Recent reviews

BBC Prom 1 August 2010, Royal Albert Hall
"Translucent and flexible, the “authentic” interpretation of Rattle and the OAE was so musically convincing as to overcome its novelty...I can’t help feeling that with his love of technical innovation and excess Wagner would have welcomed the greater brute force of the contemporary orchestra, but the clearly defined textures of the period interpretation made sense of his multi-layered motivic writing, drawing the eye more frequently beneath the dense surface of massed strings. And you can’t argue with the bluntly atmospheric impact of five natural horns – an absolute joy."
The Artsdesk.com

"As Simon Rattle and his period band – the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment – nursed the sensuous, no erotic, harmonies of the love scene from Berlioz’ Romeo and Juliet the realisation dawned once more that without this extraordinary composition and others like it Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde might have remained forever chaste. Two pairs of star-crossed lovers and between them a seismic shift in the evolution of music. Talk about the earth moving."
The Independent

"The period instruments, meanwhile, belonged to the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, who, in the evening, coupled the Love Scene from Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette with Tristan's second act. Abrasive period brass conferred greater intimations of menace throughout, while leaner strings and darker woodwind added to the sense of melancholy, in Mark's monologue above all."
The Guardian

"Every bar of the OAE's performance had a clear dramatic purpose (apart from the odd moment when the players sounded like they were engaged in a battle for supremacy with their obstreperous instruments), and there wasn't a trace of the stodgy Wagnerian soup that his orchestration can become in mediocre modern-instrument performances."
Tom Service OnClassical Blog

"Audience reaction was thunderous, with Rattle touchingly walking around the orchestra shaking hands of individual players in thanks for their part in what has been an utterly compelling, and original, take on the music."
Classical Source

Don Giovanni, 4 July - 27 August 2010, Glyndebourne
"Under the direction of Vladimir Jurowski, conducting the work for the first time, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment produces sonorities both pungent and tender. Jurowski screws the tension tightly but allows for moments of calm melancholy, as in the mandolin-accompanied serenade of Giovanni — the snowfall and unsettling stage action hinting at the emptiness of the dissolute life."
Evening Standard

"The success of Kent’s update entails the risky strategy of to some extent playing against the reckless dash of the narrative (brilliantly and dramatically underpinned by Vladimir Jurowski’s fizzing engagement with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) and playing the recitative at conversational pace."
The Independent

"The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment sizzled, putting paid forever to the idea that historically-informed performance can't equal conventional orchestration. Indeed, because it was a period orchestra, textures were more flexible, lighter, more vivid, again supporting the pace of the drama." Classical Iconoclast

Beethoven Symphonies, 25 May 2010, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
"An impression of vast natural forces was powerfully conjured up in the ‘Storm’, and ‘Shepherd’s Song’ – beautifully played – brought much-needed balm. James Gaffigan is definitely someone to watch out for, and the wonderful players of the OAE clearly enjoyed working with him.."
Classical Source

"Gaffigan, after shaping a nervy, dramatic Coriolan Overture, drew on the OAE’s distinct colours and gutsy attack to shape a warmly vigorous, if not quite exhilarating, path through the Pastoral. With some authentic looking hip-swinging from Gaffigan, the peasants’ knees-up went by with a swing, and the storm sequence had a pleasing rawness, in no small part due to the appropriately raucous blasts from the horn section."
The Times

Cosi fan tutte, 22 May-17 July 2010, Glyndebourne
"It’s a terrific cast, and their verve is matched by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Sir Charles Mackerras."
The Times

Beethoven with Guts 15-18 April 2010, Kings Place, London
"...the long weekend of concerts and events organised by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at Kings Place produced some high-quality music-making..."
The Daily Telegraph

Beethoven Symphonies 9 April 2010, Royal Festival Hall, London
"The first and second movements, however, had tremendous incisiveness, and the tutti dissonances launching the fourth could hardly have been crunchier. No stranger sound (but it was wholly apt) has surely been contributed to this work than the rude noise made early in the finale by David Chatterton on the contrabassoon he built himself. The movement was impelled with stirring clarity, the vocal soloists (Rebecca Evans, Diana Montague, Timothy Robinson, Christopher Purves) a doughty team, the chorus masterful."
The Sunday Times

"The OAE's period instruments, from flatulent double bassoon to clanging percussion, justified themselves in the Janissary music. Launching the vocal party, Christopher Purves firmly underpinned a fine quartet also consisting of Rebecca Evans, Diana Montague and the especially good tenor Timothy Robinson, and the Philharmonia Chorus was on rollicking form."
The Telegraph

