Marcus Overton, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11th June 2017
“…And the performances were as marvelous as the music.
Francis and his ensemble of concertmasters and first chair players from all over the country — and Canada, too — have reached a collaborative level that has everything: a warm shimmering blend with a spinning string sound that never turns strident, glowing woodwinds, and a brass section that can move from discreet sweetness to pointed commentary in a second. If you count them up, it’s a small ensemble; close your eyes, and the music has big-orchestra sonority and pillowy amplitude.
…Recordings of Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella Suite” always seem to emphasize cool isolation and fragmentation of the musical lines in which Stravinsky discovered a new voice in himself, one that by looking toward the past opened a window into how a future might be built in the ruins of World War I. Francis and the orchestra found rich texture that sang with a choral quality, warm accessibility, but above all its high, elegant style.
Beethoven’s first symphony hides, among its cheeky comedy and youthful daring, unexpected flickers of gruffness, a determination to be noticed, to impose himself into the artistic fabric of his time. “I’m here,” he says, with music that is alternately witty and disconcerting, surprising and irreverent. Under Francis’ combination of confidence in his players and a relaxed but keenly alert conducting style, the Beethovenian revolution that was to come called in its own voice from the horizon.”
