twenty-first century repertoire.
Baltic Musical Gems, Oct 2016
The rising star of the British classical music…the charismatic British master of the baton
Lithuanian Arts News, Sept 2016
Berman is one of the most outstanding British conductors of the younger generation
Delfi.lt, 2016
Pelléas et Melisande, English Touring Opera, Oct 2015:
Jonathan Berman expertly conducts Debussy’s enigmatic masterpiece
The Financial Times, Oct 2015
The chance to hear a Pelléas this good at venues right across the country is a rare one, and one that should be seized.
TheArtsDesk, Oct 2015
Jonathan Berman conducted with energy, clarity and admirable phrasing………..Pelléas et Mélisande contains a great deal of ravishing music, and… is beautifully played and sung in this production
BachTrack, Oct 2015
Jonathan Berman conducts with great care and elegance. It’s a brave, deeply affecting achievement.
Guardian Oct 2015
In the pit, Jonathan Berman conducts the reduced score expertly.
Financial Times Oct 2015
Texturally it’s a miracle of allusive flexibility, if anything intensifying the work’s French accent
Arts Desk Oct 2015
Jonathan Berman conducts the ensemble firmly
Telegraph Oct 2015
The orchestral ensemble conducted by Jonathan Berman gave us some nicely atmospheric moments and the orchestral interludes made musical sense on their own terms, rather than seeming to be just hand-me-down versions of the full score
Planet Hugill Oct 2015
Jonathan Berman’s conducting was another strength……The ebb and flow of Debussy’s score rather seemed – and ‘seemed’ is surely the operative word here – to take care of themselves. ……..this was more a matter of subtly enabling and, yes, leading a company effort. In that and much else, it proved a great success.
Seen and Heard International Oct 2015
Jonathan Berman conducts with a palpable sense of momentum ……the distinctive musical character of the piece registers strongly.
The Stage Oct 2015
The young conductor Jonathan Berman shapes the score poetically and his players bring out the redolence of Debussy's own chamber music.
Whats on Stage Oct 2015
The reduced orchestral forces introduce an elegance and refinement to the score that make it seem vaguely reminiscent of Debussy’s chamber music, and conductor Jonathan Berman ensures a high degree of precision
Music MOH Oct 2015
Tanglewood Festival - Gunther Schuller (WP), Charles Wuorinen (WP), Elliott Carter, Maderna, Knussen, Turnage July 2015:
The brass ensemble, under conductor Jonathan Berman, reveled in the compendium of 12-tone, jazz and just plain gorgeous proclamations.
Berkshire Eagle, July 2015
The performers, which included five BSO players, principal trumpet Thomas Rolfs among them, nailed the first performance. Berman, while the crowd vigorously applauded, held the score aloft.
Boston Globe, July 2015
Mr. Schuller would surely have appreciated — a fitting 75th anniversary tribute indeed.
New York Times, July 2015
But all this proved good news for the young British conductor Jonathan Berman, who picked up all the works Mr. Knussen and Mr. Asbury were to have led, and did so with the kind of clarity and assurance that might have made headlines had he been thrust suddenly onto the Boston Symphony’s podium in a program of repertory staples.
Wall street Journal July 2015
Jonathan Berman, a young English conductor with a sizable contemporary-music résumé, was scheduled to conduct only Megalith, but somehow managed to step in for all five works and did a spectacular job, his performances confident and shapely and alive.
Boston Musical Inteligenicer July 2015
Jonathan Berman conducted all five of the large works, a heroic feat.
Boston Musical Inteligenicer July 2015
Fortunately, the young English conductor Jonathan Berman was able to step into the breach, leading persuasive performances of several challenging works including the premiere of Schuller’s brilliant “Magical Trumpets.”
Elliott Carter’s “A Sunbeam’s Architecture” featured tenor Nicholas Phan, who sensitively negotiated these lapidary settings of poems by E. E. Cummings, supported by another large ensemble bravely led by Berman on no rehearsal.
Boston Globe July 2015
Jonathan Berman, a rising star in Europe and a 2012 Tanglewood conducting fellow, became one of the festival’s heroes by conducting, at short notice, this entire program—one of the pieces at such short notice it didn’t have a single rehearsal.
Berman and the chamber orchestra captured so beautifully—the mercurial tenderness and wit of Carter’s endlessly morphing small ensembles, and the teasing and serious interplay of cummings’s words.
……the dark dream world of Knussen’s Two Organa, Opus 27 (1995), with Berman again brilliantly stepping in at the last minute for Asbury.