"...its clarity was more than just the usual period-instrument transparency: real care had been taken in balancing the orchestral parts."
Financial Times

"...the best feature of this performance was the colouring, balance and interplay between the strings and the orchestra's often superb wind sections, especially in the adagio."
The Guardian

"With the OAE’s period brass adding a raw rasp to the climaxes, the strings vibrato-less and viol-like for much of the slow movement, and the woodwinds often palpably struggling to attune their old instruments to Beethoven’s bucking lines, there was a real feeling of entering into an early 19th-century soundworld."
The Times

Beethoven Symphonies 10 March 2010, Royal Festival Hall, London
"But if we thought all that was revolutionary (and it was) it’s been a while since a performance of the ubiquitous Fifth Symphony steamed into a concert hall with quite the culture shocking force of Fischer’s account. Just when you thought you knew how the first movement went, along comes Fischer with hair-raising impetus to challenge players and listeners alike. Terse, jagged, intemperate, fermatas cut to the quick, a moment like the unexpected oboe cadenza appearing like a delusion of calm.It was quite something, full of fresh, inquisitive detail and a finale which seemed quite literally to be ripped from darkness and strife and driven to almost delirious jubilation. Wow."
The Independent

Tamerlano 5 -20 March 2010, Royal Opera House, London
"Ivor Bolton conducted with pace and flair, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment brought customary vigour and poise to the score."
The Observer

"Allegiances change, love swaps and perceptions are redefined. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is wonderful under Ivor Bolton's caring conducting."
Time Out

Beethoven Symphonies 4 March 2010, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
"And we can be precise about the moment that Beethoven blows the Haydn model right out of the water and glimpses the far horizon of his brave new world: it’s the extended coda of the first movement where a devious harmonic shift sets collision course for the rip-roaring climax in which the trumpets turn wilful dissonance into exultancy. Ivan Fischer and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment nailed it like they knew that nothing would ever be quite the same again."
The Artsdesk.com

"Beethoven does not find new life through the influence of period-instrument practice and pukka performing editions alone. The players have to be palpably excited by what they’re doing, and a conductor has to show them — and us — as though for the first time how the great symphonic whole is made up of thousands of vibrant voices and parts, all firing and regenerating each other. This was very much the experience of both the Second and the Third Symphonies in Fischer’s hands."
The Times

"...as Fischer showed in these performances of the Second and Third Symphonies with the OAE, there are still moments of revelation when performing the music with such historical awareness. Here, they came from the natural horns, and especially from the stopped notes they used for chromatic pitches, which gave wholly new shapes and articulation to passages such as the trio of the Eroica."
The Guardian

"The Funeral March became a private utterance, with overheard upbeats from the splendid double-basses led by the ever-expressive Chi-Chi Nwanoku; and I think I found loveliest of all that moment in the Prometheus variations when the tune very briefly turns bucolic after a patch of turbulence."
David Nice

"Everything here was a joy from the the abrupt dynamic contrasts, the almost mock solemnity of the transition theme, through to the putative coda - which is actually a kind of musical 'trompe l'oeil' prefiguring the totally punctual, powerful and fully developed codas of later Beethoven."
Seen and Heard

Harmonic Inspiration, 17 February 2010, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
"Peerless exponents of period performance, the OAE musicians communicated great love and dedication for these concertos – as well as terrific joy in the music.. From the frosty Adagio of the G minor, the evocative brittleness of which recalls ‘Winter’ from The Four Seasons, to the Corelli-like grandeur of the Concerto in F, the thrilling fugal toccata from the D minor, and the bravura cross-fire of the B minor (arranged by no less than J. S. Bach for his concerto for four harpsichords), these lively, captivating performances drew drama from the music itself rather than contriving effects.."
Classical Source

Beethoven Symphonies, 2 February 2010, St George's Bristol
"The musicians gave their all, as the rapturous audience recognised, with cheers and whistles and drumming feet."
Bristol Evening Post

The Night Shift, 29 January 2010, Roundhouse, Camden
"The Roundhouse was packed to the rafters on Friday night. The young trendy crowd that gathered had come to hear Beethoven’s seventh symphony played on period instruments. It all sounds rather unlikely, testament to the success of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s Night Shift series, which has become something of a phenomenon. The formula has achieved what for any arts organisation is the Holy Grail: a ‘ways in’ event that has built a genuinely youthful following."
Culture Capital

