Marin Alsop is an inspirational music director. Internationally acclaimed for her creative approach to programming and interpretation of repertoire from the mainstream to the contemporary, she instills orchestras with new dynamism and deepening their interaction with audiences and the wider community.
Bernstein Mass / Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (Naxos)
“Two recordings of Bernstein’s Mass in one year is a real result for Bernstein fans but it was Marin Alsop who finally gave Bernstein’s underrated masterpiece the modern, classic recording it deserved.”
Gramophone, January 2010
“…Marin Alsop’s standard-setting recording, pleases me no end.”
Jed Distler, Gramophone, Critic’s Christmas Choice, December 2009
"Marin Alsop’s fiercely committed rendition of Bernstein’s crisis-of-faith masterpiece is right up there with the composer’s own – and that really is saying something.”
Edward Seckerson, Gramophone, Critic’s Christmas Choice, December 2009
“Marin Alsop, who studied conducting under Bernstein, delivers a hugely cogent, taut performance…
The effect is absolutely right, though absolutely Bernstein. The performance answers absolutely to his conception and never drops a beat. It is so good that it has you itchily wanting to hear it again and again.”
Graham Strahle, The Australian, Five stars, November 2009
“To all the nay-sayers, bug-eyed skeptics and disapproving doubting Thomases, listen up: a third apostle has spoken.
Jubilant Sykes is the best of all possible celebrants… the orchestral playing too, here and throughout, is lusty and unafraid to let go… Alsop is pacier, creating a dramatic slipstream that is powered relentlessly onward by the awkward discontinuities and jagged narrative.”
Philip Clark, Gramophone Editor’s Choice, September 2009
“…this Naxos issue is a virtual triumph from beginning to end, and the only recording for me worthy of sitting next to the composer’s own. In terms of overall technical achievement, it trumps all.
Alsop’s tight-knit symphonic pacing delineates the structure of the work without diluting its exuberant eclecticism or softening its hard road towards spiritual reawakening: the final Communion is among the most moving passages ever recorded. She is no slouch, too, when it comes to that elusive Bernstein groove; if you aren’t dancing around the room during the Gloria in Excelsis, you haven’t got a soul to save, my friend!”
Performance Five Stars, Recording Five Stars
Howard Goldstein, BBC Music Magazine, September 2009
Adams Nixon in China / Opera Colorado (Naxos)
“This live recording made in Denver in 2008, with Marin Alsop conducting the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and the Opera Colorado Chorus, is a superb realization of a difficult opera… Alsop emphasizes the contrasts found in this score, revealing all of its dramatic possibilities and ensuring that it is always emotionally satisfying. She does a superb job in bringing this music to life, as do the soloists who are exemplary. The orchestra sounds committed and plays with a thrilling bravado when the drama is heightened. This is a brilliantly realized performance of one of our finest modern operas.”
Audiophile Audition, February 2010
“Those of us fortunate enough to attend Opera Colorado’s 2008 production of John Adams’ engrossing opera Nixon in China were swept to our feet by its cumulative impact. … under the able hand of Marin Alsop … the artistic triumph was all the greater.
“That makes the new recording indispensible. And the music, which benefits from the extra color digital advances bring, is fabulous.”
San Francisco Classical Voice, January 2010
“… this live recording from Marin Alsop… is the first to compete with Edo de Waart’s 1988 Nonesuch Studio Recording.
Alsop balances rhythmic drive with careful pointers to Adams’ later, more lyrical achievements.”
BBC Music Magazine, December 2009
“Alsop lets you hear the workings of the music; the orchestral introduction to the second act has lightness and definition; the significance and weight of the famous ‘meeting’ scene is driven home with pounding rhythms…
Adams’ score hasn’t dated a bit. It’s come up gleaming anew… Naxos’ Nixon really is one for our times.”
Classic FM Magazine Disc of the Month, Five stars, December 2009
“…it is wonderful now to have this second … reminding us that Nixon has more breadth and durability than its initial newsworthiness might have indicated.
Alsop conducts the Colorado Symphony and chorus of Opera Colorado in an incandescent performance.”
Financial Times, Five stars, October 2009
“Musically, it's compelling, from the opening mechanistic moments to the dreamy conclusion…
… propelled by conductor Marin Alsop's immaculate grasp of the score…overall the recording is a superb documentation of one of the decade's most memorable productions.”
