In Thursday’s (3/18) Los Angeles Times, Matthew Erikson writes, “Like Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel, 26-year-old Robin Ticciati possesses an impressive résumé, boyish looks, powerful supporters and even curly dark hair. Still, for the London-based conductor who makes his L.A. Phil debut Thursday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall, any expectation of him as the ‘British Dudamel’ is a little fanciful. ‘The comparison is really touching,’ says Ticciati, the principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and, beginning next season, the principal guest conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in Bavaria, Germany. ‘But at the same time, I know that I’m a completely different musician.’ … As equally comfortable with opera as he is with orchestras, Ticciati is the youngest to have ever conducted at the Salzburg Festival and the La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy. … It’s in repertoire that Ticciati and Dudamel most diverge. Rather than the brawny, high-octane symphonies of Mahler, Shostakovich or Prokofiev, Ticciati seems to prefer the more reflective late Romantic music of Brahms, Dvorák, Bruckner and Sibelius, as well as the classical style of Mozart and Haydn. For his three concerts with the L.A. Phil, Ticciati is playing to other strengths, leading the orchestra in one of the most quintessentially English works, Elgar’s Enigma Variations. ”
Posted March 18, 2010