Beethoven Symphonies, 28 January 2010, Queen Elizabeth Hall
"I mentioned elegance and grit – and they were inseparable in the finale of the Fourth Symphony where the almost unstoppable momentum vividly foreshadowed the all-dancing, all-pulsating, Seventh Symphony to come. And where period instruments really score in a work like that is in the sense of every sinew being stretched in pursuit of new highs and new dynamism. What a thrill to hear those brassy horns stopped high to achieve lift-off at the start of the first movement’s vaulting vivace."
The Independent

"The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment can give the impression of not needing their conductor. Most of their repertoire predates the ­existence of virtuoso professional conductors, but Jurowski's micro-conducting – shaping every phrase, jumping on every lead – suits them nicely. Beginning with the Fourth Symphony, stretching the slow introduction to near breaking point, they pounced on the allegro vivace with a brazen diversity of tone. From the long melodies, perfectly shaped by the strings despite the absence of vibrato, to the fleet cross rhythms and stabbing motions of the Third Symphony, the audience had to hold on to their seats."
The Guardian

"The performance of the Seventh Symphony set off with a spacious grandeur that at first seemed quite traditional. But as the movement unfolded this was offset by a very untraditional clarity, expressed through the OAE’s lean, grainy sound. The Scherzo leapt into being with tremendous energy, like a horse at the starting gun, and at the end Jurowski made us jump out of our skins by launching straight into the Finale without a pause."
The Telegraph

"With playing from the OAE that was committed and joyous, sassy and spontaneous, with natural balances, the surprise was Vladimir Jurowski’s moderate tempos...This was a stimulating performance, and an unexpected one, a ‘historically-informed’ traversal that avoided playing by numbers."
Classical Source

"If this opening concert of the 4th and 7th is anything to go by then we're in for the musical event of the year. Under Vladimir Jurowski, making his debut with the orchestra, both symphonies came across newly-minted giving us an idea of what it must have been like to hear these works as they were first performed. From the tantalisingly drawn out opening of the 4th, meticulously and atmospherically played by the members of the OAE, it was clear that this was going to be a memorable account of this often-maligned symphony."
MusicOMH

Haydn’s Creation, 9 December 2009, Royal Festival Hall
“…with only weeks to go the Haydn bicentenary has been crowned by a more exhilarating one from Mark Elder and the Choir and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. This is music that simply asks to be enjoyed without any inhibitions. The period brass blazed with unrefined splendour at “Let there be light” and the lower strings in “Rolling in foaming billows” broke through the banks of decorum like a river in full flood. Elder provided plenty of forward energy without harrying the music.”
Financial Times

“…the heart’s cockles were definitely warmed in Part 3 by the drive of the orchestra and the sensuous gusto of Eve (Sally Matthews), Adam (Davies) and chorus. One more reference to “the taste of fruit”, and I’d have rushed out to find an emergency pineapple.”
The Times

“It was, however, in the motivated choral singing and the refined colours of the orchestra (for whom Haydn reserved some of his boldest imaginative strokes in his charming musical depictions of the natural world) that this performance achieved true memorability; the delicate luminosity of the three flutes – played by Lisa Beznosiuk, Soile Stratkauskas and Georgia Browne – was exceptional.”
The Guardian

"But was there ever a more innocent sound than the three flutes garlanding the arrival of Adam and Eve? Only Haydn could have switched here from the expected combination of tenor and soprano and opted instead for bass and soprano – the masculine and feminine in sharper relief. But then The Creation is full of surprises and this performance sprung them with wit and wisdom."
The Independent

"Mark Elder's direction of this superb orchestra, always a comfort and a joy to listen to, got Haydn's mix of creative naivety and symphonic sophistication absolutely right."
Sunday Express

"Elder, displaying his quite staggering versatility, shaped the choir and ensemble in an account that was at once forceful, spry and illuminating."
Music OMH

"Once again the instrumentalists (and their instruments) of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment beguiled the ear with distinctive timbres and ideal balances."
Classical Source

"The Choir of the Enlightenment sang lustily and, if there was a grandeur lacking in the OAE’s playing, it was a crisp and lean reading which relished every trill, coo, roar and slither in Haydn’s glorious score."
Whatsonstage.com

