Reviews

[…] Negro Symphony [Dawson’s] is a brilliantly orchestrated work that repays repeated listenings. This is its third recording after Stokowski and Neeme Järvi in Detroit. […] This newcomer is the most balanced of the three and a safe recommendation. These are excellent performances [Kay’s] recorded with sound that is full in texture and slightly close, and the Vienna Radio Symphony does a fine job, as it does in the Dawson. The sound is...

Four stars: A well-performed collection of fine music Arthur Fagen and the Vienna Radio Orchestra have the measure of these works; the conductor manages to convey the American and Latin dance idioms to the Austrian musicians, and they sound totally at home in the music. In the slower movements Fagen displays a supple sense of phrase-shaping. Gould asks of the performers a balance of kinetic energy and warm lyricism. Fagen and the Vienna RSO...

Conductor Arthur Fagen expertly coordinated the singers and players in what is likely the most difficult score the Atlanta Opera Orchestra has ever attempted. Operanews.com, April 2020 Conductor and music director Arthur Fagen manages the requirements of a complex score, keeping balance in check and holding the orchestra to a higher standard.[...] The Atlanta Opera orchestra also provides moments of loveliness as it does during the “Dance of...

Atlanta Opera Music Director Arthur Fagen brought out the best in the Atlanta Opera Orchestra, delivering a crisp, untroubled interpretation. Stéphanie Adrien, Opera News Online, July 24, 2019 Conductor Arthur Fagen similarly obliges by drawing out beautiful warmth and lovely detail from the orchestra. In the wrong hands, dynamic passages of “La Traviata” can sound bouncy and circus-like, and the sorrowful passages can become melodramatic and...

Von US Arthur Fagen vorangetrieben, gegliedert, in der Bahn gehalten. Das atmete mitsamt dem Senior am Pult jugendfrischen Übermut – und doch auch gleichzeitig blendend bewältigte Form.So gesehen: ein Optimismus, der ansteckt. Die Philharmonie blickt guter Dinge nach vorn. Das Publikum honorierte es mit großem Beifall. Armin Knauer, GEA, 20.02.2019 (Also Sprach Zarathustra) Das rund halbständige Werk mit hohem Wiedererkennungswert strotzt nur...

DIAMOND: Rounds for String Orchestra. Music for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Symphony No. 6 / Indiana University Chamber Orch. & Philharmonic Orch.; Arthur Fagen, cond / Naxos 8.559842 Arthur Fagen’s Superb Diamond Performances The late David Diamond was a composer who prided himself on being part of the “Americana” scene in classical music while remaining an iconoclast […] The Rounds for String Orchestra were composed in 1944 at the...

Conductor Arthur Fagen keeps the emphasis on strong rhythm in that frenzied scene and elsewhere such as the overture, giving fast passages energy and excitement while also paying due attention to slower melodies, varied textures as they move across orchestral sections.Andrew Alexander, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, April 30, 2018The Atlanta Opera puts a playful, wily spin on the smoldering “Carmen” Underpinning the whole production was the...

Holding it all together was the company’s music director, Arthur Fagen. A former chief conductor in Dortmund, he is an old-school Wagnerian in the best way, breathing with his singers, cradling them with the warmth of the orchestra. Pierre Ruhe, Opera Magazine, April 2018Conductor Arthur Fagen and his orchestra were superb. […] the orchestra began the Holländer overture with unerring precision: the main theme of open fifths demonic sounding,...

I can do nothing but sing the praises of the performers involved in this production. Conductor Arthur Fagen keeps the complex score moving along at a good pace, and produces an exemplary tight ensemble.David DeBoor Canfield, Fanfare Indiana performance, conducted by Arthur Fagen, brims with telling detail and vibrancy.Gramophone UK Magazine The Indiana University Philharmonic Orchestra is spectacular under Arthur Fagen; the student...

De igual manera, la batuta clara y precisa del director Arthur Fagen funcionó de maravilla en el difícil acompañamento de arias y conjuntos…Jordi Antich, La Nación, July 26, 2017