Voices of the Press

"Carmen" at the Vancouver Opera. ARTS weekly paper writes: "The orchestra, under the baton of Matthias Kuntzsch, was better than ever on opening night: it kept up a tempo as brisk as snapping castanets, with its horn section punctuating the habanera-and seguidilla-influenced music with the fervour of a flamenco dancer's stamping feet." (Janet Smith)

The Vancouver Courier reviewer Robert Jordan writes: "This is one of the all-time humming-along, toe-tapping operas, something conductor Matthias Kuntzsch obviously knew. He galvanized the VO orchestra and chorus into a melodic and rhythmic whirl and swept the willing audience along with him. Bizet's music triumphed again."

M.K. recently conducted the Colorado Symphony in a program including Anton Bruckner's 3rd Symphony, Gliere's Concerto for Harp, and the World Premier of Conrad Susa's "The Blue Hour." Susa writes in the program notes, "The Blue Hour is "an attempt to produce in sound the complexity of experience which floods the soul in that magical moment before sunset...It was composed for these concerts at the request of my friend and colleague, Maestro Matthias Kuntzsch. The work is dedicated to the memory of the loved ones who share with us 'The Blue Hour.''" The Rocky Mountain News writes of the Premiere, "...rich in color and subtle orchestra effects....a neatly shaped performance. " Of the Gliere Concerto it writes: Matthias Kuntzsch and ....CSO offered warm, sympathetic accompaniment."

Of the Bruckner Marc Shulgold, music and dance writer for the Rocky Mountain News, "...wonderfully played--and impressively conducted from memory by Kuntzsch...The..crowd cheered mightily at the end of the crash-bang finale."

The Denver Post writer, Kyle MacMillan, speaks of the Bruckner performance: "As a German, guest conductor Matthias Kuntzsch could be expected to be at home in the music of the 19th-century Austrian Anton Bruckner, and that proved to be the case. He made the composer's Symphony No. 3 in D minor every bit the powerful musical statement it can be, giving shape to its sweeping architecture and bringing each of its many internal mini-dramas vividly to life."

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