"The Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Colombia is currently at its strongest artistically. Its musical director, the Swiss conductor Baldur Brönnimann, has infused the organisation with a new fire and dynamism, which is as evident in the orchestra's artistic quality and repertoire as it is in the response of the public."
El Nuevo Siglo, January 2012
Philharmonia Orchestra (Music of Today) / KURTÁG, GYÖRGY: Messages of the Late Miss R.V. Troussova
“…the work’s desperate intensity was palpably conveyed in a fine account directed by Baldur Brönnimann.”
Richard Whitehouse, Classical Source, June 2011
London Sinfonietta (Meltdown, Southbank Centre) / Harrison Birtwistle; Peter Maxwell Davies
“Conducted by the excellent Baldur Brönnimann, the London Sinfonietta paired sharply contrasted but iconic works by the two most significant British composers of that period, Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies.”
“There was […] obvious drama in Brönnimann's urgent account of Secret Theatre. He'd preceded it with Virelais, the latest in Birtwistle's ongoing series of medieval arrangements, and that miniature's contrapuntal intricacies proved the perfect link to the polyphonic writing for Secret Theatre's ever-changing group of soloists.”
Andrew Clements, The Guardian (London), June 2011
Scottish Chamber Orchestra / GLASS, PHILIP: Icarus at the Edge of Time (Scottish premiere)
“A significantly augmented Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Baldur Brönnimann produced two top drawer performances […]”
Keith Bruce, The Herald (Glasgow), five stars, 19 October 2010
“[The concert] featured the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Swiss conductor Baldur Brönnimann, who served up the heavily laden score with brittle efficiency.”
Kenneth Walton, The Scotsman (Edinburgh), 19 October 2010
Scottish Chamber Orchestra / IVES; JOHN ADAMS; INGRAM MARSHALL
“… with an engaged Baldur Brönnimann at the helm — a conductor able to count both stoically and with some flair in the face of potential orchestral chaos — this was an evening of fruitful echoes.”
“Adams’s jokily-titled Son of Chamber Symphony (2008) […] was well done and impeccably sculpted by Brönnimann and the SCO.”
Sarah Urwin Jones, The Times (London), 19 October 2010
“… every note of the Three Places In New England, magnificently played by the SCO and conductor Baldur Brönnimann, trumpeted his singularity, his brashness, his nostalgia, his warmth and his sheer rambunctiousness.”
Michael Tumelty, The Herald (Glasgow), 18 October 2010
London Sinfonietta / WALLIN, ROLF: Strange News
“Baldur Brönnimann, conducting, held together fine individual and ensemble performances of a work that raised unsettling questions about the roles of both creator and spectator.”
Hilary Finch, The Times (London), 5 October 2010
Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra / BEETHOVEN; NIELSEN; BARTÓK
“From Beethoven's opening orchestral statement, with finely-nuanced woodwind, conductor Baldur Bronnimann looked set to be hero of the evening. And he maintained this status throughout; he was always perceptive in underlining formal issues, and often cast new light on familiar passages by gauging orchestral emphasis and phrasing.”
William Dart, The New Zealand Herald (Auckland), 26 June 2010
Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra / BIZET; LALO; RAVEL
“[T]he nuanced textures of the Intermezzo showed the admirable discipline that conductor Baldur Bronnimann demands when he stands in front of the orchestra.”
William Dart, The New Zealand Herald (Auckland), 26 June 2010
“The APO under conductor Baldur Bronnimann played a lively and expressive Carmen Suite by Bizet as well as Ravel’s masterful Bolero.”
John Daly-Peoples, The National Business Review (New Zealand), 22 June 2010
London Sinfonietta / RIHM
“The Concerto Seraphim (2006-2008) is a lusty work, moving like an enormous Baroque concerto, the activity passing from small ripieno groups, who sing out plangently, to tutti busyness. It's long and complex and handled with extraordinary ability by the London Sinfonietta and conductor Baldur Brönnimann.”
Igor Toronyi-Lalic, The Arts Desk, 14 March 2010
Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama / STRAUSS; SHOSTAKOVITCH
“Then, to an accompaniment of a level of sophistication that would have been unthinkable in the past, the academy orchestra, with Baldur Bronnimann conducting, floated a refined tapestry behind the strong, well-defined performance by Judith Howarth of Strauss’s Four Last Songs.
