Finale leaves audience breathless
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Hamer Hall, Melbourne.
THE MSO's decision to present the complete Tchaikovsky symphonies this year, in three concerts, has been a resounding success.
Pairing the six symphonies to provide maximum contrast and insight into the development of Tchaikovsky's compositional style (Symphonies 3 and 5, 2 and 4, 1 and 6), each concert has provided a satisfyingly complete musical experience.
Most exhilarating has been the level of sophistication and vivid intensity achieved by the MSO under the baton of chief conductor Oleg Caetani. This final sell-out concert, pairing Tchaikovsky's first and last symphonies, was no exception.
The obvious Mendelssohnian elements found in Tchaikovsky's Symphony No1 are tempered by the latter's distinctive treatment of melodic interplay, thematic development, and orchestration. Many performances fail to acknowledge this, and treat it instead as light, atmospheric ramblings by a young composer eager to impress.
In contrast, Caetani realised the work's crisp, luminescent brilliance and extroverted insouciance, but also fully explored the dramatic, brooding contrasts relentlessly pervading the work. The string section particularly impressed with sustained phrasing, tonal colouration, and precise, sensitive articulation and dynamics.
In the second movement, the violas handled exposed soli with great confidence, musicality and a uniformly full-bodied tone. String and woodwind sections excelled in the final movement's contrasts from austerity to sweeping, jolting folk melodies. Brash trombone entries were less welcome.
Poorly handled, Symphony No6 can become a trite exercise in sentimentality, melodrama, and melody. Caetani easily met the challenge, demonstrating that he is most comfortable with music deeply felt and of epic proportions. The popular melodies of the first and second movements, while treated with appropriately expansive phrasing, were placed in a broader context of subtle timbral and dynamic elements, reflecting Tchaikovsky's extensive expression markings.
In the first movement, the Allegro's first subject was treated with exemplary sensitivity by the violas, flute and clarinet, while the ominous, unrelenting timpani pedal point through the second movement's trio section was outstandingly restrained.
The third movement was presented with impressive flourish; the persistent, driving triplet motion slightly contained so as to create a simmering intensity leading all the way to the final majestic march.
The triumph was the incomparable finale. Few symphonic movements are so laden with pathos, or so frequently victim to conductors' histrionics. Here, the MSO demonstrated searing intensity, not only during the movement's impassioned climactic swells but through to the work's final disconsolate whisper.
Even those audience members perennially keen to lead the applause allowed a slight pause; the collective sigh an audible indication that this extraordinary music, handled well, is profoundly moving.
Eamonn Kelly, The Australian,
December 10, 2007

December 2007
"Le Diapason"

Nouveauté
ALEXANDRE TANSMAN (1897 - 1986)
Symphonies n.7 "Lyrique",
8 (Musique pour orchestre) et 9.
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra,
Oleg Caetani
Orchestre profond, capté avec recul dans une acoustique généreuse.
Bonne Localisation des instruments. Trés bel équilibre spectral, bonne définition et grande dynamique.
Une symphonie de l'exil américaine, et deux oeuvres écrites après le retour à Paris où Tansman allait être peu à peu oublié, vilipendé par les thuriféraires des nouveaux courants, La Symphonie n°7, commencée entre chiens et loups, avec son thème ''thrènodique'' se révèle, à mesure qu'on la découvre, une ode à Stravinsky, un somptueux exercice cubiste,éclatants de couleurs, en rythmes aigus, avec ce diatonisme ensoleillé qui valait de si beaux succès à Tansman aux Etats-Unis.
Quelques pointes de jazz, une pincée d'accents klezmer-une orchestre de mariage entonne sa ritournelle dans le finale motoriste- tout cela me ramène à une sorte de folie très années 1920 en...1944.
Nostalgie certaine d'un bonheur enfui dont Stravinsky était bien la figure tutélaire. On sent encore cette empreinte dans l' Allegro con moto de la Musique pour orchestre, parent de la Symphonie en ut mais son incipit à la petite harmonie annonce clairement les recherches de timbre qui vont transcrire l'imaginaire poétique du compositeur.
La Symphonie n°9 commencée dans un immense tohu-bohu d'orchestre, est bien son chef-d'ouevre des années 1950, partition tourmentée ou fantasque-le Molto Vivace -,où les mètres de la musique populaire polonaise s'invitent avec une liberté formelle déconcentrant.
Le sommet de l'oeuvre reste bien ce Grave , nocturne urbain à la lyrique inquiète qui rappelle que Tansman dormait et aimait composer jusq'au coeur de la nuit. Caetani donne une carrure splendide, découplée, aux ardentes formules rythmiques qui parcourent ces partitions.
L 'orchestre de Melbourne en déploie toutes les couleurs épicées, donnant toutes ses chances à ce premier enregistrement mondial des 7° et 9°, pour lui permettre de séduire un nouveau public.
Un troisième volume nous offrira la Symphonie n°2 et le Concerto pour orchestre – à défaut de la Symphonie n°1 , dont la trace est à ce jour perdue.