STLtoday.com, November 2009
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra / Beethoven, Dvorak & Jennifer Higdon’s Violin Concerto (with Hilary Hahn)
“This was an outstanding musical evening, performed with uncommon enthusiasm by an ensemble that is forging new paths under a leader who seems to truly comprehend where the 21st century is taking the symphony orchestra.”
Washington Times, June 2009
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra / Mahler Symphony No.9
“In her finest achievement to date at the helm of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop led her forces in a memorable account of Mahler's profound Ninth Symphony. The synergy of her incisive conducting and the ensemble's committed playing Sunday afternoon at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, especially in the elegiac finale, yielded a deeply involving experience.”
Baltimore Sun, April 2009
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra / Bartok, Liszt & Dvorak
“Marin Alsop is flexible and beats precisely. She’s blessed with much temper (but never rampant) which embraced a dancing momentum: Accuracy here, inspiration there – the orchestra thanked her on high level. Dvorak’s rarely performed 6th symphony captivated through colourfulness and a beautiful, calm sense. Again Alsop’s rhythmic security was impressive and even the Furiant never seemed overdriven.“
Frankfurter Neue Presse, March 2009
“Marin Alsop seemed to literally jump into the opening scene – emotional but always with clear, economic signs, the sound precisely balanced. The overriding impression was that of an immensely intensive sound that was never simply loud… Dvorák’s proportions and motivic progressions were transparently developed.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 2009
“Conductor Marin Alsop presented the 1919 work rhythmically very aware.”
Frankfurter Rundschau, March 2009
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Strauss, Mozart, Ravel & Stravinsky
“Alsop… brought her formidable intelligence to bear on the proceedings.
...the Second Suite from Daphnis et Chloé was beautifully done: perfect in its mixture of drive and decorous sensuality. Till Eulenspiegel was the best performance of the piece I've heard in ages. Alsop has a tellingly relaxed, seductive way with it... Strauss, you felt, would have adored it.”
The Guardian, February 2009
Los Angeles Philharmonic / Brahms
“In the opening ‘Tragic’ Overture, the conductor led a well-paced performance of exuberant intensity, drawing a richly textured sound from the strings, especially the dusky violas. The thrust of her reading, which she conducted without a score, signaled her special authority with Brahms, and that command continued in the formidable Violin Concerto.
The conductor took the measure of Brahms' conception from its ominous beginning to its triumphant finale of blaring trombones and horns. An overly searching account of this work, with its constantly shifting landscapes of darkness and light, can easily turn fussy and overblown. But Alsop successfully balanced the extremes of the symphony's tragic aura.”
Los Angeles Times, December 2008
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Copland (Naxos)
“This disc… surely ranks as one of the crowning achievements of Alsop’s six immensely successful years on the south cost.”
BBC Music Magazine, December 2008
“The brilliantly captured moods of the Dance Symphony, derived from an early ballet score, round off a revelatory and richly recorded disc.”
The Telegraph, Classical CD of the week, October 2008
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra / Christopher Rouse Concerto for Orchestra, Tchaikovsky & Bach
“His Concerto for Orchestra, dedicated to Alsop, was premiered at the conductor's Cabrillo Festival in California back in August and received its East Coast premiere from the BSO last weekend. It's a knockout.
Alsop held the massive score together tightly and drew a brilliant, often stunning performance from the BSO.”
Baltimore Sun, November 2008
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra / Bernstein Mass
“… in many ways this was the most musically disciplined and sharply defined performance of "Mass" I've ever heard.
Perhaps that shouldn't come as a surprise, since Alsop was a close acolyte of Bernstein's at the end of his life and she has presided over most of his major works since then. It takes a special sort of conductor to integrate the various styles that fly by here, but Alsop seemed to command them all, defining them through her ability to manage the tricky rhythmic pulses, lightning changes in mood, often unexpected melodic directions. The Baltimore Symphony, now her home orchestra, picked up on her cues flawlessly and knit the entire 100-minute piece into one seamless package.”
MusicaAmerica.com, October 2008
“The theater almost shook with the vehemence of the music-making during the most bitterly angry section of the work, the “Dona Nobis Pacem”… Had Bernstein taken better care of himself and had a little better luck, he might have been around for this day. And how he would have loved seeing his “Mass” touch so many people in Washington Heights. “
New York Times, October 2008
“Alsop did a wonderful job of capturing the work's spirit, with an eye on the populism that informs the piece.”
