Press Reviews

Look! No Conductor!, 4 May 2012, St George’s Bristol
“The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment complemented Faust on stage, studying her closely, resulting in a truly excellent and faultless performance.”
Bachtrack

“At one point Levin’s fortepiano sounded like a swarm of bees on the rampage. And with an ending in Beethoven’s campest heroic manner, little wonder that the St George’s audience was quickly on its feet cheering.”
Venue

Look! No Conductor!, 3 May 2012, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“For anyone who regards Beethoven’s Triple Concerto as an unloved half-sibling of the piano concertos, respected for its intimacy and lyricism but thought lacking in dramatic excitement, this vivid account will have been a revelation. Nominally directed by Robert Levin, the performance bristled with stirring passion framing the magnetic synchronicity and honeyed tones of Faust and Isserlis.”
Classical Source

Handel: Theodora (CD review)
“This is the magnificent aural record of one of the greatest productions seen at Glyndebourne in recent times…William Christie and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment pace the score with precisely the right balance of weight and grace: nothing drags, everything moves freely, without any sense of baroque affectation.”
The Telegraph

Bostridge sings Bach, 25 April 2012, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“Last night’s all-Bach programme thus brought together vocal and instrumental offerings of the very highest calibre, serving to remind us that few, if any, British ensembles can match the OAE for the stylish delivery of this repertoire.”
Evening Standard

“But this was an occasion when everyone was on form, not least the OAE in the fourth Brandenburg concerto and two bouncy orchestral sinfonias, led from the organ by Devine, which helped to ensure that foot-tapping Bach got a good hearing alonside devotional Bach.”
The Guardian

“Devine’s bubbling fingers turned the counterpoint into intoxicating champagne. Elsewhere, the murmurs of flute and recorders — so deftly pitched, the melody lines never overdecorated — generated sweet music. Bach bliss at last.”
The Times

Baroque Giants: Bach, 10 March 2012, Birmingham Town Hall
“Sandwiching the concertos in this neatly balanced programme were two orchestral suites, both in D major and sharing other characteristics too: regal themes, dance movements and the later addition of trumpets and timpani, creating exciting textures. A sense of perpetual motion with myriad semiquavers in complex counterpoint was accented with a stately, stirring quality. The exuberant Réjouissance concluded both the Orchestral Suite no. 4 and the evening ‘in the company of a genius’. The OAE’s vitality had proved to be a perfect partner to this joyous, life-enhancing music.”
Bachtrack

“Another concerto, Brandenburg No.5, was the highlight of the evening.With the orchestral players one-to-a-part, this was a reading of freshness and subtlety.Truscott and Cummings (his big harpsichord cadenza decidedly improvisatory in character) were joined in their solo trio by Lisa Beznosiuk, her pastel flute tones transporting us to another world, and leading us eventually to a finale both relaxed and bubbling.”
Birmingham Post

Baroque Giants: Handel, 7 March 2012, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“…yet the overall effect was magnificent, because the players gave these simple things such grace and taut, spring-like energy. There were 14 string players and eight winds on stage, including four fabulously flavoursome oboes; a generous band, big enough to create a literally massive effect.”
The Telegraph

Baroque Giants: Bach, 4 March 2012, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“The playing of the OAE was exemplary from start to finish; not only did the famous second movement in the 3rd Suite, known to virtually everyone on the Planet thanks to violinist August Wilhemj’s famous Air on the G string transcription, sound fresh and was never dawdled over, but the ensuing dances – Gavotte, Bourée and Gigue had plenty of rhythmic vitality.”
Music OMH

Romeo & Juliet, 18 February 2012, Royal Festival Hall
“What we did have, though, was mostly superb playing from the OAE, their period timbres bringing Berlioz’s colourful score vibrantly to life. Muted strings were magical in the nocturnal love scene: a carpet of sound over which flutes and clarinets throbbed with passion.”
Evening Standard