West Australian
Symphony Orchestra
shines with guest star
Violin: Ilya Gringolts.
Conductor: Oleg Caetani.
Perth Concert Hall, March 16, 2007
While orchestras across the country have been opening their 2007 seasons with their chief conductors at the helm, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra has borrowed the Melbourne Symphony's Oleg Caetani. [...] The choice of Caetani was an inspired one, and his rapport with the orchestra was tangible.
The performance of Rachmaninov's second symphony was one of WASO's finest. This was passionate and committed playing from start to finish, with all sections of the orchestra in top form.
In a work that relies heavily on the violins to sustain the musical line, it was evident just how well concertmaster John Harding has transformed the quality of the violin sound during the past couple of years. Throughout this hour-long symphony the string playing was focused, intense and highly expressive. From the restrained emotion of the slow introduction and the incisive bite of the scherzo to the yearning ardour of the big, romantic tunes, the playing unfailingly revealed the musical heart of the work.
Supported by excellent trumpets and horns, and a sensitively crafted clarinet solo, this was a very distinguished performance.
Caetani coaxed and charmed the orchestra every step of the way, his manner aristocratic and commanding, but without histrionics. With impeccable taste he struck just the right balance between urgency and restraint: the climaxes were judged to perfection, expressively powerful and never over-baked. Remarkably, he made all this seem quite effortless.
This performance showed once again the levels to which WASO can aspire under a conductor of Caetani's stature. That sums up the considerable challenge facing the orchestra.
Mark Coughlan,
The Australian, 19 March 2007

Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra.
Conductor: Oleg Caetani.
Hamer Hall, Melbourne, March 8-10, 2007
[...] During 2006, it became clear that Caetani was directing his string players towards a specific sound and attitude, richer timbres, more sustained phrasings, more sophisticated and thoughtful tonal colourations, more conviction. In this concert, Caetani's vision was fully realised without lapse, the level of intensity leaving many players exhausted.
Orchestral ensemble and balance were faultless. The orchestra's wind section, which is a long-acknowledged strength, demonstrated fresh buoyancy, with particularly fine performances from Rolf Kuhlmann and Jeffrey Crellin.
Caetani maintained a decorous presence on the podium, displaying the trademark elegance, charm and humility that has already earned him the affection of Melbourne audiences. If his gentle smile to the audience at the concert's conclusion revealed his satisfaction, it also suggested a determination that the MSO's newfound momentum continue. And that, all acknowledge, will be the hardest part.
Eamonn Kelly,
The Australian, 12 March 2007

Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra
European Tour, Jan/Feb 2007
“Caetani conducted from memory and took the podium in the manner that was reminiscent of the old masters. His conducting was confident and emphatic and not overly exaggerated in gesture, although very eloquent.”
“The relationship between the lower strings of the orchestra and the soloist [Repin] was very beautiful with delicate soft playing in the second movement [Sibelius Violin Concerto] and opening up with an explosion of strings in the theme of the third movement.”
“The Rite of Spring was impacting to say at least. Caetani conducts the orchestra by heart and he reads it like the old maestros. That is, a version without hesitation of what this violent score describes in many of its segment. His conducting is secure, rotund. without exaggerated gestures, but very eloquent. His tempo is steady, devoid of that hurried feeling that young conductors favour nowadays. In the passages in which the instruments - especially the wind - sound like knives, there is no fear or wish for them to tone down. The percussion is so powerful that it appears to breack the drums, but that is the way in which the contrasts of this essensial score show off all their splendour. The public applauded until the maestro came back repeatedly onstage... ”
Diario de Noticias (Pamplona)

“Concert of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra...under the masterful leadership of the conductor, maestro Oleg Caetani. Excellence, versatily and perfection joined forces on the stage.“
C.G., El periodico del Mediterraneo (Castellon)

“Oleg Caetani achieved the objective [of the music] of Rachmaninov's Second Symphony effectively, with a lot of expression and moments of excellence. Long applause followed.”
Heraldo de Aragon (Zaragoza)

“The Australian orchestra impressed for its precision of attacks of the winds and the dynamics of the percussion...But above all with Stravinsky's Rite of Spring the MSO was able to prove the cohesion of its sections and its sense of rhythm.”
Agence France Press (Paris)

“Seltene, aber überraschende Gäste. Im Konzerthaus gastierte das australische Melbourne Symphony Orchestra unter Leitung von Oleg Caetani und verstand, vom ersten bis zum letzten Takt seines anspruchsvollen Programms zu fesseln.”
“Caetani hatte Werk wie Orchester glänzend im Griff und steuerte es mit sicherer Hand durch die hochschäumenden rhythmischen Katarakte, die mit schlafwandlerischer Sicherheit hervorbrachen und an Temperament nichts zu wünschen übrig ließen. Es setzte zu Recht lautstarke Bravorufe.”
Gtl, Berliner Morgenpost

“...be impressed by the direction of Oleg Caetani. Conducting the programme from memory, with an elegant, precise and economical beat, his feet riveted to the podium, and sometimes sporting the smile of someone enjoying his own skills, he gave an interpretation of the Rite of Spring that was at once technically impeccable and as attentive to poetry as to brilliance...“
Jean-Claude Hulot, Diapason (France)