Washington Post, October 2008
“as performed Thursday at Meyerhoff Hall by the Baltimore Symphony, under Bernstein protege Marin Alsop's disciplined baton, the seldom-revived "Mass" re-emerged as the moving and visionary piece it's always been -- arguably the best thing Bernstein ever wrote.”
Washington Post, October 2008
“As Alsop demonstrated last week in Baltimore, she has a way of holding disparate elements of the Mass score together. The cohesiveness was even stronger yesterday and Friday, more forcefully drawing out the genius of Bernstein's fusion of Catholic liturgy with deeply personal views on faith, war and peace, justice and activism.”
Baltimore Sun, October 2008
New York Philharmonic Orchestra / Dvorak, Chopin & Bartok
“Always welcome as a guest at the Philharmonic, Ms. Alsop, the music director of the Baltimore Symphony, took the podium on Tuesday night at Avery Fisher Hall to conduct this Dvorak work on a subscription program. The concert also offered the Philharmonic debut of a gifted young Polish pianist, Rafal Blechacz, in Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Ms. Alsop’s arresting account of Bartok’s Suite from “The Wooden Prince.”
Like Kurt Masur before him, Lorin Maazel has staked a claim to the “New World” Symphony. He conducts it brilliantly. But the slightly looser, more spontaneous account Ms. Alsop drew from the Philharmonic was a fresh change from the enforced excellence Mr. Maazel delivers. The musicians played vibrantly and seemed relaxed…
Ms. Alsop gave a blazing, visceral account of Bartok’s wildly inventive suite.”
New York Times, October 2008
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra / Dvorak Symphony No.8 & Symphonic Variations (Naxos)
“The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Dvorák’s ‘New World’ Symphony has a verdant freshness which strips away any over-familiarity. We are reminded of its melodic charms, but even more of its structural originality. The disc is also worth having for the lovely and loving performance of the Symphonic Variations. The scoring is Dvorák at his most colourful, the gaiety of the music lifts the heart, and there are tenderly lyrical passages which conductor Marin Alsop treats with just the right amount of sentiment.”
Sunday Telegraph, July 2008
“It is rare to be able to say that a performance forces one to listen to a work anew, but this is exactly what Alsop’s reading achieves. Excellently recorded and with an elegant and witty performance of the Symphonic Variations as makeweight, this is a superb issue all round.”
BBC Music Magazine, Disc of the month, July 2008
“Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony remind us of its [Symphonic Variations] charms and richly inventive colours in this vivid, incisive account. They also do the symphony proud, proving that a warhorse such as the New World is hackneyed only in the minds of jaded performers and listeners. Not having heard the work for a long time, I was captivated by it.”
Sunday Times, June 2008
Colorado Opera / Adams Nixon in China
“Friday's performance, brilliantly conducted by Marin Alsop and delivered by a strong cast led by baritone Robert Orth in the title role…
Alsop, a proven master of Adams' style both early and late, led a dynamic performance... Conducting the Colorado Symphony, she shepherded her forces nimbly through the more difficult rhythmic stretches while still allowing plenty of breathing space for the work's lyrical upwellings.”
San Francisco Chronicle, June 2008
“But the biggest ovation was reserved for the conductor, Marin Alsop, who also presided in St. Louis... Her interpretation was admirably steady through the choppy seas of repetition, yet flexible when the waters smoothed or the currents shifted.”
New York Times, June 2008
“Conductor Marin Alsop, a friend of the composer and frequent performer of his music, demonstrated her thorough grasp of the spirit and energy of his music, drawing the best from the cast and chorus.”
Denver Post, June 2008
“Under the baton of acclaimed conductor (and former Colorado Symphony Orchestra music director) Marin Alsop, “Nixon” is a hallucinatory meditation on power, ideology and culture shock that makes a permanent mark on the auditor’s imagination.
In the orchestra pit is a fine OC ensemble, led by the amazing Alsop, one of the best conductors on the planet right now, and an expert in contemporary compositions. Her sharp attack at the podium, combined with the ability to construct a transparent orchestral sound that allows all its constituent parts to be heard, is revelatory… the audience only rose to its feet Saturday night when Alsop hit the stage.”
Colorado Daily News, June 2008
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Mahler & Beethoven
“A lengthy standing ovation greeted a conductor who, in just six years at Bournemouth, has turned the BSO round, expanded and extended its work, visibility and repertoire - and won the hearts of a huge audience.