 “The score’s opulence was thrown into incisive relief by the earthy panoply of the OAE, its trombones and valve-less horns setting the tone from the outset with some thrilling antiphonal stridency, while flutes tolled like bells and the fast-dying sound of old kettledrums added a frisson with their every beat. Elder capitalised on the forces at his disposal with a reading that alternated between militaristic swagger and rustic beauty. Balances fell naturally into place. If the violins sounded a touch scratchy during the ‘Queen Mab (Scherzo)’, it was a small price to pay for the unexpected loveliness of a lustre-free string sound in this music. This memorable concert was recorded by BBC Radio 3: it’s a broadcast not to be missed.”
Classical Source

“And it’s no accident that the two great tableaux at its foundation focus on true love well met and consummated. Who needs words when the exquisite pain of a period oboe’s chromatic plaint tells you exactly how it feels to be “Romeo alone”? Likewise the exuberant and sumptuously scored dance of the Great Banquet bounding forward on the rhythm of two timpanists and tinkling tambourine – where modern instruments need careful handling, Elder’s Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment could dazzle with impunity. Of course, the pivotal Love Scene – where no words, not even Shakespeare’s, will do – can enjoy greater opulence in the heady vibrato of a modern string section, but how infinitely touching to hear this music through-phrased with such modesty and intimacy, the OAE violins suggesting sublimation is only an embrace away.”
The Independent

“In a way then, this is a love letter to the orchestra. That Berlioz’s exploited every bit of flesh and fat of the early 19th-century orchestral beast doesn’t make things easy on the orchestra or conductor. But both Sir Mark Elder and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenmentdespatched every technical challenge with ease. There was an infectious hyperactivity to the Grande Fete chez Capulet and an addictive lightness to the scampering of the Queen Mab Scherzo. Even in this unusually expanded form, the OAE clung together like chamber musicians throughout. Elder’s dramatic sense was there at every key climactic point and dramatic musical turn.”
Theartsdesk.com

“If the moment had a particularly piercing clarity in a sold-out Festival Hall, that was because the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment played with such attack. We’re now well past the point of asking what the OAE’s “natural” territory is, but under Mark Elder’s sterling leadership they brought a sonic brilliance, and a vehemence, to Berlioz’s still startling orchestration.”
The Times

“Of course, the pivotal Love Scene – where no words, not even Shakespeare’s, will do – can enjoy greater opulence in the heady vibrato of a modern string section, but how infinitely touching to hear this music through-phrased with such modesty and intimacy, the OAE violins suggesting sublimation is only an embrace away.”
Edward Seckerson

“The symphony begins with an orchestral Introduction, which the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by Sir Mark Elder, played with a strident yet velvety tone that brought out both the immediacy and beauty of the music.”
MusicOMH

“Above all, though, it was the OAE and Sir Mark Elder who were the driving forces behind this performance. For the OAE, Berlioz’s music marks a decisive step into the heady Romanticism of the mid-nineteenth century, quite a distance from their once-natural habitat of the baroque and classical repertoire…Led with obvious pleasure by Elder, the OAE dealt admirably with what many have thought the eccentricities of the piece: the blink-and-you-miss-it flashes of melodic inspiration; the rhythmic complexities; the harmonies that often seem to hark from another, much later age; the constant, sudden about-turns of mood and musical direction. The strings were finely etched throughout, endlessly responsive to Elder’s hyper-detailed reading, while woodwind, brass and (yes) percussion solos were always committed, often astonishingly beautiful despite the palpable obstacles to tuning presented by early nineteenth-century wind and brass instruments.”
Musical Criticism

“Between the Royal Festival Hall performance on 18 February and a final performance in Paris on the 26th, Sir Mark Elder and the OAE kept fingers and voices in tune with a complete performance of Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette in The Anvil Basingstoke, and the five orchestral movements to open this year’s Reverb Festival at the Roundhouse (boasting that “contemporary classical has a new home”), part of the OAE’s outreach programme, The Night Shift. I love this music, but came out of these two performances loving it even more...After the excellence of Basingstoke, I had approached the Roundhouse with some trepidation, but was intrigued and quickly captivated. I wouldn’t want every concert to be like this (not that anyone is suggesting it), but given the quality of the playing and the geniality of the presentation, this was a winning evening. Somehow Berlioz’s extraordinary invention was heightened – from the first thumb-biting to Juliet’s real demise, made musical sense and I wonder why these five movements are not done in that order more often.”
Classical Source