“La première visite sur le sol français du Melbourne Symphony Orchestra est sans doute un grand événement pour ses musiciens, mais l'est-elle pour les mélomanes ? On répondra affirmativement”
“On en est encore plus convaincu après avoir entendu l'orchestre, la semaine dernière, à l'Auditori de Barcelone. Cordes disciplinées à l'allemande, vents d'une ductilité toute française, cuivres chauds et racés : c'est une berline sportive et bien carrossée que pilote depuis 2005 Oleg Caetani, son chef permanent et directeur musical prodigue.
Après des Sortilegis du Catalan Montsalvatge mettant en valeur la souplesse et la finesse de coloris de la phalange phare australienne, le Concerto pour violon de Sibélius interprété par Vadim Repin, puis la Symphonie n° 2 de Rachmaninov ont prouvé la solidité de la formation, capable d'expressivité intense, sans perdre en fraîcheur et raffinement. La lisibilité et la noblesse d'un autre âge de la gestique de Caetani, qui dirige par coeur, est assurément de celles qui inspirent. Départs, dynamiques, phrasés, pas une indication qui ne soit claire ; le tout sans pose, grimaces, ni agitation superflue.”
Eric Dahan, Libération (France)

“Hi havia interès per tornar a sentir Vadim Repin, un dels grans violinistes del moment, i conèixer una de les orquestres orientals més promocionades a les ordres d'un director valorat a l'alça com és Oleg Caetani, el seu titular des de fa dos anys. Aquesta és la segona gira europea de la Simfònica de Melbourne, que, quan es vol lluir, juga les cartes de la solidesa, la potència i una sonoritat fosca i contundent,...”
“L'estil de Caetani denota el mestratge de Kyrill Kondraixin, el treball amb Otmar Suitner i vincles continuats amb importants orquestres i òperes centreeuropees. Va tocar Montsalvatge aliè al seu esperit irònic, no es va adaptar a Repin com si el volgués esperonar i va convèncer amb una enèrgica concertació de la Simfonia amb resultats admirables fins a l'esmentada espessor final. Magistral!”
AVUI (Barcelona)

Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra,
Melbourne Chorale and soloists,
Hamer Hall, Melbourne, 11 Dec 06
A centenary celebrated in emphatic style
“Boisterous standing ovations are a rarity in Melbourne. However, special occasions and special performances call for drastic measures, and on Monday evening a streamer-strewn Melbourne Symphony Orchestra basked in one of the longest and largest ovations seen in this decorous city.
The applause was well deserved. One hundred years to the day after the MSO's first performance, it honoured a proud history in confident, emphatic and jubilant style. In a program that exposed every element of the orchestral palette, the MSO excelled; a vigorous reminder of this ensemble's capacity for truly scintillating results when musically inspired.
“A crisp and bright rendition of Paul Dukas's brief Fanfare pour preceder La Peri (1912) majestically started proceedings.
“Gordon Kerry's Clouds and Trumpets was commissioned for the occasion. Drawing its title from a line irreverently penned by the mythical Ern Malley (“an entelechy of clouds and trumpets”), Kerry's vignette considers the powerful metaphysical connotations that ridiculers James McAuley and Harold Stewart (however inadvertently) created. Musically, it is expansive, compelling and restless, somewhat indecisively frenetic thematically and texturally rich. It fittingly showcased the MSO's versatility.
“Surprise speaker Geoffrey Rush lingered on music's ability to inspire and transcend, citing the aspirational sentiments of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony: Alle Menschen werden Bruder (All men become brothers). The ensuing interpretation of this colossal work by the MSO proved his point. The attention to detail was startling, the refinement absolute and the commitment intense. There was freshness and vitality to the playing, and a level of concentration that saw a near-perfect execution. While there were some stand-out performances, each orchestral section demonstrated the highest level of skill and insight, and every performer deserves praise.
“The ever-suave Oleg Caetani conducted without score while effortlessly observing even the slightest nuances. His phrasing and choice of tempos showed great musical intuition, including a faster than usual second movement; although the orchestra was left hanging on for dear life, not a single note was dropped, and the cheeky surprise of a Beethoven second movement scherzo made all the more powerful.
“At 100, the MSO combines talent and confidence with humility and vibrant creative ambition. Before legions of loyal subscribers and dignitaries, the MSO was reminded of something equally important: Melburnians are not merely proud of this orchestra; they feel affection and ownership for an institution that forms an integral part of their civic identity.”
Eamonn Kelly, The Age, 15.12.06