It was the outer movements that will remain in my memory: a disarmingly easeful viola line, threading its way into a full-hearted yearning, which Alsop kept on a taut rein until the music's long, slow shining into song. And, at the end, a return to that lissom singing line after the dead drum beat and the cries of trumpet and tuba.
And now from Bournemouth to Baltimore: for Alsop this grand finale was quite a send-off.”
The Times, May 2008
“A spontaneous standing ovation was indicative of the high emotion at this concert. It was generated on two counts, first by the intensity of Mahler's Tenth Symphony, but perhaps even more so by the fact that Marin Alsop was bowing out as principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
The orchestra was with her all the way. Allied to Alsop's wide-angled view of the symphony's proportions, there was her precision in identifying the instrumental timbres that make the textures distinctive, and a fluid way of allowing long string lines to breathe but not to loiter. The impact was immense, both uplifting and draining, apocalyptic and serene.”
The Daily Telegraph, May 2008
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra / Dvorák Symphony No.9 & Symphonic Variations (Naxos)
“…Alsop has the Ninth unfurling with plenty of fire and lyrical power. The orchestra, recorded live at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall last June, sounds terrific, with a full-bodied string tone, lots of vivid coloring in the woodwinds… and a good bite from the brass."
“Things are even more effective in the Symphonic Variations. Alsop brings out the delectable play of light and shadow in the eventful score, all the while providing a lively pulse, and she gets warmly expressive playing from her musicians.”
The Baltimore Sun , March 2008
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / BBC Proms 2007 / Copland, Beethoven & Barber
"Textures were superbly controlled by Alsop, and her Bersteinesque energy engendered impassioned playing."
The Strad , September 2007
"Marin Alsop's performance with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra was remarkable for its deep humanity. The grandeur was offset with delicacy and austerity. None of it seemed vacuous or otiose for a second: one's overwhelming impression was of an an epic emotional journey undertaken with a sense of awe and wonder. … the performance was springy, resolute and beautifully played."
The Guardian , 27 July 2007
"The Proms were ratcheted up a notch last night with a trio of scorching performances by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop.
In a match of high quality playing and searching interpretative ideas, Beethoven's "Leonore" Overture No 3 and Aaron Copland's Third Symphony came across with exceptional vibrancy and sinew, balancing discretion of detail with dramatic thrust.
In between came one of the most beautifully poised, heartfelt accounts of Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto it would be possible to imagine. …
Alsop was alert to the piquancy of orchestral texture that lends the score [Barber's Violin Concerto] its occasional tang, be it in lemony woodwind or brass colouring or in the nicely bracing astringency of the piano. While melody is at the core of the concerto, Alsop's arresting build-ups of dissonance at the climaxes and Ehnes's sparkling virtuosity in the finale showed the concerto's expressive facets in compelling breadth."
The Telegraph , 27 July 2007
London Symphony Orchestra / Daytona Beach / Stravinsky
"The orchestra was like a gorgeous mechanical toy, a well-oiled and wound-up toy that, under Alsop's energetic baton, wove a seductive spell Friday."
Daytona Beach News-Journal , 21 July 2007
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Bartok The Wooden Prince
"Alsop's commitment to this neglected score...really paid off. Within the hour-long score there are stupendous pages, glittering with opulence and colour...the Bournemouth forces captured the panoply with dash and dexterity...From misty dawn music to exuberant apotheosis; from hammer-blow rhythms to willowy tempi bending at just the right speed: Alsop and the orchestra had done their homework well."
The Times, 14 May 2007
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Britten / Brahms / Dvorák
"...high-octane performances under the baton of Alsop. She drew fierce energy from the deep-digging bows of the LPO's strings at the start and finish of the symphony, and she wet-moulded the woodwind's song in the slow movement."
The Times, 18 April 2007
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Orff Carmina Burana (Naxos)
"In a market awash with recordings of this popular work, a new version has to be pretty special. And American conductor Marin Alsop and her Bournemouth Orchestra, chorus and soloists have produced just that. Alsop avoids sentimentalising the music and directs her vast forces to bring a driving, forward momentum to the music, always ratcheting up the tension and keeping the excitement going - this performance pulses with life. Listen to the explosive chanting of 'O Fortuna', after the opening whispered section, where the timpani line is particularly clear and audible - it's a visceral, thrilling effect … This recording is a must-have for any collector"
Classic FM, May 2007
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Brahms Symphony No. 3, Variations on a Theme by Haydn
"This is one hell of a fine performance of this most elusive symphony... Alsop keeps the music moving, but also clarifies the underlying rhythm quite splendidly... This is very good Brahms conducting: the tension never sags, no important details go unobserved ... and nothing detracts from the evolving symphonic argument.