The Dream of Gerontius, 28 November 2009, Town Hall Birmingham
"..we had the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, using “period” instruments (including trombones once owned by Elgar and Holst) and employing “period” portamento and flexibility of phrasing, bringing a wonderful transparency of line to what emerged as lean orchestral textures." Birmingham Post

Elgar's Best, 24 November 2009, Royal Festival Hall
"Usually, Elgar is out of reach of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; he’s too modern. But the benefits of “authenticity” were plain in the instruments’ clarity and light textures. Climaxes flared; the grime of ages was removed."
The Times

"Thus, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment reaches Elgar, and one of his very greatest achievements, and gave us something very special...in terms of ‘performance style’, the OAE sounding marvellous in its distinctive timbres and with ideal balances – brass and percussion never once blaring, glaring or threatening one’s hearing (unlike most ‘modern’ orchestra performances today); a translucent vividness that ensured details were transparent and meaningful."
Classical Source

Death, Duels and Love, 7 November 2009, Royal Festival Hall
"For much of the first half, with the boys yet to hit their stride, a lot of confused plotting and only one, admittedly stunning, aria from Stoyanova, the interest mainly lay with Mark Elder and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. It was model playing: sharp and tight when necessary, but also long-lined too. For an orchestra so addicted to a rough-edged period clipping and cutting, it was impressive to hear such consistent lyricism and tonal beauty."
theartsdesk.com

"Sustaining the mood of mounting hysteria without lapsing into melodrama is tricky, though this Opera Rara concert performance, with Mark Elder conducting the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, was immaculately paced and thrillingly played."
The Guardian

The Night Shift, 15 October 2009, Queen Elizabeth Hall
"The general impression created by a Night Shift is of a predominantly young audience, the prized holy grail for all concert halls, actually enjoying themselves."
theartsdesk.com

Haydn: The Artist's Choice, 15 October 2009, Queen Elizabeth Hall
"Most of all, though, it was the sheer vitality and joy of the OAE's playing and that communal sense of rediscovery at how these phrases turn and how individually the harmonies move beneath them. "
The Independent

"Nothing could have been more riotously exciting than Yannick Nézet-Séguin's conducting of the OAE, inspiring the players to the heights of passion and virtuosity, and making Haydn's surprises and sleights of hand in Symphonies 94 and 100 vertiginously thrilling."
Tom Service, On Classical Blog

"After a delightfully droll and lip-tickling performance of Hayn's Trumpet Concerto, played on a tricksy period instrument by David Blackadder, it was time for Hugh Wood's choice. He knew that he would get his money's worth from the OAE with the Military Symphony."
The Times

"The OAE displayed extraordinary stamina, maintaining impeccable precision. Nézet-Séguin's non-stop hyper-Haydn did become exhausting, and the programming of these late scores meant that it was almost impossible to fully appreciate all four in a row. It seems churlish to carp, however, about what was, after all, an excess of exceptionally high quality." Classical Source


The Voice of Handel, 24 September 2009, Dartington
"The OAE was on truly outstanding form too, under the inspired co-leadership of harpsichordist Steven Devine, and Matthew Truscott (violin), whether in finely-judged and impeccably well-balanced accompaniments to the vocal numbers or simply on their own in two of the composer's concerti grossi and his Suite from Terpsichore."
This is Plymouth

Edinburgh International Festival, 22 August 2009, Usher Hall, Edinburgh
"The tonal beauty of the period ensemble - horns with a fabulous golden crispness, strings not dissimilar - and his sense of paragraphing and propulsion made Symphonies Nos 48 and 49 arresting and alluring."
The Sunday Times

Mostly Mozart Festival, 16 August 2009, Lincoln Center, NY
"Only rarely do you encounter performances this finely detailed with strong ideas while retaining both a fidelity to the score and a generous sense of sweep. That this orchestra is as technically assured as it is in the treacherous realm of period instruments helped enormously...the orchestra glowed all over the place. The closing moments to the second movement were pained, hushed, and profoundly gorgeous."
The Philadelphia Enquirer

The Fairy Queen, 24 July 2009, Royal Albert Hall
"William Christie is one of the finest entrepreneurs of this music and his talented cast alongside the ever-dazzling Orchestra of the age of Enlightenment made sure that this was a truly magical event."
Musical Criticism

"The production’s finest asset is the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, guided by William Christie. Christie’s reading is sprightly and fun and, above all, theatrical. When those period instruments tremble, they really shudder, when they groan comically, it’s funny: Purcell’s magical instrumentation brought to intelligent, vivid life."
Evening Standard