Interview with Oleg Caetani prior to Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s 100th anniversary European tour October 13, 2006
Symphony takes Tchaikovsky to the world
MELBOURNE sells itself short, according to the Melbourne Symphony's music director and chief conductor, Oleg Caetani. “People under-value the city's cultural background and don't appreciate just how solid it is,” he says.
At the beginning of his third year with the MSO, Caetani is using his profound knowledge of European music-making to act as a mirror for the orchestra, reflecting an image new to most of Melbourne's music lovers, including the musicians.
“I think the Melbourne public is very open to journeys of musical exploration because it is not as conservative as some people imagine,” he says.
The MSO's year will begin with a different journey — a two-week tour of Europe that will include Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona and other Spanish cities in January to celebrate its centenary.
“The MSO is the only centenarian among Australia's performing arts organisations,” he says. “Many do not realise just how rare this is — it is older than any radio orchestra in Europe and is only 20 years younger than the Berlin Philharmonic. Therefore it already has a great tradition.”
Caetani will return from Europe with the orchestra next February to conduct all four free concerts at the Myer Music Bowl.
In a move typical of his programming, the first concert will include the Australian premiere of the first symphony by the Russian composer Vasily Kalinnikov, who was strongly influenced by Tchaikovsky before his untimely death in 1901, two days short of his 35th birthday.
This will serve as an introduction to the performance of all six Tchaikovsky symphonies during the year in “arranged marriages” of each of the less popular first three works with the final three — third and fifth, first and sixth, and second and fourth.
“These works are often considered straightforward and easy to enjoy, but I consider them modern for their time, requiring a particular taste and style.”
Each concert will be conducted by Caetani and recorded under the MSO Live label as part of his plan to give people the opportunity to hear the most popular works in the orchestral canon — by composers such as Brahms, Mahler, Tchaikovsky and Bruckner — played by an Australian orchestra.
The centenary celebrations include a rare visit by one of Australia's most acclaimed conductors, Sir Charles Mackerras, who will conduct Dvorak's Serenade for Strings and Elgar's Enigma Variations in November.
Caetani plans to spend much more time in Australia next year, following his withdrawal from the post of music director at the English National Opera after the upheaval in which it lost its chairman and CEO.
He will continue to audition young singers in his search for people to sing in the annual opera-in-concert performance he has introduced.
Next year it will be Puccini's 1910 composition, The Girl of the Golden West, a big work that he decided to do after the success of Verdi's Otello in 2005.
Caetani believes the opera is relevant to Melbourne because of its similarity to California's gold rushes. “But it must have been even more isolated in Victoria,” he says.
The opera and other concerts featuring works by American composers will coincide with next winter's masterpieces exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria — a selection of works from the Guggenheim Museum's global network.
A new work by composer Ross Edwards will receive its world premiere in November. It follows his acclaimed oboe concerto and was written for the MSO's principal clarinet, David Thomas.
Caetani will continue to explore the works of one of the past century's great composers, Dmitri Shostakovich, in a concert that will include three Australian premieres — the second symphony, the suite from the opera The Nose, and two Scarlatti pieces for wind. It will also feature the ninth symphony, a bitterly ironic response to World War II, and the second cello concerto.
The concert will also be recorded for release on the MSO Live label.
Robin Usher

Tansman: Symphonies Nos. 4-6,
Melbourne Symphony
Orchestra (Chandos), Oct 2006
The first installment in a complete cycle of Tansman’s virtually unheard symphonies, this disc features the three major works of his American years. The fourth Symphony flows with a bittersweet melodicism; the Fifth is even better, a darker, churning piece that still brims with irresistible lyricism; less successful, the Sixth is a memorial for France’s war deaths, with a Honegger-like choral finale. The Australian ensemble’s beautiful performances are the best sort of advocacy, with rich Chandos sound besides.
Bradley Bambarger, The Star Ledger, 24.10.06

Oleg Caetani wins Diapason d'Or 2006
Oleg Caetani celebrated his 50th birthday on October 5th with the news that his recording of Alexandre Tansman’s Symphonies No. 4, 5 and 6 with his orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony, has won the 2006 Diapason d’Or from Diapason Magazine. He is recording all nine symphonies with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for Chandos following his Shostakovich cycle for Arts Music.
Read the Diapason review here