Berkshire Review July 2015
Conductor Jonathan Berman kept the jeweled gears wound and spinning. A brawny reading of “Dark Crossing,” by Mark-Anthony Turnage — another TMC student-then-teacher — proved a more primeval genesis, an evolving thicket of heavy rhythms and reiterated motives.
Boston Globe July 2014
... The Sinfonietta gave the composer’s intentions with absolute assurance and no little conviction, guided with evident precision by Jonathan Berman, a conductor demonstrably in the lineage of David Atherton and Oliver Knussen in terms not just of realising the score but interpreting it such that its essence was made readily perceptible to those listening.
...
The evening opened with Coursing (1979), what could have been Knussen's response to Elliott Carter's Concerto for Orchestra but instead emerged as this six minute précis of a potentially larger unfolding – and no less vital or involving because of it.
Classical Source, 2019
Ensemble Modern, Nov 2016:
Jonathan Berman securing a dedicated response from Ensemble Modern
Classical Source, 2016
Vibrant world premier…a programme of modern classics
The Guardian, 2016
GAIDA Festival, Lithuania, Sept 2016:
Berman really knew how to get the most out of this fine orchestra who tend to be a bit shy when it comes to twentieth century and twenty-first century repertoire.
Baltic Musical Gems, Oct 2016
The rising star of the British classical music…the charismatic British master of the baton
Lithuanian Arts News, Sept 2016
Berman is one of the most outstanding British conductors of the younger generation
Delfi.lt, 2016
Pelléas et Melisande, English Touring Opera, Oct 2015:
Jonathan Berman expertly conducts Debussy’s enigmatic masterpiece
The Financial Times, Oct 2015
The chance to hear a Pelléas this good at venues right across the country is a rare one, and one that should be seized.
TheArtsDesk, Oct 2015
Jonathan Berman conducted with energy, clarity and admirable phrasing………..Pelléas et Mélisande contains a great deal of ravishing music, and… is beautifully played and sung in this production
BachTrack, Oct 2015
Jonathan Berman conducts with great care and elegance. It’s a brave, deeply affecting achievement.
Guardian Oct 2015
In the pit, Jonathan Berman conducts the reduced score expertly.
Financial Times Oct 2015
Texturally it’s a miracle of allusive flexibility, if anything intensifying the work’s French accent
Arts Desk Oct 2015
Jonathan Berman conducts the ensemble firmly
Telegraph Oct 2015
The orchestral ensemble conducted by Jonathan Berman gave us some nicely atmospheric moments and the orchestral interludes made musical sense on their own terms, rather than seeming to be just hand-me-down versions of the full score
Planet Hugill Oct 2015
Jonathan Berman’s conducting was another strength……The ebb and flow of Debussy’s score rather seemed – and ‘seemed’ is surely the operative word here – to take care of themselves. ……..this was more a matter of subtly enabling and, yes, leading a company effort. In that and much else, it proved a great success.
Seen and Heard International Oct 2015
Jonathan Berman conducts with a palpable sense of momentum ……the distinctive musical character of the piece registers strongly.
The Stage Oct 2015
The young conductor Jonathan Berman shapes the score poetically and his players bring out the redolence of Debussy's own chamber music.
Whats on Stage Oct 2015
The reduced orchestral forces introduce an elegance and refinement to the score that make it seem vaguely reminiscent of Debussy’s chamber music, and conductor Jonathan Berman ensures a high degree of precision
Music MOH Oct 2015
Tanglewood Festival - Gunther Schuller (WP), Charles Wuorinen (WP), Elliott Carter, Maderna, Knussen, Turnage July 2015:
The brass ensemble, under conductor Jonathan Berman, reveled in the compendium of 12-tone, jazz and just plain gorgeous proclamations.
Berkshire Eagle, July 2015
The performers, which included five BSO players, principal trumpet Thomas Rolfs among them, nailed the first performance. Berman, while the crowd vigorously applauded, held the score aloft.
Boston Globe, July 2015
Mr. Schuller would surely have appreciated — a fitting 75th anniversary tribute indeed.
New York Times, July 2015
But all this proved good news for the young British conductor Jonathan Berman, who picked up all the works Mr. Knussen and Mr. Asbury were to have led, and did so with the kind of clarity and assurance that might have made headlines had he been thrust suddenly onto the Boston Symphony’s podium in a program of repertory staples.
Wall street Journal July 2015
Jonathan Berman, a young English conductor with a sizable contemporary-music résumé, was scheduled to conduct only Megalith, but somehow managed to step in for all five works and did a spectacular job, his performances confident and shapely and alive.
Boston Musical Inteligenicer July 2015
Jonathan Berman conducted all five of the large works, a heroic feat.
