As the Minnesota Orchestra's European tour continued this weekend in the German cities of Cologne, Stuttgart and Dusseldorf, good news arrived from England in the form of glowing reviews from critics who heard Tuesday's tour-opening concert at London's Barbican Centre.
The Times of London noted music director Osmo Vänskä's "new, natty beard" and "rather trimmer figure" and raved about how he and "his brilliant American orchestra punched, teased, charmed and thrilled their way through Beethoven's Eroica symphony. Why? From delicacy came ravishing expression. From precision -- perhaps the Vänskä watchword -- dazzling power."
The Times reviewer also lauded the two American works that preceded the Beethoven. In John Adams' "Slonimsky's Earbox" the musicians were "explosively invigorating," and in Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto guest soloist Joshua Bell was in "ravishing form, offering sweetly sustained lyricism that never threatened to teeter into schmaltz."
The critic at the Guardian lauded the touring company's "exceptionally well-constructed program," including the Adams work, "which allowed the orchestra to display some pulsatingly loud virtuosity."
He found the Eroica's opening movement "tense and exciting," but thought the orchestra "slightly lost its way" in the funeral-march movement.
Exclamation points were used at the Telegraph, whose reviewer gushed, "What a marvelous sound the orchestra makes!"
That review noted the "strength of feeling" in the Barber and the "sheer adrenal excitement all the way" in the Beethoven symphony.
The tour ends Thursday in Vienna.
