Andrew Meacham,Tampa Bay Times, 22nd September 2016
As a conductor of the Florida Orchestra, Michael Francis spends time on the details. He is the border collie nipping at the herd, the proofreader who preserves accuracy to the text, the timekeeper.
As music director, he revels in the big ideas. Francis, 40, opens the Florida Orchestra’s latest […]
Zachary Lewis, The Plain Dealer, 18th July 2016
“British conductor Michael Francis made his Cleveland Orchestra debut Saturday night with a mostly English program…and concluded with a stunning realization of Vaughan Williams’ epic Symphony No. 2, a portrait of the city the composer lived in and loved for significant periods…
Francis led a brilliant and committed […]
Marcus Overton, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20th June 2016
“Two Mozart symphonies — nos. 5 and 52 — were played with an attention to detail that swept aside problems that always bedevil this transparent music: attacks and releases were immaculate, and intonation was superb.”
Stanwell Anderson, San Diego Reader, 18th June 2016
“…the level of [Schubert’s] counterpoint in the fourth movement is breathtaking, and my breath was surely taken away by the virtuosity of the MMF Orchestra, and their dapper, elegant, and gesticulationally eloquent conductor, Michael Francis.”
Ken Herman, San Diego Story, 16th June 2016
“Although most conductors pay scant attention to Schubert’s first four symphonies, Francis made a compelling case for Schubert’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major. Based on Joseph Haydn’s sturdy classical four-movement design, Schubert’s First Symphony sails through those well-charted waters with buoyant optimism. From the orchestra, Francis […]
Ken Herman, San Diego Story, 6th June 2016
“[Regarding Mozart’s Gallimathias musicum] Francis’ violins sported a mellifluous shimmer, and the entire orchestra’s tight rhythmic ensemble maintained its fresh, buoyant air from start to finish…
Francis gave [Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne] score a spirited interpretation, full of youthful optimism…
In its opening night offering, the Mainly Mozart […]
Julian Sykes, Le Temps, 25th May 2016
“Michael Francis had chosen two English composers of the 20th century to compliment the programme – a happy combination. Combining elegance and ardour , the British conductor gave the utmost expressiveness to the Fantasie on a Theme of Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams without lapsing into […]
Michael Tumelty, Hearld Scotland, 24th April 2016
★★★★★
“NO holds barred here, ladies and gentlemen. Five stars all round. The BBC SSO on Thursday night, playing as though there was no tomorrow, and this was their only chance to do it, produced a scorcher of a concert with conductor Michael Francis, a new name to me, […]
Ken Walton, The Scotsman, 22nd April 2016
“The spatial dimensions of the Ives [The Unanswered Question] – the distant but increasingly insistent solo trumpet in the audience gallery, the increasingly discordant flute responses up in the choir stalls, against the sonic blank canvas of strings on stage – were a theatrical thrill.”
Andrew Meacham, Tampa Bay Times, 23rd January 2016
“With Mozart & More, which opened Friday at the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, Francis and the orchestra sandwiched a piano concerto and a symphony by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart between Igor Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks concerto and a percussion composition by John Cage relying […]