Boston Musical Inteligenicer July 2015
Fortunately, the young English conductor Jonathan Berman was able to step into the breach, leading persuasive performances of several challenging works including the premiere of Schuller’s brilliant “Magical Trumpets.”
Elliott Carter’s “A Sunbeam’s Architecture” featured tenor Nicholas Phan, who sensitively negotiated these lapidary settings of poems by E. E. Cummings, supported by another large ensemble bravely led by Berman on no rehearsal.
Boston Globe July 2015
Jonathan Berman, a rising star in Europe and a 2012 Tanglewood conducting fellow, became one of the festival’s heroes by conducting, at short notice, this entire program—one of the pieces at such short notice it didn’t have a single rehearsal.
Berman and the chamber orchestra captured so beautifully—the mercurial tenderness and wit of Carter’s endlessly morphing small ensembles, and the teasing and serious interplay of cummings’s words.
……the dark dream world of Knussen’s Two Organa, Opus 27 (1995), with Berman again brilliantly stepping in at the last minute for Asbury.
Berkshire Review July 2015
Conductor Jonathan Berman kept the jeweled gears wound and spinning. A brawny reading of “Dark Crossing,” by Mark-Anthony Turnage — another TMC student-then-teacher — proved a more primeval genesis, an evolving thicket of heavy rhythms and reiterated motives.
Boston Globe July 2014
OTHER REVIEWS :
"The performances, by the fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, the New Fromm Players and guests, were consistently energetic and polished with Jonathan Berman conducting."
Bedford, Or Voit Tout en Aventure, Shepherd, These Particular Circumstances - New York Times, August 2012
"The Tanglewood Music Center Fellows and New Fromm Players were unsurprisingly superb, as was the conductor, Knussen’s assistant Jonathan Berman. Few new-music concerts make new music sound so good."
Ives - Boston Phoenix, July 2012
Rising star Jonathan Berman expertly assisting Knussen at constructive cross-purposes in this outstanding performance of tremendous clarity and brilliance, in spite of the (intended) raucous cacophony.
Z Blog, zoemartlew.com
Jonathan Berman dirigeert met flair en gezag de expressieve muziek van Davies
Jonathan Berman conducts with flair and authority the expressive music from Davies. TRANSL.
Maxwell Davies The Lighthouse - NRC Handelslad, August 2010
Het intens spelende instrumental ensemble en de even beheerste als spannende leiding van Jonathan Berman een naam om te onthouden.
TRANSL.
The intense playing from the instrumental ensemble, and the equally commanding and exciting leading from Jonathan Berman, a name to remember.
Maxwell Davies The Lighthouse - De Telegraaf, August 2010
De jonge dirigent Jonathan Berman leidt het Ensemble van het Koninklijk Conservatorium kleurrijk door de partituur, onstuimig en delicaat daar waar nodig.
The young conductor Jonathan Berman leads the ensemble rich in colour, stormy and delicate where necessary. TRANSL
Britten Albert Herring - Operanederland.nl, January 2010
"The performances, by the fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, the New Fromm Players and guests, were consistently energetic and polished with Jonathan Berman conducting."
Bedford, Or Voit Tout en Aventure, Shepherd, These Particular Circumstances - New York Times, August 2012
"The Tanglewood Music Center Fellows and New Fromm Players were unsurprisingly superb, as was the conductor, Knussen’s assistant Jonathan Berman. Few new-music concerts make new music sound so good."
Ives - Boston Phoenix, July 2012
Rising star Jonathan Berman expertly assisting Knussen at constructive cross-purposes in this outstanding performance of tremendous clarity and brilliance, in spite of the (intended) raucous cacophony.
Z Blog, zoemartlew.com
Jonathan Berman dirigeert met flair en gezag de expressieve muziek van Davies
Jonathan Berman conducts with flair and authority the expressive music from Davies. TRANSL.
Maxwell Davies The Lighthouse - NRC Handelslad, August 2010
Het intens spelende instrumental ensemble en de even beheerste als spannende leiding van Jonathan Berman een naam om te onthouden.
TRANSL.
The intense playing from the instrumental ensemble, and the equally commanding and exciting leading from Jonathan Berman, a name to remember.
Maxwell Davies The Lighthouse - De Telegraaf, August 2010
De jonge dirigent Jonathan Berman leidt het Ensemble van het Koninklijk Conservatorium kleurrijk door de partituur, onstuimig en delicaat daar waar nodig.
The young conductor Jonathan Berman leads the ensemble rich in colour, stormy and delicate where necessary. TRANSL
Britten Albert Herring - Operanederland.nl, January 2010
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