The Andante features beautifully blended wind playing in its serene outer sections and just the right touch of mystery in the central chorale. Alsop takes great care to observe the written dynamics, a big plus in the ensuing Poco Allegretto, which sounds so much better minus the usual excess of espressivo. Best of all, the finale is spectacular: swiftly exciting, with very present timpani and a tremendously explosive (but remarkably transparent) central climax. The coda captures that special, autumnal glow that Brahms builds into the scoring, but without sacrificing sufficient momentum to bring the work to a fulfilling (as opposed to a merely exhausted) conclusion... I'm more than happy torecommend this superb new recording as strongly as possible."
Classics Today, January 2007
"Alsop, an American award-winner, coaxes this expansive work's poetry as much as its considerable majesty from the fine players of an LPO at its most refined… This is the one to collect."
The Observer, 7 January 2007
"The inner movements are undeniably excellent…the whole span of the [second] movement is lovingly shaped, and the melancholic aspect of the chant-like theme is sensitively brought out.
Her reading of the St Anthony Chorale Variations is very fine indeed, among the best currently available."
BBC Music Magazine, February 2007
"Alsop seems to have moved into a higher gear...The result is glowing music-making, rich in character and atmosphere."
Baltimore Sun, 28 January 2007
"Makes you look forward to her next go-round with these works. The performances here are full of
lovely, original things,"
Philadelphia Inquirer, 4 February 2007
"A luxurious and delicate Third."
Raleigh-Durham News and Observer, February 2007
"Something's really going on here with the Third Symphony: an active engagement with the music, more shaping of phrases, more interventionist urging of the musical ebb and flow. All this is good."
Dallas Morning News, 6 February 2007
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Barber / MacMillan / Beethoven
"…in American repertoire she has few peers. The Barber roared with a force that must have shaken anyone expecting the velvet sorrow of his Adagio for strings. Throughout, Alsop respected the work's recklessness. Just so: it is what it is. As is the MacMillan, where Currie and Alsop were in perfect synch, riding the score's tumultuous journey from strife through joy to the ting-a-ling Easter coda. Exciting music, excitingly performed; from Alsop you expect nothing else."
The Times, 14 February 2007
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2
"In Rachmaninov's Second Symphony, Alsop applied similar principles, supporting the work's highly melodic nature with a dynamic drive. Nevertheless, it was indicative of Alsop's honing of the Bournemouth orchestra that the nuances of inflection and instrumentation emerged with such clarity
while sustaining Rachmaninov's passion to the forceful end."
The Guardian, 22 January 2007
"In Rachmaninov's rumbustious Second Symphony…they managed to conjure both the luxurious weight of timbre that these luscious tunes need and a clarity of detail, particularly in the fiendish counterpoints of the helter-skelter scherzo...
All that is to Alsop's credit ... she phrased much of this sprawling symphony cogently and elegantly."
The Times, 19 January 2007
"The main work in the concert was Rachmaninov's Second Symphony, given a fascinating performance that revealed facets of colour that can sometimes go unnoticed. Alsop has the art of stripping away accretions and accepted interpretative approaches that might have been hallowed by time, and in such a way secured, in the first movement, a striking fusion of languor and momentum: the largo of the introduction was a true, slow one, but by means of a subtle ebb and flow of dynamics and phrasing, its sense of direction was consistently maintained.
By maintaining such a keen ear for instrumental timbre, Alsop showed how Rachmaninov's orchestration, while generally reckoned to be lush at this period in his career, is actually alive with
individual colours…and crafted in such a way that the blends of sonority gleam."
The Daily Telegraph, 19 January 2007
London Symphony Orchestra / Mahler Fifth / Adams Fearful Symmetries
"As a one-time protégée of Leonard Bernstein, one might expect her to lean towards his indulgent take on Mahler's music. But she is forcefully her own woman and directed a performance that was as bold as it was true to the composer's vision."
The Telegraph, 29 November 2006
"The orchestra playing was superb and Alsop's control of every detail was impressive."
