Published: 06 October 2010
Category: Artists

Gilbert Varga has enjoyed a steady run of debuts in the US in recent seasons, many of which have resulted in regular re-invitations. This month Varga will make his debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in a Russian programme featuring Stravinsky's Petrushka and Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No.1 with Midori. The Minnesota Orchestra, who invite Varga every season, present him with Dvorak's 8th Symphony and prior to this Varga conducts the St Louis Symphony, another Orchestra with whom he has enjoyed a long-standing relationship.

“…conductor Gilbert Varga … splendidly sympathetic … realizes every shiver of delight in Szymanowski's piquant score.

Paul Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice,… is treated by Varga and the orchestra as the minor masterpiece it is. No pops-concert languor here, but athletic rigor and pictorial immediacy. Richard Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, … is similarly vivid, accorded a reading of suavity and bite.”
Varga with the Minnesota Orchestra, Star Tribune, April 2009

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