Interview with Oleg Caetani
La Orquesta Sinfónica de Melbourne (MSO, teniendo en cuenta sus siglas en inglés) cumple un siglo y lo celebra con una gira europea que la llevará por España, Francia, Alemania e Italia. “Sólo tiene 24 años menos que la Sinfónica de Berlín”, deja caer su director, Oleg Caetani. Una precisión que incita a descubrir el vigoroso mundo de la música clásica no sólo en Australia, sino en la cuenca del Pacífico, y del que a Europa sólo llegan los virtuosos orientales. La gira española de la MSO arranca hoy en el Auditorio de Castellón. Mañana actuará en el Auditorio de Barcelona; el 24, en el de Zaragoza; el 25, en el Baluarte de Pamplona, y el 27, en el Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, antes de viajar a Francia. Son 107 músicos y cinco toneladas de material lo que llega de las antípodas.
“La de Melbourne es una orquesta técnicamente perfecta. Tiene un sonido muy caliente, muy europeo. La de Sidney es más americana”
Oleg Caetani (Lausana, 1956) se formó bajo la tutela de grandes nombres como Nadia Boulanger o su padre, Igor Markevitch. En 1979 ganó el concurso de directores de orquesta de la RAI, en Turín, y en 1982 fue laureado del concurso Karajan de Berlín. Fue ayudante de la Ópera Estatal de Berlín, maestro de capilla en Francfort, director invitado de la Staatskapelle de Dresde, recientemente ha grabado la integral de Shostakóvich.
Pregunta. Usted conoce bien España, donde vivió durante su infancia. ¿Cómo ha cambiado en el campo de la música clásica?
Respuesta. La evolución española es la más increíble de todos los países europeos en los últimos 20 años. No sólo en lo que respecta a los nuevos auditorios que han sido construidos en todos lados y que son extraordinarios, sino también por las orquestas. Creo que las pequeñas orquestas en España son las que más han evolucionado. Las grandes, la Orquesta Nacional, la Sinfònica de Barcelona, ya eran buenas hace 30 años. Pero cuando yo era pequeño, las orquestas de provincias no daban el nivel, y ahora son orquestas sinfónicas importantes, internacionales. La orquesta de Valencia, por ejemplo, cuando la dirigí en 1982 era muy mediocre. Ahora es una orquesta internacional. Por no hablar de los directores. Acabo de invitar a Pons a dirigir en Melbourne, porque nunca ha dirigido en Australia, también he invitado a Bosch. España tiene nuevos directores de gusto internacional y personalidad muy interesante.
P. ¿Y el público?
R. Es más intelectual que en el pasado. El público español siempre ha sido muy curioso, atraído por la novedad, pero ahora es más culto y más crítico que en la época franquista. Entonces era imposible pensar que pudiera producirse un abucheo, ahora no. En Madrid se abucheó a la Filarmónica de Viena cuando tocaron el Bolero de Ravel.
P. ¿Cómo se combina vivir en Europa y dirigir una orquesta australiana?
R. Vivo en Florencia. Mi mujer, pianista, es de allí. La primera vez que uno hace un viaje de 30 horas para ir a trabajar le parece una aventura increíble. Pero ahora ya no. Durante el vuelo, trabajo, estudio mis partituras y duermo un poco. Cuando me despierto ya estoy en Melbourne. Hago tres visitas al año de un mes y medio.
P. Compare la MSO con una orquesta europea.
R. Será una sorpresa porque es una orquesta técnicamente perfecta. Tiene un sonido muy caliente, muy europeo, a diferencia de la de Sidney, que es más americana.
P. ¿Cómo es el ambiente musical australiano?
R. Muy especial. Se parece un poco a España, con la diferencia de que la tradición musical sólo tiene 150 años. Pero la MSO es centenaria. En un país nuevo, sin tradición, tenemos una orquesta más antigua que cada una de las orquestas de la radio de Europa y que tiene sólo 24 años menos que la Filarmónica de Berlín. La MSO tiene una tradición propia. Los violinistas, por ejemplo, llegaban todos de Europa central y del Este: rusos y polacos. Por esta razón, el sonido de las cuerdas es muy denso, muy, muy bonito. Las maderas y los vientos son muy transparentes, brillantes, de un sonido agresivo. Es una orquesta ideal para La consagración de la primavera, de Stravinski, y para Chaikovski. Es una orquesta rusa con los vientos franceses. Ideal. En Madrid haremos La consagración de la primavera. Y tocaremos también una obra de Montsalvatge, un compositor al que quiero mucho y a quien conocí personalmente. También haremos la Segunda de Rachmaninov. El público español es muy abierto, no está tan ideologizado como el italiano, el alemán o el francés...
P. ¿En qué sentido?
R. En lo que respecta a la música del siglo XX, que sigue siendo muy difícil de aceptar para según qué público. En Italia se siguen las tesis de Adorno: Schönberg, Weber, Berg, Stockhausen... y no se programan otras corrientes del siglo XX, ni Sibelius, ni Rachmaninov, y muy poco Shostakóvich. En España siempre he tocado mucho Rachmaninov, Sibelius, Prokófiev..., todo.
P. ¿Cuál es el repertorio de la MSO en Australia?
R. Bastante conservador. Brahms, Beethoven, Bruckner -poco-, Strauss, y ahora también mucha música del siglo XX. También hago música australiana. Muy interesante, porque Australia no tiene el problema que tenemos los europeos. Hay compositores dodecafónicos, tonales, modales, minimalistas... de todos tipos. No tienen el peso cultural de, por ejemplo, un francés, que se pregunta: después de Debussy, Berlioz Ravel..., ¿qué se puede componer? O para un alemán.
P. ¿Cuál es la influencia de la música clásica oriental?
R. Mi predecesor fue un japonés durante 20 años, Iwaki. El contacto con Japón es muy importante. La MSO va mucho a Japón y a toda Asia: Corea, Vietnam, Malaisia, donde hay una gran orquesta, Singapur. Tenemos un número importante de músicos chinos. Y si en un concierto hay un solista chino, se llena la sala.

Sir John in Love,
English National Opera,
March 2006
“Caetani’s conducting is easily the best thing about this production…
But it is Caetani who lets the opera speak, who understands that the key to Vaughan Williams’s lyricism is pace and texture, who inspires the ENO orchestra to its best playing since – well, since Caetani’s only previous visit three years ago. From start to finish you sense an air of command and authority emanating from the pit, but it is not of the control-freak variety: Caetani gives everyone space to express themselves while generating dynamism and fluency.
No one is pretending that Sir John in Love deserves a permanent place in the repertory, but Caetani convinces us it deserves our attention. He brings to ENO the class, experience and international perspective it badly needs.”
Andrew Clark, Financial Times, 5.3.06

“Oleg Caetani brings out the best in this lovely score, which coupled with the visual magic of the final scenes leaves one delighted, exhilarated and wanting more.”
Helen Wright, Music OMH.com

“It's conducted with humorous passion by Oleg Caetani...”
Tim Ashley, The Guardian, 4.3.06

“Caetani and the orchestra play the score superbly.”
Hugh Canning, Sunday Times, 12.3.06
“There are stylish contributions from Andrew Kennedy, Robert Tear, Iain Paterson, Stuart Kale and… Oleg Caetani... Now lush, now skittish, occasionally ravishing, Vaughan Williams's score is accorded the Rolls-Royce treatment befitting this Model T Ford of an opera, which will probably prove a much-needed hit for embattled ENO.”
Anthony Holden, The Observer, 12.3.06