“In the eagerly awaited performance of Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony, Bronnimann swept aside the impossibilities in the music, the student orchestra produced a performance of expertise and efficiency that actually appeared to make light of the fiendish technical difficulties in the symphony, and the team turned out a gripping performance of the piece that, in its sweep, its detail, and with astounding playing from academy principals, underlined the fact that this is not only a masterpiece, but is one of the composer’s greatest symphonies.
“One day that will be recognised. This performance will help.”
Michael Tumelty, The Herald (Glasgow), 28 February 2010
Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra / BERLIOZ; SIBELIUS; DEBUSSY
“Conductor Baldur Brönnimann and violist Brett Dean were in total accord for Berlioz's extraordinary roam through an imaginary Alpine setting […]
“Brönnimann gave full voice to all those quirky and sometimes devious touches that make Berlioz the most radical of all the romantics […]
“… a glowing account of Pohjola's Daughter. Brönnimann and his musicians invested this rarely heard symphonic poem with an extraordinary cohesion and inevitability […]”
William Dart, The New Zealand Herald (Auckland), 16 November 2009
Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra / PROKOFIEV; WEBER; STRAUSS; RESPIGHI
“Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Thursday concert was indeed the grand finale promised for the close of its successful APN News & Media Premier Season.
“Baldur Brönnimann was in dashing form from the first bars of Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges. … the players rose to their dazzling best and the atmosphere in the hall bristled with expectation. Weber's First Clarinet Concerto proved the indisputable highlight of the evening.
“Weber's dramatic opening, with the conductor emphasising the strings' jagged rhythms, soon melted into a yearning solo from Collins' pearly-toned instrument.
“The Finale to end all Finales was Respighi's The Pines of Rome, in a rendition that captured all the glory of that great city. Brönnimann's obvious affection for the score meant that its modernist touches registered vividly.”
William Dart, The New Zealand Herald (Auckland), 30 November 2009
English National Opera / LIGETI: Le Grand Macabre
“… several of the singers made an appreciable mark in a musical performance, under the tight baton of Swiss contemporary music specialist Baldur Brönnimann, that was never short on vigorous attack.
“The overall result was musically and dramatically fun, and visually unforgettable.”
Opera News (New York City), December 2009
“… if fireworks are what you’re after you won’t be disappointed by what’s on offer.
“Just how much Baldur Brönnimann had prepared the difficult score with the ENO Orchestra was always evident. Crisp and clear playing shone through throughout, with good balance between the different orchestral sections and tangible impetus driving the segues between scenes. The brass section in particular sounded wholesome and fiery, with some trumpets and trombones placed up in the top balcony making for occasional and brilliantly disorientating antiphony. The score, following Ligeti’s avant-garde wont, calls for some unorthodox instrumentation: music box, car horns, fire whistles, newspaper, sirens, and crockery in a bag are all used at various points. The hugely expanded percussion section on the night was on top form. When I looked down into the pit a couple of times during the show, the orchestra seemed to be very much enjoying themselves.
“As were the audience up above them, who more than a few times on the night were raised to laughter.”
Liam Cagney, Musicalcriticism.com, 20 September 2009
“Brilliant and witty as a piece of staging, blistering as an ensemble performance, Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre opened at English National Opera on Thursday after enough advance cloaca-and-dagger leakage to very nearly spoil the fun.
“No advance publicity, however, conveyed the glorious invention of the music, which glides and cascades as one original idea elides seamlessly with another.
“… Baldur Brönnimann conducted with committed dexterity and the orchestra shone.”
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer (London), 20 September 2009
“Under Baldur Brönnimann, ENO's orchestra realise the score with vivacity and discipline, while Watts, Andersson, Ablinger-Sperrhacke, Bourne and Bottone make the absurdities, exaggerations, uglinesses and angularities of Ligeti's vocal writing sparkle. A production like this only comes along once a decade. Forget the whingeing about English repertoire for English companies. This polyglot extravaganza is a triumph.”
