Simone Young - The Dream of Gerontius with ENO

July 3, 2017

A lovely review in The Guardian for Simone Young, conducting  The Dream of Gerontius with ENO at Royal Festival Hall, London on 1 July 2017:

"...To the extent that this performance of Gerontius was distinctively operatic, this lay in the music, of which the experienced opera conductor Simone Young gave an account that consistently emphasised the drama in the score rather than the work’s ruminative tradition. 

Young’s grip on the evening hardly wavered across the two parts of the score, which were played with with only a small pause between them. She favoured quicker speeds than many conductors, but her long experience in the music of composers such as Wagner and Bruckner shone through in the persuasive architectural sense she brought to the score. Young’s strict control of the work’s orchestral dynamics also allowed the soloists to be heard without the vocal strain that often marks Gerontius performances. As with her appearance at the Proms last year conducting Zemlinsky, this was a reminder that Young’s very considerable talents have been too neglected in this country".

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