Kings Lynn Festival, 19 July 2009, St. Margaret's Church
"One of the highlights of the festival, this, both on paper and, triumphantly, in practice.Who wouldn't want to hear this renowned orchestra's take on Italian composition of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries...?"
Spalding Today

The Fairy Queen, 20 June - 8 August 2009, Glyndebourne
"Singers, actors and dancers create a seamless pageant of English eccentricity, with conductor William Christie and the Orchestra Age of Enlightenment finding all the Baroque beauty and enduring delicacy in Purcell's score."
Daily Mail

"The orchestra has a brisk, imperturbable character and the singers, although in danger of being upstaged by theatrical abundance, are such assured performers that this never happens."
The Observer

"The music was in the inspiring hands of conductor William Christie with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in scintillating form."
Financial Times

"There's delicately shaded playing from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, directed with precision from the keyboard by William Christie. Instruments from the period are used in order to do ample justice to the Baroque style."
Crawley Observer

"Christie’s conducting of the OAE is similarly inspired and there’s fine singing, from Lucy Crowe, Andrew Foster-Williams and others. Carolyn Sampson tugs at the heartstrings in Plaint, abetted by Christie’s exquisitely sensitive accompaniment."
Evening Standard

"William Christie’s buoyant direction of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment rejoices in Purcell’s joyous counterpoint with drums, tambourines, and nutty woodwinds alternating with rosiny strings to convey the abiding spirit of the dance."
The Independent

"There are also moments of radiant stillness, even sadness — none more touching than Carolyn Sampson’s plangent singing of The Plaint, Purcell’s second-most-famous lament. That, and much else, is accompanied with verve and delicacy by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under William Christie."
The Times

"Throughout, we're also aware of how Purcell's score - at times overwhelmingly poignant - illuminates a world at the limits of speech that embraces both the seductions of the fairies' magic and the deep emotions of the bewildered humans caught in their charms. Beautifully conducted by William Christie, it's sensuously played by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment."
The Guardian

Giulio Cesare, 22 May 2009, Glyndebourne
"From the opening bars of 'Presti omai' the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment were a delight, driving the music forward with stylish technique that lost none of the energy or joy of Handel's orchestral writing in its polished accuracy. The upper strings in particular shimmered and shimmied their way - as appropriate - through the arias, relishing pulsing dance rhythms and stately legato lines with equal commitment."
Musical Criticism

"Thought provoking and fun, this is operatic staging at its best. Marvellous too are the playing of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, under spirited conductor Laurence Cummings, and all of the principal performances."
The Stage

"Laurence Cummings draws deeply expressive playing from the OAE."
Evening Standard

"..they are complemented by a conductor, Laurence Cummings, and a period-instrument band — the exuberantly on-form (and sometimes on-stage) Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment — who really know how to make the 20-odd hit arias fizz with fun or sear with anguish."
The Times

"Let’s begin with the instrumental splendour. Lawrence Cummings, who presides over the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, coaxes and cajoles myriad modes of attack and legato and sostenuto from his wonderful players. Handel’s accompagnati bristle with rhythmic excitement and luxuriate in opulence. The new guys on the block – the period horns – blaze a path all the way to Cleopatra’s palace. When she mounts her elaborate entertainment for Caesar from a stage strewn with stars and gaudy silks and a second instrumental group intensifies the sweet harmony of seduction, you had better believe Caesar will fall."
The Independent

Bonduca, 15 May 2009, Kings Place
“Purcell’s music includes a marvellously coarse catch for three drunken soldiers and one of his most stirring melodies, Britons Strike Home (pungently delivered by Nicholas Mulroy), as well as a fine, trumpet-led overture and some beguiling dances. Led from the fiddle by Margaret Faultless, the OAE made it all sound a lot suaver than it probably did in the bawdy playhouses of 1690s London.”
The Times

"The OAE string tone turned and glinted like the facets of a diamond in the cool, clear acoustic. Golden long notes beamed through the counterpoint. The singers in the Choir of the Enlightenment sounded a little too young: not raddled enough as drunks, not hoary enough as druids."
Radio 3

A Midsummer Night's Dream, 5 May 2009, Middle Temple Hall
“I’m proud to say that I now know exactly what fairy dust sounds like. Had the actors decided to give up and slink off for a drink at this stage the instrumentalists and singers could well have carried the show themselves. But musicians and actors alike performed with knock-down energy.”
Time Out