An Olympic Thread, 5 February 2012, Turner Sims Southampton
“The decision to use narration rather than to set Reid’s text as song was a brave one. For song would irresistibly tempt a composer to try to express Reid’s compound fracture of the soul. And Spinal Chords does not so much express as impress: the chords, played only on the cordes the stringed instruments of the OAE sear into the nerves as they are deconstructed, painfully built up, fall back again into stasis, then start to reconnect and grow into fragments of melody, motif and new motivation, shared among the band’s 13 soloists. And, finally, three gently vibrant, questioning chords. The audience becomes gradually and wonderfully aware that the musical process is an almost direct transcription of the physical one. In a work that is totally devoid of drama or self-pity, it is left to the listener to supply the emotional subtext.  This works extraordinarily well.”
The Times

The Night Shift pub tour, 31 January-22 February 2012
“The musical component of the evening was the straightforward bit. Without the ballast of a harpsichord, the fabric of Purcell’s music is gossamer-thin, but these players moulded it so gracefully that it took on a different kind of strength. In the dimly lit warmth, the music held everyone captive . One had to marvel at how so rough an era, when death and injury at entertainments were not unknown, could produce something so tender…Finally, we all got to “roar some Bawdy,” when Matthew Truscott taught us one of Purcell’s rude songs. It was as if a breath of Old England had suddenly wafted into a corner of Stepney.”
The Telegraph

The Glory of Venice, 13 January 2012, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“Grandi’s Exaudi me Domine, for solo voice and continuo, was engagingly performed by Daniel Auchincloss, who displayed admirable fluidity and ease in his upper register. He was sensitively accompanied by Howarth and, on theorbo, Elizabeth Kenny. Similarly, Monteverdi’s buoyant madrigal-style Exulta filia allowed the chance for bright-voiced Julia Doyle to shine. In the grander works, both singers blended superbly into the texture, their voices another instrumental part.”
Classical Source

“…in the final number, Gabrieli’s Exultet iam angelica turba, a celebratory motet for which all the musicians were enlisted. The balance here was ideal, as was the instrumentation, which I’m sure was interpretive to a certain extent. Here again the two vocalists took ensemble roles, balancing the vocal timbres with the more exotic instrumental sounds. The result was euphonious and satisfyingly complex, a timely reminder of why Gabrieli’s music continues to be celebrated and performed, even 400 years after his death.”
Orpheus Complex

“It’s conceivable that every doge had his personal preference.  In any case, it explained why the OAE’s doge for the evening, Robert Howarth, favoured dispersing his three virtuoso cornett players amongst the other musicians: one at each end, with one in the middle.  The result, once you folded in the strings, theorbo and a majestic range of sackbutts, was a rich wash of sound.”
The Times

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on New Years Day, 1 January 2012, Kings Place
“Among the vast range of Four Seasons interpretations, the OAE’s belonged in the light, tight division, with phrasing individual but never eccentric, the tone colours and degrees of attack wide-ranging, the rhythms crisp and forceful without approaching the Nigel Kennedy stomp. A real breath of fresh air, this; just what New Year’s Day needed.”
The Times

Christmas Oratorio, 22 December 2011, St John’s, Smith Square
“The OAE’s trumpets and drums announced the Nativity in fine, declamatory style; the obbligato instruments would round their arias like vines. All in all, it was the musical equivalent of one of those incredibly elaborate German crib scenes, where there is always something to catch our eye and move our spirits.”
Classical Source

Messiah, 6 December 2011, Royal Festival Hall
“…the choir and orchestra were on superb, virtuosic form, and Laurence Cummings’s extravagantly gestural conducting could only have been more energised if he’d had a trampoline for a rostrum. The orchestral sound was almost overloaded with colour and nuance, with a fine transparency in the strings allowing the winds to slice through the textures in plangent style, and with two heroic, raw trumpets capping ‘Glory to God’ and ‘Hallelujah!’ plus a memorable obbligato in ‘The trumpet shall sound’.
Classical Source