The Guardian, 30 November 2006
"Alsop conducted a tautly controlled yet feverish, risk-taking performance in which the heady agonies and ecstasies of the outer world collided, resonated, and were at last exuberantly reconciled within the inner soul."
The Times, 29 November 2006
"... This was a superbly controlled account under a conductor whose duties in Bournemouth deprive London audiences of her too often... Also impressive was the taut rhythmic grip throughout and the assurance with which Alsop used the ubiquitous gear changes to ratchet up tension...it was indeed a performance out of the ordinary."
The Evening Standard, 27 November 2006
"It is baffling that not one of the London orchestras has offered Marin Alsop a Principal Guest Conductorship, or even a Principal Conductorship. Last Sunday ... she proved again how powerful and subtle a Mahlerian she is, and underlined her physical and mental stamina in John Adams's Fearful Symmetries. Her account of Mahler's Fifth Symphony was concentrated in its lyricism ... devoid of false sentimentality. It cannot be long before one of our top orchestras realises what they are missing."
The Independent on Sunday, 3 December 2006
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Copland / Mendelssohn / Elgar
"This, her performance shouted, is a modern symphony, one of conflict. Sharp contrasts and raw energy dominated the first movement. The nobilmente strain was never abandoned: the great opening theme worked its old magic, and the adagio, despite being clobbered by coughs, reached tender heights. But Alsop never luxuriated, nor lost sight of this music's sinews. The finale brought resolution, uplift, and - quite deserved - rousing applause."
The Times, 20 November 2006
"The magnificent performance of Elgar's First Symphony that ended this concert would have stood comparison even with the great interpretations of legend, so strongly did it fuse the elements of poetry, poignancy and power that the music harbours.
Marin Alsop, conducting the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, caught the distinctive idiom that the ear and heart tell you is Elgarian but which can be elusive and hard to define."
The Telegraph, 17 November 2006
Washington Opera / Maw Sophie's Choice
"Marin Alsop, conducting the Washington National Opera Orchestra and Chorus, delivered the finest performance I've ever heard from her -- all but technically flawless (not once did she allow her players to drown out the singers, despite the complications of the music) but also an interpretation that was shot through with nuance, clarity, sweep and musical intelligence."
The Washington Post, 23 September 2006
"Alsop conducted with extraordinary control and expressive weight (she got one of the biggest ovations), and her attentiveness to detail yielded consistently vivid playing from the orchestra."
The Baltimore Sun, 23 September 2006
"A hat tip as well to the assured and modulated conducting of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's music director-designate, Marin Alsop, who once again demonstrated a deft and sympathetic touch with a modern score."
The Washington Times, 23 September 2006
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Shostakovich
"animation and pleasure, with clear gestures and wonderful effects."
NRC Handelsblad, June 2006
"Marin Alsop breached one of the last bastions of male supremacy by being the first woman to conduct a Royal Concertgebouw programme, and she showed that, light though the music might be, it is also benefits from being taken seriously.
In among the snook-cocking fun, there were many typical Alsop nuances and, in The Bolt, suggestions that the Shostakovich of the searching symphonies was not that far away."
The Telegraph, June 2006
Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra / Vaughan Williams / Sibelius / Dvorak
"In Dvorak 7 we witnessed the blossoming of the relationship between orchestra and conductor, even as the concert progressed. By the time we reached the lilting melancholy of the scherzo there was a growing sense of ease in the music-making. To relinquish her authority, let the orchestra simply play and to go along with them - all this takes experience and a mutual sense of trust. On Wednesday night this approach was vindicated."
Tagesanzeiger, April 2006
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Brahms / Schumann
"Alsop was wonderfully alert to his every emotional shift, and the LPO's playing was exceptionally fluid in its beauty.
She offered us a hugely impressive account of the Fourth Symphony, however, carefully highlighting its internal drama. The slow movement, in which grief and consolation are juxtaposed, was particularly fine, while the finale had a severe notability and a genuine sense of tragic sublimity."
The Guardian, April 2006
New World Symphony Orchestra / Brahms
"Marin Alsop is one of the most exciting conductors on the podium today. On Saturday her superb technique and keen musical intelligence galvanized the New World Symphony to one of its most exciting performances of the season.