The Night Shift, 23 April 2009, Queen Elizabeth Hall
“The work was an excellent choice for the 10th instalment in the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's Night Shift concerts, through which the period band seeks to entice that ever-elusive audience demographic: the young. And they succeed, not simply by selling T-shirts and cocktails, but by allowing the audience to drink, chat and even wander about during performances. Once inside, of course, in a darkened room and faced with electrifying music-making, nobody stirs.”
The Guardian

Mark Padmore The Passion Afresh, 9 April 2009, Royal Festival Hall
“The OAE, led by Margaret Faultless, played with customary vigour and distinction, and in total unity with the singers – themselves effectively an extension of the orchestra's wind section. When applause finally broke out after a long silence, all the 40 or so participants lined up in random order to take their bows, a violinist here, an Evangelist there. For this remarkable ensemble, it's all about the music.”
The Independent

"Perhaps it's because the Matthew Passion is a grander telling, perhaps it's because singers and orchestra have now worked harder to knit words and music, but this performance came closer than any I've experienced to achieving that essential communal, cumulative power: how fitting that the eight singers and 35 players took their bows together."
The Times

Mark Padmore The Passion Afresh, 30 March 2009, St George's Bristol
"With just eight voices, including those of Padmore and Williams, singing the choruses, Bach's music took on an emotional perspective altogether different from that achievable by larger groups. The audience became awed witnesses to an intimate drama of steadily growing power. The recitatives carried the narrative with a startling immediacy, while the arias offered the reflection that reinforces the Passion's message of redemption."
The Guardian

Sir Roger Norrington, The Return of Tobias, 10 February 2009, Southbank Centre
"The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment likes nothing more than a challenge, and last Tuesday it was joined by a fine cast and a chorus (the Joyful Company of Singers), all under the genially enthusiastic direction of Roger Norrington, to persuade us that inside these stuffed-shirts there was some real dramatic life."
Telegraph

“…when the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Roger Norrington brought the least known of all Haydn’s major works, The Return of Tobias, to the South Bank, the audience scarcely knew what had hit it. And who better than this orchestra to tell the tale of the Apocrypha’s blind Tobit, resisting enlightenment yet finally healed by his son Tobias — with a little help from an archangel and a few drops of the gall of a scaly water monster. There were times when Norrington seemed all but lost in his own world of orchestral tone-painting. But the players generally accompanied an outstanding line-up of soloists with stylish exuberance.”
The Times

“It was mostly beautifully done, with the OAE on fine form for Roger Norrington and the Joyful Company of Singers majestic and thrilling in their infrequent utterances.”
The Guardian

“...close your eyes, and what we heard on Tuesday was a succession of pulsing arias, elegant love songs and majestic choruses, underpinned by verdant woodwind choirs and fizzed up strings.”
Financial Times

“...handsomely sung, and elegantly played by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Sir Roger Norrington's increasingly impressionistic beat..”
The Independent

Rachel Podger, 22-27 January 2009, St Paul Residency and Southbank Centre

"While 18th-century strings are lower in both pitch and volume than what one is accustomed to hearing from a modern orchestra, Podger and the ensemble brought effusive joy and enthusiasm to their playing. A Divertimento from a teenage Mozart bounced about playfully (as did Podger), and was followed by a palpably pensive Sinfonia by C.P.E. Bach."
Pioneer Press

"Under the charismatic direction of violinist Rachel Podger, whose joyfulness and unfettered enthusiasm radiated from the stage, the OAE gave a performance of fine quality, but more than that, one that was hugely entertaining too."br> Music OMH

Sir Simon Rattle, 8-9 December 2008, Southbank Centre

"This was a gripping concert, intense in every bar. The drastically altered tonal balance of the symphonies — that ventilated, crackling quality — made them seem brand-new compositions on whose orchestral mastery nobody would think to cast aspersions."
The Times

"Hearing the OAE play Schumann's symphonies as he would perhaps have heard them is a revelatory experience, the works shorn of the thickness they often acquire in modern performances...It's heartening to see how popular these works have deservedly become, and they have true champions in Rattle and this wonderful orchestra."
Music OMH

"This week, in two exuberant concerts, Sir Simon Rattle and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, long-time Schumann champions, showed how the four symphonies can shine and bristle with startling vitality..."
The Guardian

"It’s exciting what modern instruments can do, the range and beauty of sonority they now offer – but put Simon Rattle in front of a period instrument band like the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and it’s like having one’s ears syringed."
The Independent