“Laurence Cummings conducted an OAE trimmed down to a size Handel would have recognised from the first London performances of Messiah, with doubled oboes and bassoons adding the only extra colour to the original scoring for strings and trumpets. The Choir of the Enlightenment fielded only 22 people, yet they sung with admirable focus and feeling, and patient attention to Handel’s masterful word-painting.”
The Times

Beethoven Symphony No.9 (CD Review)
“Mackerras’s 1994 Edinburgh festival performance with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is one of the most thrilling Beethoven interpretations I have ever heard. It bristles with revolutionary spirit: there’s no attempt to tame or otherwise civilise the sounds that Beethoven’s imagination is racing to conjure into being. You feel as if the conductor can barely keep the music on a leash, such is its volcanic energy – and yet Mackerras’s way with this symphony is all part of a coherent vision. The OAE play like gods and demons, with pure string timbres one moment, raw woodwinds the next, and even the slow movement catches your breath, thanks to Mackerras’s ability to shed new light. The performance is crowned by a finale that clearly inspired everyone taking part.”
Financial Times

“This is a performance on period instruments by a chamber orchestra, but that is not to say that the sounds lacks body: 44 string players are listed and the woodwind section is doubled.  The OAE’s playing is lean and muscular but there’s plenty of espressivo and dolce lyricism too.”
Gramophone

St Matthew Passion, 28 November 2011, Ambika P3
“There was some lovely obbligato playing from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and some first-rate choral singing, enchanced by a hard but resonant acoustic.”
The Telegraph

“The sleeve-note of this disc describes Beethoven’s ninth symphony as ‘euphoric’, and that is exactly the word to apply to this performance…however many Ninths you own, add this one to your treasury.”
BBC Music Magazine

1700s London & the Fab Four, 21 November 2011, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“The delicious thing about this concert was its variety of texture, colour, and cast, and, of course, the buzz of corporate enjoyment that this ensemble always communicates with its audience.”
Edward Seckerson

“The other offering from Abel was one of his accompanied violin sonatas, delivered by the evening’s guest leader Rachel Podger, Manson, and the OAE’s co-principal keyboardist Steven Devine. Here was exemplary chamber music making, each player leading the others through a radiant and pretty work. The first movement’s characterisation was acute, with Manson’s more sorrowful line always lifted back by Podger’s higher and lighter part. There is no doubt that this is music worthy of further exploration, in no small part thanks to such a persuasive performance.”
Bachtrack

Missa Solemnis, 4 November 2011, Royal Festival Hall
“Noseda seems a perfect fit with the OAE; here, he took an ensemble that at its best is electrified, and turned up the voltage to sparking point. The tenderness with which he shaped passages such as the opening Kyrie found its counterweight in furiously dynamic allegros. Yet, while at 85 minutes this was a brisk performance, the impression it left was not one of hurtling speed, but of energy, of shifting colours and responsiveness to Beethoven’s detailed and evocative orchestral writing.”
The Guardian

“The Orchestra, known for its exuberant and lively performances, found their perfect match in the ebullient Noseda. The resulting performance was full-blooded and enormously colourful, whilst their more gentle period instruments allowed the texture to remain clear and generally provided sensitive accompaniment for both chorus and soloists. The haunting tone of Principal Flautist Lisa Beznosiuk was a highlight, as was the superlative performance of the extended and challenging violin solo in the Benedictus, performed by leader Matthew Truscott.”
Bachtrack

On the cusp of romance, 1 November 2011, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“The concert concluded with a wonderful performance of Schubert’s Fifth Symphony; in context the greatest music and requiring the smallest orchestra of the evening. The first movement was perfectly paced to marry lyricism and strong accents; long lines (strings sweetened by a little vibrato) and a sense of direction in perfect accord. The slow movement (loving and flowing) was on wings of song (Lisa Beznosiuk’s recorder-like flute and Anthony Robson’s reedy oboe a constant delight) and the scherzo-masquerading Minuet had the spirit of the dance, the tender Trio guilelessly matched to it. The finale stole the show, Brüggen giving a masterclass in taking it no faster than it needs to go, with many poised and shapely rewards therein. This was joyous.”
Classical Source