“Sarah Fox (Anne) and Andrew Kennedy (Fenton) showed how singers from a younger generation could learn so much from being a regular part of an ensemble like this, and from working with a conductor like Oleg Caetani, whose musical presence and authority were stamped on the performance from the start.”
Andrew Clements, Opera Magazine, May 2006

Benvenuto Cellini,
Opéra du Rhin, Strasbourg,
Jan/Feb 06
“La partition est complexe, avec ses rhythmes bizarres entrelacés et ses grandes scènes chorales concertantes… Oleg Caetani parvient à maîtriser tous ces paramèters, tandis que l’Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg sonne avec beaucoup d’éclat et que les choeurs (Opéras du Rhin et de Nice) surmontent tous les pièges.”
Jean-Luc Macia, La Croix, 20.01.06

“Sous la baguette d’Oleg Caetani, le Philharmonique de Strasbourg sert lui aussi très fidèlement cet opéra qui cristallise les multiples facettes de la démesure et du génie du compositeur.”
Marc Munch, Dernières nouvelles d’Alsace, 17.01.06

“Quant à Oleg Caetani, il a su tirer une énergie et des contrastes remarquables de l’OPS.”
A. Su, l’Alsace, 01.02.06

“Le pari est parfaitement réussi, grâce à l’excellent Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg et aux excellents choeurs de l’Opéra National du Rhin et de l’Opéra de Nice sous la direction d’un Oleg Caetani sobre, qui, sans effets de manche, sans clinquant, tient fermement son petit monde. Pas un seul décalage, pas une seule fausse note ne sont venus entacher l’exécution.”
Catherine Scholler, resmusica.com, 02.02.06

“Oleg Caetani qui tire le meilleur d’un orchestre de Strasbourg très précis.”
Pierre Breiner, cyberclassique.com, 01.02.06

“Face à une partition redoubtable entre toutes, la direction d’Oleg Caetani se révèle affirmée…”
Pierre-René Serna, Scenes Magazine, 02.06

“Diese gewaltigen Ansprüche galt es zu realisieren. Unter der Gesamtleitung von Oleg Caetani agierend vereinigten sich als Instrumentalbasis das “Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg” mit dem von Michel Capperon präparierten Chor der Rheinoper sowie dem Chor der Oper von Nizza (Leitung: Giulio Magnanini). In der Summe also Garanten für ein wirkungsvolles Ausreizen musikalischer…”
Von Gunter Thiel, Mittelbadische Presse, 19.01.06

“Oleg Caetani, langjähriger musikalischer Chef in Wiesbaden, hat aus den drei verschiedenen Fassungen der Opera nicht nur eine mehr als überzeugende Bühnenversion präsentiert: Unter seiner Leitung entfaltete das Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg die gesamte Berlioz’sche Orchsterpracht.”
Dagmar Gilcher, Die Rheinpflaz, 19.01.06

“The conductor Oleg Caetani chose Colin Davis’s Covent Garden version of 1966 with the minor revisions that Berlioz had made after the premiere and also for the performance at Weimar in 1856….Caetani brilliantly exploited the weight, colour, vibrant rhythms and fervent intensity of the music.”
Rolf Fath, Opera Magazine, May 2006

Symphony No. 11,
Sydney Symphony Orchestra,
Sydney Opera House, Nov 2005
“Maestro a master of control”
“Oleg Caetani, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's chief conductor, presents a self-possessed, unruffled image on the podium. Preferring precise gestures to grand, rhetorical flourishes, the lasting impression left by this Sydney visit was of a conductor who combines musicality and intelligence to a rare degree.
“Caetani's deeply considered approach and ironclad control worked wonders in Shostakovich's Symphony No.11, “The Year 1905”. In less assured hands, this piece can be bombastic, crass and structurally problematic. Not so here. Right from the eerie, hushed opening, Caetani created an organically conceived interpretation that superbly balanced clear-sighted vision with a discipline that kept the smallest of details in sight.
“His ability to negotiate transition points was masterful, especially in the final movement where helter-skelter excitement and steely determination were carefully integrated with the quieter reflective passages. Although Caetani's tempos were slow in parts, his well-judged changes of pace highlighted the music's many contrasts.
He also proved to be a master of atmosphere, sustaining a mood of nervy uncertainty right through the long, drawn-out development of the first movement. Far from diluting the symphony's emotional impact, Caetani's focused restraint had the opposite effect. The third movement funeral march, for instance, became a dignified outpouring of grief and anger that was all the more affecting for being simply and plainly expressed.
“For a display of overwhelming orchestral power, it was impossible to overlook the second movement, where Caetani built his forces up to a relentless crescendo of almost unendurable brutality and savagery before magically subsiding to a haunting pianissimo of icy string sonorities. Never have I heard this symphony played better.
“…There was much to enjoy in this sumptuous, colourful account [of the Firebird Suite]. The orchestra deftly darted and bobbed its way through the mercurial Dance of the Firebird and jaunty Dance of the Princesses with all the skill of a star striker eluding a score of defenders. Caetani's liking for strongly accented staccato chords bore rich fruit in the powerful climaxes of the Infernal Dance and Final Hymn.
“…Caetani's artistry and thoughtfulness shone through every note of this concert. I look forward to his return.”
Murray Black, The Australian, 29.11.05