"It’s a winning combination. The OAE’s watchwords are clarity and transparency. Since they are the very qualities Schumann’s four symphonies are accused of lacking, it is the ideal orchestra to play them."
Evening Standard

Sir Charles Mackerras, 13 November 2008, Southbank Centre

"After the interval the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment took centre stage for a vivacious, scrupulously detailed and stirringly played account of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. From the playful opening theme it was clear that under Sir Charles Mackerras' lithe baton that this was going to be a performance to cherish. One can't overestimate how refreshing it is to hear Beethoven played on original instruments, at the correct tempo and with such unbridled joy. "
Music OMH

Sir Charles Mackerras, 11 November 2008, St George's Bristol

"The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightment are familiar with the conductor's pearls of wisdom, and, in the purely orchestral works, seemed to bask in their special relationship. In the opening overture to Figaro, Mackerras had hinted at a revolutionary storm, which then emerged as the tempest proper in Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. Such freshness and immediacy was revelatory."
The Guardian

Elizabeth Kenny, Brighton Early Music Festival, 2 November 2008, Corn Exchange, Brighton

" The Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment made for a striking picture, with their theorbo’s deliciously distorted Dali-like necks protruding above the more familiar string instruments. The orchestra were adventurous in interpreting 17th century works, such as when they moved the lead violin and viola to the back of the concert area. These flourishes filled the performance with spontaneous energy and a genuine sense of glee. "
The Argus

Vladimir Jurowski, The Night Shift, 31 October 2008, Southbank Centre

"Best of all was the reaction of the audience: enthusiastic standing ovations at the end, real concentration during the performances, and some judicious beer-swilling. Without selling the music short, the OAE has created a winner with the Night Shift - or rather, its audience has."
Tom Service, Guardian.co.uk

Vladimir Jurowski: Revealing Tchaikovsky, 28 October 2008, Southbank Centre

"The OAE players were a genuine revelation in this repertoire: their warm textures and clear,soft-focused colours made Tchaikovsky sound like a late classicist more than a romantic sentimentalist."
The Guardian

"The concerts given by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment were revealing in another way. To hear Tchaikovsky's Fantasy Overture Romeo and Juliet played by period instruments was to have any preconception about his orchestration being at all unrefined promptly overturned. The newly delicate shades of colour enveloped the tragic story in a once-upon-a-time mist and Jurowski doubled the fascination by preceding that performance with a rarely-heard earlier version of the Overture that showed how hard Tchaikovsky had laboured to get it right."
Financial Times

"For a start, there was the effect of hearing the composer on the OAE's period instruments. Under Jurowski's stylish direction, the vibrato-less strings and astringent winds stripped the textures down to reveal an occasional thinness in the scoring but, more often, a driving energy."
The Guardian


Edward Gardner, 26 July 2008, Barbican Centre

"The OAE were immaculately prepared - perhaps a repeat performance this weekend at the Lincoln Center , marking Gardner's New York debut, justified a little extra rehearsal time. They were on thrilling form, playing as if their lives depended on it.”
Intermezzo

Emmanuelle Haïm, 31 July 2008, Proms 2008

“Haim conducted the OAE emphatically and deliberately, resulting in a clear, concise, bright and energetic sound. The continuo players were flawlessly together and the exact and virtuosic scalic flutters of the recorders sparkled in the interlinking passages… "
Musical Criticism

Margaret Faultless, 19 July 2008, Kings Lynn Festival

“The OAE strings’ and harpsichord continuo’s musical concentration is remarkable, not least in their eye contact- and they consistently made a wonderfully homogeneous sound which continued throughout the varied programme.”
EDP24

Andreas Scholl, 28 May 2008, Sage Gateshead

“Listening to Scholl singing Erbaume Dich from Bach’s St Matthew Passion, was one of those experiences you ought to have once in your life. The performance achieved further transcendence through the weeping obligato line of first violinist Alison Bury, who directed the OAE with almost imperceptible authority.”
The Guardian

Emmanuelle Haïm, 2 May - 4 July 2008, Glyndebourne

“From the ecstatic flourishes of the cornets to the mournful sighs of the lirone and gamba, the golden seam of lute and harp, and Kati Debretzeni's exquisitely decorated violin solo, I will count myself lucky if I ever hear a better-played Poppea.”
The Independent

