Press & Reviews

"(...) The energetic French conductor Stephane Deneve is back on the podium reprising his success from this past July with Saint-Saens’s “Organ” Symphony, which, if memory serves, uncorked one of the...

"(...) Denève, who has conducted outstanding concerts locally with the New World Symphony, paced the score with attention to its long arc, never falling into the choppiness to which some...

" (...) In fact, before Thursday, Feb. 18’s remarkably powerful concert in Davies Symphony Hall, the San Francisco Symphony had never even played the piece [Nielsen's violin concerto]. So this performance, led by...

"(...) Musically, this revival is equally worthy of the 1957 masterpiece about the Carmelite nuns guillotined in 1794 during the Reign of Terror for refusing to renounce religious life. The Residentie Orkest...

"(...) Poulenc’s opera is really about the anguish of life and the fear of death. The music is never overly dramatic, yet its impact is immediate and at times, it is extremely realistic. Musical lines always fit...

"Stéphane Denève a séduit le public bruxellois. Le Brussels Philarmonic a trouvé son nouveau maître. (...) Il a commencé par un petit mot d’accueil malin, précis et chaleureux, enchaîné avec un programme sainement...

"(...) Given his affinity for new music, it's no surprise that his reading of Stravinsky's 1938 "Dumbarton Oaks" Concerto in E-flat (which, though hardly new, was the newest work on the program) was a model of...

"After an opening weekend with just a single Boston Symphony Orchestra performance, the festival’s second weekend was a shift into higher gear, with three engaging concerts that, (...) Friday’s...

"(...) From start to finish, Friday’s program proved to be a spectacular and rewarding display of musicianship.(...) And at the helm, Denève deftly handled the concerto’s sudden shifts in mood with...

"(...) Under Denève’s baton, the bombast in the Saint-Saëns’ was there, empty or not, and no one could accuse Denève of underplaying the climaxes. Yet he never overdid them either, and...

"Denève’s genial performance featured a swaying Serenata (to a siciliana rhythm), a whirling Tarantella, a brass-blasting Toccata, a stately Gavotte, and a sweet Menuetto that was almost an aubade." (...)...

"(...) For his Philharmonic debut, he was impressive in Fauré’s “Pelléas et Melisande” Suite and even more so in the New York premiere of the Scottish composer James MacMillan's Piano Concerto No. 3...

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"(...) Stéphane Denève is one of the most exciting conductors on the international scene today. With him came Jean-Yves Thibaudet, one of the world’s great pianists, in a noteworthy new work....

"(...) Denève’s command of hushed dynamics was equally effective in his opening of Barber’s Adagio. (...) While I have always had a personal preference for the intimacy of the quartet setting, Denève’s...

"(...) The 42-year-old Denève is a rising star in classical music. He was recently named principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra (Stokowski’s old group) and is now a regular...

"(...) Denève did not just facilitate an accurate performance, but also brought out Debussy’s magical dreamscape, to be enjoyed through every instrumental nuance, while maintaining...

"(...) The forces of abandonment, madness and death combined at the end in the "Symphonie fantastique," which Stéphane Denève vividly -- no, viscerally -- conducted to crown the program. (...) It...