“When French conductor Nathalie Stutzmann appeared for the first time with [Ireland’s] RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra last February, she scored a hit,” writes Michael Dervan in Wednesday’s (1/18) Irish Times (Dublin). “The orchestra liked her—I’ve even heard the phrase ‘love at first sight’ used—and the audience for her programme of Wagner and Mahler had a special time, too. She returned on Friday [to conduct a concert of Beethoven and Brahms]…. Her appointment as the orchestra’s new principal guest conductor for a two-year term from next September was announced during the week, and the appointment was also brought to the audience’s attention before the start of the concert…. Her appointment is welcome on multiple grounds. Her performances are good, her popularity with the orchestra was evident on Friday, and the public gave her a rousing reception. She is, of course, still more celebrated as a great contralto—a genuine deep and dark contralto, not a mezzo soprano—than as a conductor. Her track record ranges from new music … to the world of period performances. … In 2009 she founded her own chamber orchestra, Orfeo 55, with which she has recorded Bach, Handel and Vivaldi as singer and conductor.”
Posted January 18, 2017
