Reviews

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...

Maestro Fagen, who conducted without score, led an integrated and spacious reading. The technical quality of the performance was praiseworthy, too, from the opening moments when a French horn, dangerously exposed because of the surrounding quiet, calls forth. Thereafter, for 70 minutes, the musicians — in solo, sections, and full orchestral mode — acquitted themselves splendidly, bending flexibly and compellingly to their conductor’s will.The...

Conductor Arthur Fagen had drawn a clean and lyrical sound from the Concert Orchestra in the pit and, additionally, captured with it the spirited momentum, the buoyant and snappy pacing from which Rossini’s fertile and sometimes febrile score benefits.Peter Jacobi, HeraldTimesOnline.com, September 27, 2010 Arthur Fagen conducts with sensitivity to the multi-faceted characterizations.Rita Kohn, www.nuvo.net, September 27, 2010 

Der Bozner Aufführung von Donnerstagabend kam also ein Premierencharakter zu! Unter der Leitung von Arthur Fagen nahm sich das Haydnorchester der heiklen Aufgabe an, das einsätzige Werk in seiner kontrastreichen Struktur so gut als möglich instrumental umzusetzen, hie die durch fünf Kontrabässe verstärkte Gruppe der Streicher, dort das gut besetzte Holz, vor allem die Flöten, deren Aufgabe es zumeist war, die brillanten Klavierläufe umzusetzen....

Arthur Fagen and his Orchestra accompany with a fine sense of ensemble. Jan Smaczny, BBC Music Magazine, February 2011 "clarity and precision of touch is evident in the playing throughout, allied to a natural musicality, and a positive sense of structure shared by conductor, Arthur Fagen, who supports in exemplary fashion". Gramophone, January 2011 Und das Orchester aus dem mittelstädtischen, östlich von Brünn gelegenen Zlin sorgt unter Fagen...

"The Magic Flute" charming and whimsicalArthur Fagen, a regular conductor with this company, brought out colors from the orchestra and paced the drama sympathetically.Pierre Ruhe, www.ArtsCriticATL.com, April 26, 2010Members of the cast sang their arias and ensemble numbers auf Deutsch but performed the abbreviated dialogue in English, creating a terrific rapport with the audience. The Priests' duet "Bewahret euch vor Weibertücken" was omitted,...

Maestro Fagen’s “Don Juan” suggested virility, flirtatiousness, heroism, disgust in self and fatalism, all Strauss meant to reveal in the score about that intriguing literary hero. The orchestra did the conductor’s bidding faithfully. The piece was beautifully played, dramatic to the hilt, deftly integrated, and with telling details emerging from within the mounting orchestral tumult. Peter Jacobi, Heraldtimesonline.com, March 5, 2010

"As in previous installments in this series, Maestro Fagen demonstrates his sensitivity to the seething emotions and drama inherent in these magnificent [Martinu] symphonies. His orchestra plays with the unmistakable authority and confidence of a band of Czech natives. ...and Naxos again supplies clear, meticulously balanced, and utterly honest recorded sound."Godell, American Record Guide"...The orchestra is a very fine one and Arthur Fagen a...

Arthur Fagen [.....] pulled off at least a semi-miracle in the second of two Metro Collection chamber-orchestra concerts. He obtained fine sonorities, proper balances, even a bloom to string sound ..... Fagen also demonstrated mastery of Austro-German classical and romantic style, not surprising from a conductor who has spent much of the past decade working in Central Europe. His handling of Wagner’s "Siegfried Idyll," with long-breathed...

….. Pregevole la direzione del M° Fagen con un’orchestrazione di alto livello che ha messo in risalto le peculiarità della Sinfonica di Sanremo.Marco Crovara, Riviera24.it, November 24, 2009