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 performance of this large and colorful canvas of a symphony, keeping close rein on the sprawling structure of the huge first movement while eliciting countless lovely details from the orchestration. His grasp of the work’s drama was sure, and his ear for Vaughan Williams’ textures in the Lento and the Whistler-esque Scherzo — the former an essay in grays, mauves and muted blues, the latter a fantasia of pulsing darkness and flaring light — was all that could be hoped for.
The anguished finale, with its dark march and fugitive allegro, landed with immense impact, while the extended coda, bringing together evocations of all that has passed in the score, was perfectly limned, demonstrating what can be achieved when a peerless orchestra and a fine conductor collaborate.”