Alsop's ability to shed new light on even the most familiar works came to the fore in a magisterial performance of Brahms's Symphony No.2. This was American Brahms that fused arching lyricism and headlong momentum in equal proportion. Alsop delineated the darkness beneath the music's pastoral surface. Transitions were seamlessly achieved as the score unfolded in an arc of inevitability from the opening horn calls to a triumphant conclusion. The strings' hair-trigger attack was but one of the instrumental details freshly scrubbed and finely transparent. Alsop's spacious approach built to heights of eloquence. This revelatory Brahms performance was the work of a superbly insightful artist."
Miami Herald, April 2006
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Satie / Macmillan / Turnage / Adés / Stravinsky
"Alsop always conducts with heart and soul, but Adés's darting rhythms and Macmillan's rage and lament found her especially aflame"
The Times, January 2006
"Alsop and the 15 players from the LPO - all cruelly exposed by this devilishly tricky score - made it sound as indecently brilliant as ever."
The Daily Telegraph, January 2006
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, James Ehnes / Beethoven / Shostakovich / Elgar
"Alsop's firm structural control was much in evidence as imperial blaze mutated into the tenderest yearning, and I loved the last pages of thoughtful repose."
The Times, March 2006
"…the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and its conductor Marin Alsop were on matchless form. At the start, the power, energy, punch and finesse of Beethoven's Fidelio overture attested to the players' assurance and Alsop's authority. In the Shostakovich, the rapport with Ehnes was revealed both in the complementary clarity of orchestral sonorities and in the acute sense of dramatic and expressive weight. The performance of Elgar's Second Symphony that crowned the concert was one of poised sensibility and searing grandeur. A magnificent evening."
The Guardian, March 2006
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Copland / Tippett / Sibelius
"…everything pulsated with a passion and inner strength that many names of greater renown cannot muster. …I've yet to hear [a performance] to match the cogency and dramatic force Alsop achieved on Wednesday."
The Times, October 2005
London Symphony Orchestra / Verdi / Shostakovich / Beethoven
"…she brought extraordinary attention to instrumental detail and, in the scherzo movement [of Beethoven's fifth symphony], a palpable sense of mystery. And she led the finale with a blaze of glory that surely outshone the best fireworks you've ever seen -- and heard."
Boston Herald, July 2005
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin (Naxos)
"Most impressive is the combination of such atmosphere with technical precision. Alsop has something of the mature Boulez here…"
The Evening Standard, April 2005
NordDeutscher Rundfunk & Mischa Maisky / Shostakovich / Saint-Saens
"[Shostakovich cello concerto no.1] The musicians of the NDR followed Maisky closely, under the sovereign leadership of Marin Alsop. [Saint Saens organ symphony] Alsop balanced the many parts of the lush orchestration perfectly. The result: sensitive fine detail, rather than the usual uncontrolled intoxication of emotion."
Hamburger Abendblatt, April 2005
"On Monday, the resolute American conductor led the NDR Symphony Orchestra and transported her public, with her controlled release of energy and an unusual programme. I suspect that the American orchestras will soon be calling their itinerant star conductor back home."
Die Welt, April 2005
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Brahms Symphony No.1 (Naxos)
"…There is much to admire in her reading of Brahms' First. She is unafraid of slow tempos -- that gorgeous chorale in the final movement, for instance -- and she is not fearful of refusing to exhibit muscle at every turn of the road. There is a sense of organic growth, carefully judged dynamics and a handsome roundness to some of Brahms' familiar tunes. Alsop brings fresh ideas to overworked terrain."
Seattle Post, April 2005
"Sharp-profiled rhythms, clean-cut textures and neat, if just occasionally perfunctory, phrasing, combine to keep the music moving forward at all times. As a result, even if she does explore every emotional depth, Alsop manages to avoid portentousness in the First Symphony, a work that can easily become overbearing, while both the overtures have a sturdy athleticism. Exuberant in the Academic Festival Overture, starkly dramatic in the Tragic, the orchestral playing is consistently first class."
The Guardian, February 2005
"Marin Alsop makes a welcome return to the traditional European repertoire with the launch of a complete cycle of Brahms's symphonies for the ever-enterprising budget-price label Naxos. And it gets off to a very promising start with this sweeping, richly-detailed account of the first symphony, its majestic themes expansively realised, the composer's inner angst never far beneath the surface. With the Academic Festival and Tragic overtures thrown in as a welcome bonus, this is the start of a series that should prove well worth collecting."
