Reviews

The comic touch is a rarity in the operas of Benjamin Britten, but in “Albert Herring,” one of his earliest works, he displayed it with assurance, making sure along the way, however, that the humor also emphasized what became a lifelong artistic theme for the composer: the place of the outsider in society …  the ears had plenty to feast upon, thanks to conductor Arthur Fagen, the thirteen excellent orchestral musicians (as called for by...

Fulminantes Neujahrskonzert des Staatsorchesters Der New Yorker Dirigent Arthur Fagen hat das Staatsorchester durch das Neujahrskonzert im Staatstheater geleitet. Am Ende eines fulminanten Abends applaudierten sich Dirigent, Orchester und Publikum gegenseitig. Sektkorken knallten, das Staatstheater war ausverkauft, das Orchester gut gelaunt, und mit dem auf drei Kontinenten viel gefragten Dirigenten Arthur Fagen stand genau der richtige Mann am...

En la función que nos ocupa, con una programación de gran calado romántico, la dirección efectiva y ordenada del director, pero contundente y de tempo vivo, en las obras sinfónicas, y la entrega de los miembros de la orquesta a la explotación extrema del sonido, además de escucharse, se veía. La colorista y descriptiva obertura sinfónica de Mendelssohn La Gruta de Fingal abrió una velada que se movió entre la agitación y el remanso. Arthur...

"The musical leadership was entrusted to maestro Arthur Fagen, whose elegant and clear baton held the musical proceedings together effortlessly. When not supporting the onstage soloists, such as in the opera’s prelude or the harp accompanied introduction to Lucia’s entrance, he set respectively a brooding and melancholy atmosphere. Throughout the mad scene, he led an orchestra enhanced by a glass harmonica (played by Dennis James) to further...

Einen hohen Anteil am Gelienger dieser Inszenierung hatte das Dirigat von Arthur Fagen. Auf hohem Niveau führte er das Saarländische Staatstheater durch die Partitur. Sein souveräne, von großer Intensität und hoher musikalischer Sensibilität gezeichnete Leitung garantierte nicht nur das nahtlose Zusammenspiel von Solisten, Chor und Orchester, sondern führte auch durch eine zügige und analytische Behandlung des Orchester geschickt über die...

The orchestra, conducted by Arthur Fagen, played with sonorous beauty, delicate and powerful by turns .... So impressed was I by the opera and its production that I returned for a second performance. This is an opera that should be taken up by the operatic establishment. .... Dramatic and accessible, it is an opera from the heart to the heart. Charles H. Parsons, American Record Guide, June 2011 .....the impeccably prepared cast on opening...

The Piano Concerto No. 1, written by the 35-year-old Martinů two years after he’d left his native land for Paris, is a neoclassical piece dressed in a sort of neobaroque style that he may have absorbed from Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony, and music he’d possibly heard by one or another of Les Six in some of the Parisian cabarets. Breezy, brisk, and a bit cockeyed, Martinů’s score delights in bending the ear with...

La colorista y descriptiva obertura sinfónica de Mendelssohn La Gruta de Fingal abrió una velada que se movió entre la agitación y el remanso. Arthur Fagen impuso, desde esta primera obra, un sonido amplio y abierto a la orquesta, que respondió muy bien, con acertado contraste entre las fuerzas del mar y sus remansos. La colorista y descriptiva obertura sinfónica de Mendelssohn La Gruta de Fingal abrió una velada que se movió entre la agitación...

Fagen’s way with “Finlandia,” Sibelius’ anthem of Finnish independence, was rousing. The Symphony Orchestra sounded sumptuous and also whip-crackingly united. Liszt’s most popular symphonic poem, “Les Preludes,” a musical meditation built on the poetic outpourings of France’s first Romantic poet, Alphonse de Lamartine, was meant, in turn, to emulate springtime and love, the “storms of life,” a peaceful idyll and the celebration of “strife and...

The Philharmonic completed an impressive autumn on Tuesday evening with a resplendent reading of Prokofiev’s Symphony Number 5, adding that highvoltage score to a list of triumphs in symphonic works that test the mettle of even the best of ensembles. Maestro Fagen was back on the podium for the Prokofiev ... he’s a solid technician who has interesting interpretive ideas about the music he chooses. Fagen had the hard-working Philharmonic playing...