“Forget Enlightenment; this was an evening of wild and unpredictable emotions. And comic pratfalls. And risky, seat-of-the-pants virtuosity…The engaging thing about all this was the way musical and emotional delicacy peeped out from among the rude surprises and virtuoso pyrotechnics.”
The Telegraph

Papa Haydn and his Wife, 21 October 2011, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“Under Trevor Pinnock the OAE was on sparkling form. An instantly arresting account of the first of Haydn’s sunrise portrayals opened Symphony No.6. The often-virtuosic solo lines were tackled with assuredness and aplomb by OAE principals. The quicksilver outer movements featured lovely flute solos (and impressively agile strings); and, elsewhere, there were characterful bassoon and double bass standouts. Leader Kati Debretzeni and cellist Jonathan Manson were eloquent in the beautiful slow movement, supported by sumptuous strings.”
Classical Source

The Works, 4 October 2011, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“The talk was followed by a complete performance of the work, Levin directing from the piano with much gusto and head-nodding. I have seen him in action before with the OAE, and it is clearly a very happy and friendly partnership. There’s no doubting the musicians’ enjoyment in working with such a musical personality as Robert Levin, and the audience felt it too, for the applause at the end of the performance was enthusiastic and sustained.”
Bachtrack

“October’s event was Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 23 in A, which was talked through by Robert Levin, whose character and enthusiasm manages to keep the dialogue animated – great if your knowledge on classical music composition isn’t up to much! His piano playing however is where the real talent lies and was the real essence of the whole night.”
Completely London

“Through the dissection of the Concerto, by understanding the parts, I was better able to appreciate the whole. ‘Speed-dating’ the musicians afterwards in the bar is also unique. It’s a lovely way to make the musicians more accessible to their audience and gives you a chance to ask questions, have a quick chat or just pay them a compliment in person. Now that’s not something that happens every day.”
Time & Leisure

Fingers, Felix and the Freeshooter, 29 September 2011, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“Titanic battles between orchestra and soloists are the stuff of Brahms and Rachmaninov; Levin and the OAE were able to do full justice to Mozart’s far more collegiate manner.”
Classical Source

“Mendelssohn’s great A minor symphony was inspired by a visit he made to Scotland in 1829. He composed the introduction to the symphony during a visit to the ruined chapel of Mary Stuart at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. The OAE’s rendition of this introduction had an immediacy and expressive intensity that was quite breathtaking, and which I think is unique to period orchestras.”
Seen and Heard

“The OAE’s four superlative players — Roger Montgomery, David Bentley, Gavin Edwards and Martin Lawrence — were the evening’s true stars. Without the distinct and burnished tones of their valveless natural horns, Mendelssohn’s Scottish landscapes would have lost much of their individuality. The horns gave the symphony’s coda depth and glory, and in Weber’s overture single-handedly turned the Queen Elizabeth Hall into a teeming German forest. But every instrument made its mark one way or another.”
The Times

The Night Shift, 8 September 2011, Star of Kings
“…this was a great night out and a great way of getting younger people to listen to live music. To steal a phrase from the friend who told me about this event: “Purcell in a pub – four words that define my idea of heaven.”"
Bachtrack

Edinburgh International Festival, 26 August 2011, Usher Hall
“It’s a considerable challenge for a period orchestra to tackle the span and intensity of Liszt’s most grandiose philosophical statement. But the OAE stared down the demons — sometimes literally — with verve.”
The Times

Prom 55: Rinaldo 25 August 2011, Royal Albert Hall
“…Handel’s zesty music was delivered with style, precision, energy and often compelling beauty, with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on top form under Ottavio Dantone’s inspired direction.”
The Times

“Hearing a period-instrument ensemble in the cavernous Albert Hall always requires aural adjustment. Once your ears are attuned, the impact, as here, can be direct and invigorating. In Rinaldo Handel gives a starring role to trumpets and recorders, who excelled.”
The Guardian