The Observer, February 2005
"Marin Alsop is one of those conductors whose individual style is sufficient to justify yet another Brahms cycle. Here, with the LPO at its sweet-sounding best, she delivers a warm and shapely reading of the First. Refusing to be hurried, she sculpts the gorgeous solos in the slow movement with loving care. The intermezzo is easy and relaxed, though not casual, and if the finale at first seems slightly too deliberate, the clarity she achieves in the glorious counterpoints of its later stages magnificently justifies her approach. It's a gigantic, uplifting performance. Her dark-hued account of the Tragic Overture and rousing reading of the Academic Festival Overture have just as much finesse, and the recording is first class."
The Sunday Times, February 2005
"These are the kind of bold, generous-spirited performances which a Stokowski or a Koussevitsky would probably have been pleased to hear…a good advert for the virtues of studio recording - superior to the recent LSO Live super-budget Brahms First…humane, affectionate performances."
Gramophone Magazine, March 2005
"… Marin Alsop, already well established on the label as a powerful advocate of American music, brings the right balance of freshness and tradition to Brahms's First Symphony…"
The Daily Telegraph, March 2005
"There's much to admire here: the brisk drama she brings to the first movement, her fine generation of tension on the way to the recapitulation; the sympathy and intimacy with which she treats the inner movements. In the finale, the "great tune" is beautifully delivered at its first appearance, the tempo deceptively relaxed, the leonine strength no more than implied until it is needed in the dramatic sequels...Alsop's approach somewhat reminds me of Bruno Walter's classic version (Sony), and I couldn't have complained if it were a full-price entrant in the lists. As it is, anyone needing a first-rate budget Brahms First may snap it up with confidence. There's nothing routine about the overtures, either; the Tragic has plenty of fire and atmosphere, while the Academic works up a fairly bacchic merriment".
BBC Music Magazine, March 2005
"With her debut Brahms CD, Marin Alsop offers a sumptuously lyrical rendition of the composer's First Symphony and two overtures. Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony, lauded American music proponent and a famous Leonard Bernstein protégé, Alsop blends Romantic symphonic convention with the organic phrasing and transitions of a chamber musician… She summons a bright, singing sound from the London Philharmonic, and each gesture flows, yoga-like, into the next."
Los Angeles Times, March 2005
"This is a recording that announces an emerging conductor's credentials in the standard German repertory. In the famous dirgelike opening, Ms Alsop wants our ears to put Brahms' pounding drums front and center. Elsewhere, she is not afraid of slow tempos at the composer's more brooding moments, and even at his most songful ones. Otherwise, we hear the Brahms symphony we know and love treated with respect, an appropriate sense of drama and at times even a little impetuosity."
New York Times, March 2005
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Barber / Turnage / Brahms
"Alsop thankfully went the other way, freshening the piece up by giving it a classical restraint. Her performance of Brahms's Second Symphony had a similar cool objectivity, as if we were viewing it through a perfectly transparent window. But again, this sprang from a distinctly personal vision of the symphony. It's often thought of as the polar opposite to Brahms's immensely severe First Symphony, and unbuttoned warmth. Alsop made it taut and incisive, with a sound light enough to evoke Mendelssohn's elfin spirit. But, though the sound was light, the performance was not; in fact, the mysterious shadowy passage in the finale has rarely seemed so pregnant and weighty."
The Daily Telegraph, March 2005
"She did, however, get to the emotional heart of Brahms's Second Symphony, balancing searing depth and consoling grace. The thrust of the finale highlighted the Beethoven inheritance, but this was authentic Brahms from a conductor who truly has something to say here."
The Times, March 2005
"The conductor, Marin Alsop, gave every impression of letting the music rip, while keeping it firmly under control…"
Financial Times, March 2005
"Alsop followed the concerto with Brahms's Second Symphony, a richly subtle performance that progressed as a single organic span from its deceptively simple opening phrases to the complex counterpoint of the exuberant finale."
The Guardian, March 2005
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Fitkin / Mozart / Mahler
"The interpretation embraced ferocity and stillness, toughness and sensuousness, fluidly fluctuating as the moods of the music shifted but with a firm structural backbone."
The Daily Telegraph, March 2005
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
"The Amsterdam Concertgebouw-Orchestra plays for the first time in his nearly 120 years history with a female conductor. In June of next year the American Marin Alsop is going to conduct pieces of Dmitri Schostakowitsch."
Berliner Morgenpost, March 2005
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