Natasha Gauthier, Ottawa Citizen, 19th November 2014
“Francis conducted the NAC Orchestra just last season, and on Wednesday he returned with an eclectic program of themes and variations.
Benjamin Britten honoured a former teacher in his Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge. It’s an early work for string orchestra, a slightly academic series of display pieces—a waltz, an Italianate aria, a funeral march—that exploits most of the effects at the instruments’ disposal. Francis, a string player himself, has an incisive rhythmic sense and a light, delicate touch. He painted in flickering, graduated colours and a lively feel for the dance character of the movements…”
