"Who knew that Rimsky-Korsakov's overworked Scheherazade could actually sound fresh and really exciting? It took the DSO assistant conductor, the Bulgarian-born Mr. Rachev, to do just that, with deliciously seductive solos from concertmaster Emanuel Borok. No wonder DSO musicians like Mr. Rachev so much."
Dallas News, December 2007
"Recently I bemoaned the shortage of suitable young conductors, but Michael Tilson Thomas has apparently found a gifted one to be first conducting fellow of the New World Symphony. He is Danail Rachev, a Bulgarian from Juilliard who opened Saturday's concert in the Lincoln Theatre with an astutely pointed performance of Stravinsky's rarely-revived Four Etudes for Orchestra….Rachev and the orchestra had the complexities of all four pieces in full control and put the Stravinskyian stamp on them."
The Miami Herald
"Rachev's clear, demonstrative conducting elicited powerful, pitch-perfect solos from the players, especially concertmaster Emanuel Borok."
Star-Telegram
"The DSO has a major talent in [Rachev], trained both in his native Bulgaria and at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. So many of our younger American-trained conductors are interchangeable metronomes, but Mr. Rachev has proved a musician of real depth, sensitivity and authority."
The Dallas Morning News
"The Mendelssohn is an opportunity for conductor and players to travel on serene and stormy seas. Rachev shaped the breezy aquatic episodes with seamless fluidity and invigorated the moments of dangerous drama."
Plain Dealer, February 2007
"On Saturday Assistant Conductor Danail Rachev proved remarkably adept at coaxing stylish Bach performances. He did this with much-reduced ensembles: a maximum of 19 players in the Second Concerto, a mere seven in the Sixth. Rhythms and phrases were nicely buoyant."
Classical Music Critic, July 2007
"The concert led off with Mozart's Six German Dances, K. 509. Conducting Fellow Danail Rachev led a vigorous, boldly projected performance that conveyed much of the music's wit and dance element…"
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
"New World conducting fellow Danail Rachev preceded the Ravel with a fluent and sensitive reading of Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun….the New World players responded to Rachev's direction with gracious and evocative playing…"
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
"What makes The Tender Land work is the clarity, beauty and honesty of Copland's music, qualities that come through strongly in the Opera Vivente production at Emmanuel Episcopal Church. The chamber version of the original orchestration (idiomatically prepared in 1985 by Murray Sidlin and approved by Copland) enhances the score's directness without any great loss of warmth. On Sunday afternoon, conductor Danail Rachev shaped that score tellingly, revealing particular appreciation for its gentlest, most introspective moments."
The Baltimore Sun