Press Reviews: Highlights
SF CHRONICLE: Neale saves the day for ill conductor
When conductor Carlos Kalmar bowed out of his San Francisco Symphony debut this week with a bad case of the flu, the company turned on a dime. In came former Associate Conductor Alasdair Neale—who was already busy preparing next week's program with his own Marin Symphony—to lead a program of unusual fare.
MIAMI HERALD: New World soars under Alasdair Neale's baton
With Michael Tilson Thomas and a glittering array of renowned conductors regularly mounting the New World Symphony podium, the artistry of Alasdair Neale (the ensemble's principal guest conductor) sometimes gets taken for granted.
SEATTLE TIMES: Guest conductor packs a punch
Handel's masterpiece, the "Messiah," is a veritable chameleon among oratorios. The composer himself changed it repeatedly over the course of many performances, altering arias, assigning them to different vocal categories, and adding and omitting various pieces of the music.
OMAHA WORLD-HERALD: Savor musical infusions of 'Grandeur'
An entire orchestra collaborating on a strain of repeated chords, each one louder and more intense than the one before.
SF CHRONICLE: Neale works a bit of magic to bring Haydn to center stage
One of the reasons Haydn's symphonies don't show up more often on orchestral programs is that their size makes them hard to position within a conventional lineup.
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Last-Minute Condutor Provides First-Rate Results
Once again the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra had to call on a last-minute substitute conductor. And once again, the substitute did well by them.
ANDANTE.COM: A Southern Hemisphere El Niño
The 2002 Adelaide Festival has had rather a rocky road. After two seasons run by the popular, and somewhat populist, Robyn Archer, the organizers for this year had entrusted the biennial event to the American director and perpetual enfant terrible Peter Sellars.
MIAMI HERALD: Conductor Neale Puts Music in Motion
Just once, I heard Igor Stravinsky conduct his music. It was the Pulcinella Suite Alasdair Neale chose for his Thursday night concert with the New World Symphony at the Lincoln Theatre—an alluring Stravinsky/Mozart bill that will be repeated there tonight.
MIAMI HERALD: New World Kicks Off with Vivid Variations
Alasdair Neale, the New World Symphony's new principal guest conductor, led the season's first concert by the full orchestra at the Lincoln Theatre on Saturday night, and it crackled.
SF CHRONICLE: Triumphant Farewell Mahler Performance
Inspiring was the first description that came to mind. Profoundly musical was the second, and, in the long run, it will be the more significant. Sunday afternoon in Davies Symphony Hall, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra marked its 20th anniversary by lighting candles for itself and for Gustav Mahler, too.
SF CHRONICLE: Neale Bids Adieu to Symphony With Superb Elgar
Chalking things up to nationality is a cheap ploy, no doubt. But listening to conductor Alasdair Neale's magisterial performance of Elgar's Second Symphony in Davies Symphony Hall on Saturday night—one Englishman probing the soul of another—it was hard to avoid such thoughts.
HANNOVER NEUE PRESSE: Star Pupil in Tails Conducts Mahler
A rescuer in tails: star maestro Michael Tilson Thomas had the flu (104 degree fever), and could not conduct the San Francisco Symphony in the sold-out Kuppelsaal. In his place, a young, unknown conductor, Alasdair Neale (36), conducted a Mahler symphony of the highest caliber.