Iván Fischer, 8 May 2008, St.George’s, Bristol

“The OAE’s sound is arguably at its optimum in the context of the St. George’s acoustic and, in the hands of Ivan Fischer, it was glorious.”
The Guardian

Robin Ticciati, 28 April 2008, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

“The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment certainly had lots of notes to play in the scurrying string writing of the final allegro, in which Don Juan is tormented by furies and spectres, but there was a fusion of precision and dramatic urgency in the way Ticciati made the music bristle.”
The Telegraph

Laurence Cummings,18 March 2008, Royal Festival Hall, London

“The OAE is, quite simply, one of the finest ‘period’-instrument groups. Its playing…was superbly refined and exuberant.”
Classical Source

Mark Padmore, 24 February 2008, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

“The phenomenal musicianship of the Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment ensured that numbers flowed seamlessly with immaculate pacing….”
Classical Source

Robert Levin, 19 February 2008, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Yet he and the OAE then proceeded to deliver just about the most dramatic and exciting account of Mozart's Piano Concerto No 20 in D minor, K466, that the Queen Elizabeth Hall can ever have heard.”
The Independent

“The whole phenomenon of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s unique success was epitomised in this concert. A capacity audience of people, not young, seemed to have taken HIP in their stride, without, I’d guess, being partisan devotees of early instruments.”
Musical Pointers

Simon Rattle, 10 December 2007, Auditorium del Lingotto, Turin

"Great virtuosity and sensitivity were displayed by this English orchestra which, although calling itself 'of the Enlightenment', knew how to identify with this most dreamlike and romantic masterpiece."
La Stampa

Simon Rattle, 7 December 2007, RFH

This felicitous OAE performance made it easy to understand why this work, a rarity now, found past favour
The Times

It was the best possible act of restitution, fired with early Romantic fervour and lit up by incisive detail from the OAE and its Choir.
The Guardian

Vladimir Jurowski, 6 November 2007, RFH

This must be as close as we’ll ever get to the experience of its original audience
The Independent

This concert bristled with interest and ingenuity

A fascinating experimental evening yielding intriguing rewards
The Daily Telegraph

A fascinating exploration of intimacy and artifice, rhetoric and silence
The Independent on Sunday

The players of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment were exuberant and vivid in the dance episodes, while their accompaniments subtly seconded the characters’ feelings
Classical Source

Dido and Aeneas, 13/14 October 2007, QEH

What emotional power the evening had came from the marvellously eloquent singing of Connolly, and Giles Underwood as Aeneas, and the lovely dancing grace of the OAE
Telegraph

Iphigenie en Tauride, September 2007, Royal Opera House

“..yet the evening is memorable above all for the playing of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment...they shape Gluck’s aching phrases with naturalness, colour and definition that would be impossible on modern instruments.
Seven Magazine, The Guardian


OAE 21st birthday concert, 30 June 2007, Royal Festival Hall

This is simply a tremendous orchestra…”

"They are spreading the sweetness and light of period performance into so many corners that their approach bizarrely begins to seem the norm. Their brilliance and dedication attract the most distinguished conductors and soloists of the day."
Sunday Times

“…the OAE is a remarkable institution: tightly controlled by its leading players; indefatigably pioneering not only in its use of period instruments, but also in its educational activities, and still doing top-quality work.
The Times

"Good to see the new culture secretary James Purnell in the audience at such a life-enhancing event for British music.
The Guardian


La Cenerentola, June 2007, Glyndebourne

“With the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment fizzing in the pit and Vladimir Jurowski conducting, this was Glyndebourne at its vibrant best.”
Evening Standard


St Matthew Passion, March 2007, QEH

"The playing was ravishingly beautiful, the choral singing at once refined and tremendously dignified."
The Guardian

..the OAE, now Britain’s most prominent period-instrument band…
Playbill Arts


'A song, dance, and a lot of tunes'. January 2007, QEH

Whatever orchestra [Vladimir Jurowski] conducts, you can feel the electric charge, though to be fair, the OAE - famous for showing every sign of genuinely enjoying what they do - always appear galvanised…. There were many victories elsewhere, especially amongst the woodwind and brass, topped by five romping horns (no split notes) and the two trumpets who rode into the last stretch like horsemen with scarlet banners. Whoever said classical concerts were stuffy, near-dead? Not with Jurowski. Not with the OAE.
The Times

 

Jonathan Cohen, cello, picture by Jim Four
OAE in rehearsal

Jim Four