ThomasSøndergård

Press

• RSNO: Dvorak Symphony No. 6

  Edinburgh

  Nov 2023

  • "Thomas Søndergård shaped the opening movement with a gorgeous sense of heft, with the main theme slowly and beautifully filling out but always moving forwards purposefully. The sweet, sunlit slow movement benefited from drop-dead-gorgeous string tone, and a lucidly played Trio sat in the middle of a storming Furiant."

    • Bachtrack
    • 04 November 2023

• Minnesota Orchestra: Music Director Inaugural Concerts

  Minneapolis

  Sep 2023

  • "It was stirring at the start, as effervescent as champagne at its center, and as big and bold as one could wish in its almost-hourlong finale. And throughout it all, Søndergård seemed a leader with firm ideas about what he wanted from the music and a very graceful way of communicating them. When Søndergård and the orchestra reached the summit at the center of the piece, it was pure ecstatic triumph. And what a storm the orchestra summoned up, especially in the percussion section, a group that may be forging a special connection with the conductor, as that's the part of the orchestra in which he launched his professional career."

    • Star Tribune
    • 21 September 2023

• RSNO: Sibelius, Berlioz and Sørensen

  Glasgow

  Nov 2021

  • ★★★★★ "The Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s music director Thomas Søndergård invited us to join him on an emotionally intense programme of music depicting vivid memories of times and places, from Bert Sørensen’s childhood landscapes through a journey of love and loss from Berlioz and rounding off with an astonishing performance of a favourite Sibelius symphony." [In the Sørensen] "Søndergård brought order to the pungent chaos, carefully taming the vivid frenzy. A soft oboe solo brought us back to the lone violin as the music slowly drifted into a deep rural silence." [In the Berlioz] "Søndergård balanced his forces sensitively, allowing them to swell out in passionate moments but never overwhelming his singer even with Morison in her darkest, lower register." [Sibelius] "It is a concert hall favourite, but Søndergård and the orchestra gave a performance as if this was a newly discovered score with phrasing and dynamics detailing far corners of the work."

    • Bachtrack
    • 22 November 2021