“The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment were as dazzling as ever, and Dantone was as brilliant as a conductor as lead continuo player – particular mention also to his continuo colleagues Jonathan Manson on cello and Elizabeth Kenny on theorbo and Baroque guitar. In short, this was a stunning performance…”
Music OMH

Rinaldo 2 July – 25 August 2011, Glyndebourne
“What we see can and does contradict what we hear and when Rinaldo imagines his bleak, wire-meshed schoolyard as the idyllic playground of romance it is the pristine flute and piccolo of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Ottavio Dantone (a compendium of sonic surprises) that transports us to Arcadia.”
The Independent

“Ottavio Dantone’s musical direction was by turns suave and dynamic, with the OAE in excellent form.”
Evening Standard

“The singing and acting, however, as always at Glyndebourne were magnificent, as was the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducted by Ottavio Dantone.”
Daily Express

“Musically speaking, the finest contribution of all came from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by Ottavio Dantone with lightness of touch, loving shaping of the phrases and cushioned support for the singers. I can’t recall hearing such eloquent continuo playing from any orchestral pit, anywhere, with so many moments when the ear was attuned so mesmerizingly to the instruments. David Blackadder’s trumpet, of course, blazed out gloriously – he nearly won that battle with Rinaldo.”
Music OMH

“I’d always known that the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment were one of the finest period bands around. But on Sunday, under the energetic leadership of Ottavio Dantone, I realised just how good they really are…a beautifully understated, refined sound, always in tune, always just right dynamically, always giving what was called for at the right moment. And under Dantone, they seemed injected by real energy and commitment – cue admiring glances among themselves during the maestro’s flamboyant harpsichord extemporisations. “
Gramophone Blog

Papa Haydn and Sister Act 21 June 2011, Royal Festival Hall, London
“The OAE was celebrating 25 years in the business. In their very first concert Sigiswald Kuijken directed Haydn’s Symphony No. 83 and even then the ensemble was seen to be raising the profile of period performance. An early critic remarked ‘could this at last be a group of musicians…. able to make an audience forget for a moment whether or not the flutes are made of wood, and whether the direction comes from batons or bows?’ The comment found a resonance in this evening, with a satisfying juxtaposition of mellow, woody winds, fiery horns and a pianissimo string sound as open and subtle as dawn light.”
BBC Music Magazine

“When this music is played by the OAE light doesn’t just dawn, it dazzles; and even more so when Sir Simon Rattle is on the podium. He has a special feeling for this quality of 18th-century music, and the programme he conducted with the OAE on Tuesday was tailor-made to reveal it.”
The Telegraph

“This was a masterclass in marrying period style, incident and colour with an eye for the bigger picture. Perhaps knowing they were in the safest pair of hands, the OAE players responded with outstanding flair and charisma.”
The Times

“Throughout this concert it was the stunning virtuosity of the OAE that impressed most and Rattle’s interpretations consistently made the most of the musicians’ talents without distracting from the freshness and invention of the music.”
Classical Source

“The virtuosity and flexibility of its players and the unique sound they make, not to mention their longstanding relationship with Sir Simon, ensures that the OAE is one of the world’s finest orchestras whilst being entirely its own.”
Bachtrack

Papa Haydn and Sister Act 20 June 2011, National Concert Hall, Dublin
“The silvery tone of these instruments is incredibly light and clear, so light, in fact, that the delicacy of the orchestral writing that Mozart provided and its delivery by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment seemed almost miraculous.”
Irish Times

A Celebration of Handel 29 May 2011, Dartington Hall
“Here the truly inspired leadership from Alison Bury, herself a superb violinist, ensured that each and every note was perfectly formed, while maintaining an impeccable ensemble throughout, with historically-informed ornamentation that was subtle yet never overly intrusive. But even more than this, there was a tremendous sense of fun and enjoyment which permeated the performance, whether in the slickly-despatched fast movements, or the expressively-shaped slow ones.”
This is Plymouth