Anna Picard, The Independent (London), 19 September 2009
“Dazzlingly staged round a giant, naked, glass fibre woman, whose orifices spew out debauched characters teetering on the brink of Armageddon (or not, as it turns out), Le Grand Macabre launches English National Opera’s season in a style that makes you wonder where the company goes from here.
“It’s still an eye-popping, ear-busting show.
“Andrew Watts as Prince Go-Go, Pavlo Hunka’s Nekrotzar, Susan Bickley’s Miss Whiplash housewife, Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke as a pot-bellied lout: these are standout individuals in an excellent ensemble, expertly conducted by Baldur Brönnimann. Rush to see it. After all, you don’t know how long you’ve got.”
Richard Morrison, The Times (London), 18 September 2009
“… an all snorting, all growling orchestra (brilliant under Baldur Brönnimann). Where else will you find a Monteverdian cacophony of motor horns?”
Edward Seckerson, The Independent (London), 18 September 2009
“Conducting this must be more like directing traffic than an orchestra for much of the time, and the seemingly effortless control exercised by Baldur Brönnimann was matched by the house band’s heroic efforts.
“But in truth, the highlight of the show is the show itself.”
Stephen Jay-Taylor, Opera Britannia, 18 September 2009
“The production by Alex Ollé and Valentina Carrasco […] is spectacular and brought off to what seems perfection. The singers […] deal with their many challenges and acting assignments with complete assurance and conviction, and the ENO Orchestra plays brilliantly for Baldur Brönnimann.
“The whole moves along with energy; we are after all heading for the apocalypse - the best response, and here a wonderful ending, is to open a bottle of champagne and offer a toast. Cheers! A great start to ENO's new season; something for everyone here.”
The Opera Critic, September 2009
“The ENO Orchestra plays superbly for Baldur Brönnimann, and Ligeti's moments of genius – from the opening car horns to the rapturous closing passacaglia – are as vivid as ever, just as the sly digs at his predecessors, including Monteverdi, Beethoven and Wagner, not to mention the anticipations of Thomas Adès's The Tempest, make their mark, too.”
Andrew Clements, The Guardian (London), 18 September 2009
“Baldur Brönnimann conducts a brilliant musical realisation that jostles constantly with the visuals for the centre of attention.”
George Hall, The Stage (London), 18 September 2009
“There’s a danger that the visuals will overtake the show, were it not for the magnificence of the music. The real glory of the evening is Ligeti’s incredibly inventive and varied score, superbly played by the ENO orchestra under the baton of Baldur Brönnimann, who conducted last year’s Lost Highway at the Young Vic.
“One of the best opera scores of the past few decades, it ranges from the banging and crashing of a whole battery of percussion, to deafening noise, brassy exuberance, classical allusion and the ethereal wispiness for which the composer is probably best known. The glorious second act passacaglia, based on the finale of Beethoven’s Eroica matches anything written for the opera stage in the post-war period.
“… the musical performance can’t be faulted and you are unlikely to see or hear anything like it in the opera house. This is an ideal way into contemporary opera and a visit can’t be more highly recommended.”
Simon Thomas, WhatsOnStage.com, 18 September 2009
Scottish Chamber Orchestra / HAFLIDI HALLGRÍMSSON, KODÁLY, BARTÓK
“Colour of a more exuberant sort was to be found in Kodály's Dances of Galánta [...] conductor Baldur Brönnimann bringing out the spare, terse qualities of the writing in a performance that captured something of the pungent virtuosity of the Gypsy originals [...] Again in Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, the emphasis was on the rugged, visceral quality of the music [...]”
Rowena Smith, The Guardian (London), May 2009
“…this performance, under the hot baton of Baldur Brönnimann, and coloured by Bayley's cool virtuosity, elicited elusive warmth and strands of sinuous beauty […]
“Brönnimann let the Kodály dances state their own riveting case, right up to the point where they release their ultimate euphoria. And in the Bartók, the long, unfolding inevitability of opening fugue gave way to a superbly balanced display of molten tranquillity and dizzy excitement.”
Ken Walton, The Scotsman (Edinburgh), 11 May 2009
“… the SCO's concert on Friday night was an enthralling magical mystery tour of the world of sonority… there is nothing unfamiliar about Kodaly's gipsy-inspired Dances of Galanta or Bartok's great masterpiece, the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste. But one does not often hear them like this… atmospherically and lucidly conducted by Baldur Brönnimann.
