Rob Hubbard, Pioneer Press, 10th May 2018
“Making his Minnesota Orchestra debut on the podium was English conductor Michael Francis, and it felt as if the orchestra’s musicians trusted his interpretations wholeheartedly. You may attribute that to his understanding of the place of the Britten and Vaughan Williams pieces in his country’s cultural history, for their weighty sorrow spoke to the mood of many during and after World War II. Francis’ direction was both firm and fluid, and the orchestra responded with richly textured playing and extraordinarily sensitive dynamics, from the Britten’s big, explosive opening to the murmur of a pianissimo pizzicato heartbeat that closed the Vaughan Williams symphony…
Yet it’s Vaughan Williams’ Sixth that made the greatest impact. Receiving its first Minnesota Orchestra performance since 1975, the piece felt totally 2018. After an opening of relative optimism, it grew both menacing and mesmerizing. Strings like spring breezes were plowed under by frighteningly urgent percussion, Vaughan Williams taking his turn evoking the relentless machinery of war, just as Britten had earlier in the concert…
With John Snow’s oboe sending up a pair of pleading solos, it was among the most powerful musical experiences I’ve had in recent memory. The same could be said of this entire concert.”