Don Giovanni 22 May-15 July 2011, Glyndebourne
“…the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Robin Ticciati generates all the right frissons from the pit. Hydraulics apart, a brilliant evening.”
The Independent

“Under Robin Ticciati, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment re-establishes Glyndebourne as a place to hear Mozart.”
Financial Times

“…vividly exciting playing from the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment, and each member of the cast very much in control of their role.”
Musical Criticism

Fidelio 8 May 2011, Brighton Dome
“We were left, then, to sit back and make the most of the joyous music-making of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. There was nowhere to hide in the dry acoustic of the Brighton Dome’s concert hall, but a few rough edges were a small price to pay for the fearless commitment of this playing. The natural horns threw all caution to the wind, the hard-sticked timpani thundered powerfully, and the strings breathed new life into each phrase. But there was also hushed magic, including an impossibly quiet introduction to the Prisoner’s Chorus.”
The Telegraph

The Night Shift 4 May 2011, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“It says much about the supposed gracelessness and inattentiveness of the young that OAE’s audience of twenty-somethings inclined so closely to Pizarro’s whispered flurries of rolled chords and didn’t scarper when conductor Roy Goodman enthused about Schubert’s use of “the flattened submediant”. The tuning was hairy, the hemiolas excitable, the twin aims of approachability and education unsteadily balanced, but as Appleton said, “Yay for dissonance!”
The Independent

May the fours be with you 4 May 2011, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“The real successes were the Beethoven piano and the Schubert symphony. In the former, Artur Pizarro played on a David Winston fortepiano, an instrument endowed with an attractively full tone. Whether in rapid runs or in legato passages Pizarro’s playing was full of clarity, vitality, and – not always attained with such an instrument – a high degree of expression, exemplified in the first-movement cadenza, which had a pearly beauty. The brief Andante con moto had a truly prayerful quality, and the nimbleness of Pizarro’s playing in the finale was a delight too, and there were many vivid details in the orchestra, trumpets and horns especially.”
Classical Source

“There was indeed drama in the slow movement, which Liszt likened to Orpheus taming his wild beasts, but here the characters in that drama were built on the same scale. Pizarro’s clarity of touch and crystalline passage-work made a lovely foil to the OAE strings’ gutsy, down-home sound; this normally so-familiar work came across as completely new.”
The Independent

“Both performances were nothing short of a revelation. The Mozart can often come across as tired and familiar, but not here – from the outset Goodman and the wonderfully alert players of the OAE injected the first movement with an exciting sense of anticipation, gloriously phrased, perfectly balanced between woodwind and strings (which is no mean feat given the lighter sound of period winds) and properly thrilling in the climaxes. Similarly in the following movements it was like listening to the work for the first time, or at least like having years of slushy romanticism excised from the work.”
Music OMH

May the fours be with you 28 April 2011, St George’s Bristol
“For this concert by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the audience were transported to Vienna, with a programme of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. It was originally to have been conducted by the late great Charles Mackerras; instead, the performance’s bustling energy became a tribute to the man and to the tremendous partnership he forged with the OAE.”
The Guardian

St George’s Bristol Lunchtime Concert 31 March 2011, St George’s Bristol
“After a sensitive rendition of Merula’s Chiacona given by Elizabeth Kelly on Baroque guitar with accompaniment from the others Corelli’s Trio Sonata No 1 was a small gem, very short but packed with a wealth of invention, pure beauty and variety of pace and mood.”
Bristol Evening Post

Sublime Strings 26 March 2011, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“Sometimes it takes performances as vital and as fresh as these to remind us how good these works really are. Over-familiarity can lead to weariness but the 21-strong Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, including Rachel Podger, made it sound as if we were hearing these works for the first time.”
Classical Source

The other amazing Mr Bach 15 March 2011, Boston Early Music Festival
“The group made ideal persuasion of both the music’s edge and its depth; their straight-tone sound (with sufficiently excellent intonation to pull it off) and regal energy provided each layer with clarity and bite. Norrington’s conducting was efficiently casual, balletic reminders of phrases and stings, magician’s flourishes to match Bach’s own.”
The Boston Globe