“… As for the Bartok: what a showing it received, with a performance of supreme stealth.”
Michael Tumelty, The Herald (Glasgow), 11 May 2009
English National Opera / NEUWIRTH, OLGA: Lost Highway (UK premiere)
“… the performance, marking the start of this month's ENO-Young Vic collaboration, can hardly be faulted. The conductor Baldur Brönnimann controls the mix of live and electronically processed music seamlessly, just as the director Diane Paulus marshals the stage and video action in a slick production.”
The Sunday Times (London), April 2008
“So what of the score? Shreds of Carissimi slide languidly into half-heard lines from a Broadway standard, a Purcellian dying fall, Mahleresque cadences, generic jazz riffs from trumpet and sax, a yawn of slide guitar, skeletal stirrings of percussion, a sudden conflagration of knotted, humid bass, a pregnant wash of ambivalent, green-blue chords. In appropriating other people's songs, Neuwirth is backgrounding herself, but the minutely wrought joins and merges of live and recorded sound are themselves often mesmerising and were, under conductor Baldur Brönnimann and sound-designer Markus Noisternig, immaculately dovetailed.”
Anna Picard, Independent on Sunday (London), 13 April 2008
“The music perfectly catches the mood of the original film. In fact, "Lost Highway" is so faithful to Lynch's original ... that one wonders if it would not have been more practical to just to show the film and have it accompanied by this wonderful orchestration (consummately handled by conductor Baldur Brönnimann and his 24-piece orchestra).”
Time Out (London), April 2008
“Supplemented with guitar, accordion and pre-recorded audio feeds, the orchestra under the direction of Baldur Brönnimann, proves highly adept in producing the teeming, wheezy sounds of urban malaise, now and then stumbling woozily into distorted snatches of popular song before whirling back into the aural world of blood-steeped nighmare.”
The London Paper (London), April 2008
“Wander into the Young Vic for any one of the six sold-out performances and you'll find a living, breathing, hyperventilating evocation of Lynch's inner world. The great thing about Lost Highway – ENO's first collaborative show with the Young Vic – is that it refuses to conform to preconceived notions about music theatre; it isn't governed by rules as to when or where it might be appropriate to speak or sing. […] The dialogue itself is hyper-amplified to take on the allusion of a movie soundtrack, while the band (under Baldur Brönnimann) create an extraordinary kind of emotional static – the musique concrète of Hades – that has absorbed the myriad musics of Lynch's world, from popular songs like "Unforgettable" to Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera.”
Edward Seckerson, The Independent (London), 8 April 2008
“The cast, led by Mark Bonnar and Quirijn de Lang as the two halves of the doppelganger hero, is good; the orchestra, under Baldur Brönnimann, is alert; and the staging by Diane Paulus assembles contemporary clichés without making them seem overly tired.”
Richard Fairman, Financial Times (London), 8 April 2008
“Lost Highway is based on the 1997 David Lynch film and endeavours to recreate the surreal, lurid, raunchy world of that psychological thriller. Fusing video, dialogue and music, both live (a 27-piece ensemble ably conducted by Baldur Brönnimann and pre-recorded electronics), Neuwirth captures the menace lurking round every corner.”
Barry Millington, Evening Standard (London), 8 April 2008
“Baldur Brönnimann conducts with authority [...]"
Rupert Christiansen, The Daily Telegraph (London), 7 April 2008
“Neuwirth uses a volatile mix of 20-piece live band [...] efficiently conducted by Baldur Brönnimann [...]”
Richard Morrison, The Times (London), 7 April 2008
“Baldur Brönnimann conducts with unfailing zest and panache – the 27-strong ensemble drawn from the ENO Orchestra responding with alacrity, and with the interplay of live and sampled instrumental sound ideally judged for this acoustic. Indeed, as an exemplar of what is possible within the domain of music-theatre, “Lost Highway” could hardly be improved upon: no-one interested in what such an endlessly re-inventive genre currently has to offer should miss seeing this astounding production.”
Richard Whitehouse, ClassicalSource.com, 4 April 2008