Two newspapers covered conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin’s debut at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. In Thursday’s (8/6) New York Times, Anthony Tommasini wrote, “If the fast-rising French-Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin was at all nervous about making his New York debut with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall on Tuesday night, he did not show it. This concert was one of the most anticipated of the summer season. Mr. Nézet-Séguin (pronounced nay-ZAY say-GHEN) can hardly keep pace with the invitations coming his way from orchestras around the world. That at 34 he had still not performed in New York was just a career quirk, and he embraced the moment, earning an immediate standing ovation. … Mr. Nézet-Séguin exudes charisma on the podium. He has striking musical ideas and communicates with his players through gestures that blend kinetic animation with elegant precision.” In Thursday’s Philadelphia Inquirer, Peter Dobrin reviews the concert and speculates about Nézet-Séguin as a possible music director for The Philadelphia Orchestra. Works on the program included Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony, the complete score to Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, including vocalists, and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, with Nicholas Angelich earning praise as the soloist.
Posted August 6, 2009