The other amazing Mr Bach 3 March 2011, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“Roger Norrington relished the music’s bombshells, silences, eloquences and also its dynamism – here’s a composer that knew his pp from his ff, the bits in between and how to set up tension between them. Norrington’s expressive gestures painted this appetising music and the OAE was a very responsive canvas.”
Classical Source

“Typically the works all ended with ebullient finales and at the conclusion of each work Norrington would turn around to the audience as if to make sure we were sharing the fun. Indeed we were! If such a fine and spirited performance by the OAE can’t convince people that C.P.E. Bach is a composer to be reckoned with, then who can?”
Bachtrack

“A quirky composer demands a quirky conductor – so send for Roger Norrington. He, however, kept himself on a leash, galvanising the tireless OAE musicians but overplaying nothing, and the music’s joyous invention came across the better for it. The G major Symphony Wq 182/1 set the scene, bursting into life with an explosive downward tumble that fizzed out almost as soon as it began, to be followed by some frenetic violin see-sawing.”
The Guardian

“And how the OAE strings loved it, smiling even more than usual as wrists flicked and bows scampered. Slow movements revealed C.P.E’s more lyrical side, with melodic lines darkly wandering through uncertain keys or elegantly curling, smooth and sweet.”
The Times

Monteverdi: Vespers 1610 (Signum Classics) CD review
“Not all orchestras are the same,” runs the message on the cover, and it’s true: this is the second recording in about as many weeks of Monteverdi’s masterwork, following L’Arpeggiata’s, and clearly the superior. But it’s more about the choral arrangement than the orchestration: rather than tackling the unusually large pitch-ranges by sharing a single part between several discrete voices, Robert Howarth has assigned the parts to more versatile voices which can follow Monteverdi’s partbook outside their comfort zone, while using ingenious blends of voices to achieve a shimmering, captivating choral sound that seems to float effortlessly through the psalms.”
The Independent

From a dream to revolution 8 February 2011, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“Not all orchestras are the same”, proclaims Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s marketing; on the basis of this Queen Elizabeth Hall concert conducted by David Zinman, it is hard to disagree. What, with other groups, may have been merely a pleasant hour-and-a half in the genial company of three early-19th-century German Romantics became a vivid, life-affirming experience bursting with vibrant colours, rhythms and textures.”
Classical Source

“Some collaborations are just meant to be. Bringing David Zinman and the OAE together made for the best kind of mutuality: Zinman’s acute ear and cleanness of execution; the orchestra’s arresting character.”
The Independent

“…there was also real turbulence in the Intermezzo’s depiction of troubled mortals held by forces beyond their control, and a dark nostalgia in the Nocturne, beautifully played by the OAE’s horns.”
The Guardian

“For its centrepiece the programme had Weber’s early romantic Clarinet Concerto No. 1, played by the OAE’s own Antony Pay. This is a showpiece and Pay made the most of it, scampering around the semiquavers like a star soprano in a Donizetti opera and hitting some high-pressure top Fs that even Joan Sutherland would have admired. The three period horns were also on their best behaviour in their slow chorale.
Financial Times

Symphonic Enlightenment 21 January 2011, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“The sign of a good concert from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is when you as a listener reappraise the very fabric of the music you have just heard. As the orchestra becomes ever more adventurous in their choice of repertoire, there was a chance to hear them venture as far afield as Wagner, Liszt and Mahler.”
Music OMH

“For his latest appearance with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Vladimir Jurowski assembled a compact yet cohesive programme centred on early Mahler…there was no denying the poise of Jurowski’s reading nor the conviction that the OAE brought to music whose conception of diverse orchestral timbre might be thought inimical to its thinking.”
Classical Source

“Under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski, the OAE vigorously flexed its expressive muscles, moving through distinct moods of contemplative introspection, fluid lyricism, trembling fear and assertive triumph. As Jurowski’s towering frame swayed, the orchestra responded.”
Bachtrack

“The violins spun their arpeggios with silvery sheen, and an enlarged OAE lent weight to this musical picture of weltschmerz and melancholy.”
Sunday Telegraph