Norma, San Francisco Opera,
October 2005
“C’est dans la musique que nous trouvons satisfaction, à commencer par la direction équilibrée de Oleg Caetani guidant son équipe à bon port.”
Valery Fleurquin, ResMusica.com 6.11.05

“The orchestra sounded splendid under Caetani's baton. The strings were lustrous, the woodwinds and brass pointedly expressive.”
Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle, 25.11.05

“What made the performance meaningful, however, were the sure baton of conductor Oleg Caetani and the supernal singing of mezzo-soprano Irina Mishura… Maestro Caetani skillfully led the members of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in sculpting this score’s achingly beautiful melodies, as well as contrasting its many marches and strumming cadences.”
James Keolker, San Francisco Classical Voice.org, 26.10.05

“Conductor Oleg Caetani led Bellini's score with energy and assurance, giving full breath to the composer's most luxuriant phrases, yet maintaining a keen sense of forward drive throughout. The production may not have much going for it visually, but it was a sumptuous feast for the ears.”
Georgia Rowe, Contra Costa Times, 26.10.05

Otello, Teatro degli Arcimboldi,
Milan, May 2005
“Così è stato anche questa sera con un grande successo personale del maestro Caetani che si conferma un concertatore finissimo, attento ad esaltare la tensione drammatica con una pulizia di esecuzione, una ricchezza di chiaroscuri e una musicalità esemplari… consacrazione meriatissima per Caetani.”
Ugo Malasoma, Operaclick, 25.05.05

“Quanto alla direzione d’orchestra, il lavoro di Oleg Caetani appare senz’altro di squisita fattura. Dopo le rimbombate tremende che avevamo ascoltato in altra occasione, ha fatto piacere un accompagnamento orchestrale felpato, ricco di pathos, attento alle esigenze del canto ma sempre colmo di tensione emotivo. Una grande direzione, senza meno.”
Pietro Bagnioli, Operaclick, 8/6/05

Shostakovich Symphony
Cycle Recording,
Orchestra Verdi, Milan (ARTS)
Symphony No. 4
“Oleg Caetani offers us another volume of his astonishingly fresh complete symphonies cycle.”
Répertoire

“…Il est bien possible que la gravure de Caetani soit aujourd’hui le meilleur choix.”
Christophe Huss, classicstodayfrance.com

Symphony Nos. 5 & 6
“…Extraordinary Disc… Be swept up, as I was, by the visceral excitement, brilliance, passion, and urgency of these “pedal to the metal” performances. The Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi… is a fine one, particularly when the players are all clearly giving 100 percent, as here. Oleg Caetani also evidently has a strong affinity for this music, offering the kind of raw, over-the-top intensity characteristic of the finest Russian performances.
… A finale that quite simply manages the most satisfying ending that the work has ever received on disc.”
David Hurwitz, Classics Today, 09.27.03

“Caetani excels in drawing out the sarcastic aspects of the 5th… He restates perfectly the suspense… but still respects the language, the typically Russian colours.”
Répertoire

“Caetani impone un’impostazione di eloquente richezza e maturitá:”
Author unknown

“In this [Symphony No. 5], the first instalment of a projected series of all the Shostakovitch symphonies, Oleg Caetani brings the considerable virtues that he displayed in his performance of the Mahler Resurrection Symphony that I reviewed last month: a firm but varied pulse, an instinctive feel for structure, and a freshly imagined response to even the slightest musical gestures.
To say that this performance of the Sixth Symphony compares favourably to the 1965 Mravinsky/Leningrad (released on EMI/ Melodiya) is to pay it the highest compliment; for in my listening room, that version has taken on all comers for the past thirty years.”
Max Westler, enjoythemusic.com

Symphony No. 7 “Leningrad”
“CD of the month…”
Amadeus

“Inspiring…”
Le Monde de la Musique

“With the added advantage of an outstandingly vivid recording and the heightened adrenalin of a live performance”
BBC Music Magazine

“Caetani has a real feel for this music… A very good performance”
classicstoday.com

Symphony Nos. 9 & 10
“The first movement [of the 9th] is incredibly funny and remembers with its sound lust a good Italian comedy, it is even Fellini-like… Exciting and with suspense”
Pizzicato

Symphony No. 11 “The Year 1905”
“This new recording certainly joins the elite list of great interpretations, being different enough from those previous efforts to warrant another listen, yet fully attuned to the music’s relentless anguish and crushing power.”
“…If you love this symphony, you’ll surely want this recording.”
David Hurwitz, classicstoday.com

“Ce qui rend la version incontournable pour tous les admirateurs de Chostakovitch, c’est cette indescriptible fin, dans laquelle la mise en scène musicale et sonore du tocsin est foudroyant et sans comparaison…
A repenser à ce qu’en fait Caetani, j’en ai encore la chair de poule…”
Christophe Huss, classicstodayfrance.com

“Caetani brings real authority to the symphonies and emphasises their indebtedness to Mahler without over-stressing it.”
Author unknown

Kovanshchina,
English National Opera,
Jan/Feb 2003
“…Khovanshchina…Caetani conducts an
incandescent , exactly paced reading”
The Stage

