In Thursday’s (2/23) Guardian (London), Fiona Maddocks writes, “Barely a week passes without a shuffle of conductors’ chairs. Why has today’s announcement that Sakari Oramo will become Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra caused such a rare outpouring of universal enthusiasm and twitter excitement? For one thing, the BBCSO has been in something of a doldrums of late and this appointment, in one fell swoop, has put them back on the map, hence the buzz. Oramo managed the impossible task of filling, with notable success, the enormous gap left by Simon Rattle when he took over from him at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Quietly, and with immense charm, confidence and support for a wide range of repertoire—not just from his Finnish homeland but in a variety of British music too—Oramo made his mark, and developed the sound of the CBSO even beyond Rattle’s extraordinary achievements. … He will also be a great bonus at the Proms, where the BBC Symphony Orchestra is effectively the resident ensemble. The conductor needs to have Prommers eating out of his hand, throughout the season as well as on the flag-waving Last Night when his speech will be pored over for the next 12 months.”
Posted February 23, 2012