“…Khovanshchina…Superbly conducted by Oleg Caetani”
The Sunday Times

“…Khovanshchina …In a remarkable British opera debut…Caetani obtained superb orchestral playing and coordination between pit and stage, showing exceptional consideration for the singers.”
The Sunday Telegraph

“…Khovanchschina…The impact is heightened by a conductor…Caetani, who is complete command of the style and the musical material . His ear for dramatic atmosphere is flawless; the pace never falters. And for the first time since the Elder years, the ENO musicians play like a world-class orchestra, with a devotion and technical alacrity that is totally inspiring in this dark, melodic score…He offers the most impressive operatic conducting London has heard for a long time”
Financial Times

The conductor Oleg Caetani talks to Mansel Stimpson about his career and the continuing importance of Musorgsky’s ‘
Khovanshchina’
For the son of a conductor to be devoted to music himself cannot be unusual and Oleg Caetani, who uses his mother’s maiden name and is here to conduct at English National Opera, had as his father that distinguished maestro Igor Markevitch. But, if having a Russian father and an Italian mother and frequently conducting in Germany explains Caetani’s multi-cultural background, it does not prepare one for the strongest impression made when we talked at the Coliseum where he is now conducting Khovanshchina. What emerged then was the fact that Caetani is a man who ponders the nature of human existence and responds to experience: music may be at the centre, but you sense a wider philosophy of life however important the role he assigns to art (and he stresses more than once that he loves theatre as well as music).
“I certainly feel European,” he tells me. But he immediately elaborates: “I feel much more the Europe of the regions than the Europe of the countries. My Italian side is half-Roman and half-Florentine, and those are two contrasted worlds. It’s the same with my Russian side which is half-Ukrainian. When I conducted in different parts of Germany, I really had the impression of conducting in two utterly different countries. I found that West German musicians were much more precise, but being completely closed off for so long enabled the orchestras of East Germany, even the smaller ones, to keep that typically dark German orchestral sound in the brasses and in the strings. I hope that the Europe of the future will be a Europe of the regions.”
His awareness and approval of differences came into play when he studied in Russia with two contrasted masters. “Kondrashin had a typically old Soviet conducting style, and I owe something to him, even if I found it easier to respond to the ideas of Musin in St. Petersburg who offered a new school for Russian conducting. I owe to those diverse experiences the fact that today as a conductor I am not ideological about anything. From 2005 I shall be the chief conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and that will be a chance to bring back some baroque music to a big classical orchestra. The achievements of John Eliot Gardiner and Roger Norrington provide lessons in tempi and articulation, and I find it a pity that few conductors profit from that, frightened off by the notion that such music has to remain in one particular style and with specialists. What my background has given me is the desire to be flexible.”
Caetani enthuses even more over the works of Shostakovich: “It’s music that helps you to live, as essential as eating and drinking. Nietzsche said ‘the greatest art is to dance being tied in chains’ and that’s what Shostakovich did and what made him unique.” It’s Shostakovich’s orchestration of Musorgsky’s Khovanshchina that is being used at the Coliseum. “It’s wonderfully done but also a work which reveals what Shostakovich owed to Musorgsky despite the latter’s weakness as an orchestrator. However, we are not using Shostakovich’s preferred ending with its Soviet optimism but his alternative version. Apart from anything else, it means that we have the originality of an opera ending with a mass suicide by people deprived of any other possibility – and that’s true to history.”
In Caetani’s view the avoidance of any false optimism helps to confirm the continuing importance of this period opera in an age when fanaticism feeds terrorism and has to be fought. Musically, Caetani applauds the cast, newcomers here save for Willard W. White who has already triumphed as Prince Ivan Khovansky. In particular he speaks of Jill Grove who makes her London debut as Marfa – “one of the biggest mezzo-soprano roles in all opera, and she’s wonderful.” But it’s characteristic that he has perceptions about all the characters in Khovanshchina. He cherishes being present at all rehearsals with the director so that they can have a dialogue, and he is delighted at the views of the original director Francesca Zambello and her assistant Julia Pevzner. “I love the way Francesca sees the whole historical tragedy of Khovanshchina and how she realises it. Musorgsky himself described his task as dealing with the past in the present, but a contemporary Russian composer added that Musorgsky spoke of the past in the present without knowing that he was speaking also about the future. I agree absolutely.”
Mansel Stimpson, An Opera For Today

2003
“…in this Beethoven’s IX ( by the Muenchner Philharmoniker ) the greatness in Caetani’s achievement is having revealed the deeply human dimension concealed in the myth-laden colossus.”
TZ

2002
“…Caetani infuoca la Sagra…“
La Repubblica

2001
“...Caetani focuses on the making of music everything else is secondary.”
The Age

“…Caetani’s full-blooded, intelligent interpretations which extract a very high quality sound greatly the status of Wagner’s overtures and produce a CD which can eclipse many a mainstream recording“
Pizzicato

“...Caetani on the podium of the Mozarteum Orchestra was impressive conducting Schubert’s “Great C Major “ Symphony. Despite touching every emotion the playing remained compact and never came apart at the seams...very composed , yet one sensed an iron will and a determination to probe the essence of the work.“
Salzburg Nachrichten

2000
“…Recorded live the Second Mahler’s Symphony is masterfully conducted by Caetani “
The Sunday Telegraph

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