Reviews
"Taddei's interpretation delights"
"The performance was stunning. Marc Taddei drew forces together with enormous precision – better than in the recording of the work I listened to – and his orchestra responded brilliantly... The composer, who was present must have been delighted."
John Button, Dominion Post, 11 November 2008 Full Review
"Taddei's day"
"The Vector Wellington Orchestra just keep getting better and better, and Saturday’s concert reached the pinnacle of their year’s work...they outdid themselves... It was an absolute triumph!
"Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle showed the orchestra off to it’s very best, playing well above their weight... and nothing demonstrated this more than the moment of the opening of the 5th door when the Town Hall organ added it’s weight to the sound, the effect was overwhemingly, viscerally exciting. It was magnificent, creating an unforgettable impression.
"But...the evening belonged to conductor Marc Taddei who steered the orchestra, chorus and soloists through with quiet, (not a term used often about Taddei) authority. His intensity, commitment and attention to detail gave the performance true gravitas. He is very quick to give generous accolades to his performers but on this occasion he deserved every bit of the audience’s enthusiastic response."
Garth Wilshire, Capital Times, 17 Sept 08 Full Review
"Fantastic music, and stunningly played"
“This was the most exciting concert in prospect; highlight of the Vector Wellington Orchestra's 2008 programme.
"[Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle were] not going to attract quite the full houses of other concerts, but the generous attendance must have been gratifying, and the performances produced huge enthusiasm.
“With good reason, for this was an evening of fantastic music and an astonishing level of achievement.
“This was a sensational performance… And the orchestra was magnificent.
“The strings gave us the sheen and body the score demands, and the brass and wind played with power and clarity. Marc Taddei conducted with tremendous authority – who will ever forget the sheer impact of the opening of the Fifth Door, with full orchestra and organ?”
JOHN BUTTON, Dominion Post, 8 Sep 2008 Full Review
"Vector on Fire"
"Under Taddei’s dynamic direction the orchestra responded with great strength and precision making for a marvellously affecting and powerful performance from everybody.
" Probably The Vector Wellington Orchestra’s best concert to date under Taddei and a concert year highlight."
Garth Wilshire, Capital Times, 30 July 08 Full Review
"Touching farewell salute to conductor"
"For Marc Taddei's final appearance as musical director, two particularly complex and challenging works were presented. I was then going to say that both lay well outside this orchestra's musical tradition, but on reflection it seems that maestro Taddei has so extended the range of music the orchestra plays that its tradition now encompasses almost everything.
"...This was a deeply impressive performance [of Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs], particularly from the orchestra, where you really had the sensation that the conductor was working his players before your very eyes to produce the subtleties of texture, balance and colour that you were hearing.
"...Balance between singer and band, so easy to achieve in the recording studio, so difficult on stage, was exceptionally good.
"...This concert was a very fine achievement in its own right, something of a milestone in the orchestra's history, and a great way to remember Marc Taddei's magnificent contribution as musical director."
Timothy Jones in the Press, 11 December 2006 Full Review
" Thank You, Marc Taddei"
"The Christchurch Symphony music director delivers a breathtaking farewell concert.
"It took Marc Taddei only one year as music director and chief conductor of the Christchurch Symphony to turn repertoire and public taste on its head. Orpheus and Bacchus blew him here. The new works he introduced in his first two years alone surpassed the total in the orchestra's history. All his substantial legacy to Christchurch has radiated out from this innovative ebullience; the perfect tonic when previous programmers had given the orchestra bedsores by locking the players into stale stuff for years. His typical American ability to break down formal barriers through friendly chat enabled him to take his audience with him, no matter how demanding the programme.
"His local premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring drew a rock-concert response from a large crowd.... His most esoteric performance, last year's The Timeless Land, was 150 minutes of unadulterated New Zealand modernism - a first for the country in intermedia works. It pulled in 1500 people.
"...Take a bow, Taddei and players. You gave us a night to treasure."
Ian Dando in The Listener, December
30-January 5 2007
Vol 206 No 3477 Full
review
"Newly appointed music director Taddei had a dream debut conducting the Wellington Orchestra last month. Three standing ovations followed the orchestra's Wellington premiere, leaving Taddei gleaming...
Dawn Tratt profile in Capitol Times, 2-8 May 2007 Full Profile
"The audience received full value for money, with a well-balanced programme, excellent playing and highly focused, almost charismatic conducting.
"The orchestra played with enormous confidence, promising much for the future under its new music director."
Dominion Post, 16 April 2007 Full Review
[Headline] NHSO responds with stunning virtuosity under Taddei's baton
"Marc Taddei, an American conductor working mostly in New Zealand, appeared as guest with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra Thursday in an impressive concert. To judge from his leadership of this all-German program in Woolsey Hall, Taddei is a musician of strong technical accomplishments and equally strong ideas.
"The hour-long Symphony No. 4 by Gustav Mahler found the conductor in his element... He probed and plumbed the score - you might even say he ransacked it - for every possibly nugget of interpretive splendor.
"The result was a stunning virtuoso demonstration of musical variety, with the excellent instrumentalists responding wholeheartedly to the conductor with as much diversity with one instrument apiece..."
David J Baker in the New Haven Register,
November 2006
Full
Review
Reviews for Marc Taddei's collaboration with Violist HELEN CALLUS:
"Taddei's conducting articulated the work's inventiveness with energy. Ditto Stravinsky's Firebird, especially the excitement he generated in 'King Kastchei's Dance'..."
-
The Listener June 2006,
reviewing
Anthony Ritchie's Symphony No. 2.
"...Marc Taddei took things to another level. This performance of Brahms' First Symphony was simply hair-raising. Right from the first imperious bars there was a tension and authority that completely belied the status of this young orchestra. Every section played as if their lives were at stake, and with a polish that was simply amazing. All the brass, with the brilliant horns to the fore, crowned a performance in which Taddei's fiery interpretation took no prisoners. Astonishing."
John Button, Dominion Post, 24 May 2006, Reviewing the Wellington Youth Orchestra Concert. full review
“One of Marc Taddei's many strengths is his eye for programming… It was a bold move to place Ritchie's Symphony No. 2 alongside one of the seminal works of last century. Taddei did an…impressive job with his orchestra's interpretation. It was exciting – and fitting to hear a New Zealand symphony aired so enthusiastically.”
“The performance [of Stravinksy’s Firebird] was gutsy and committed.”
Patrick Shepherd, The Press, 15 May 2006 full review
Feature Articles:
Full Article on Conductor Marc Taddei, "How to Conduct a Revolution" written by critic Ian Dando and published in New Zealand's major news weekly, Listener Magazine, should be read in it's entirety
The Listener published another 3-page profile on Conductor Marc Taddei in September 2006:
"...Obviously, Taddei got it right. In 2003, there was a 35 percent increase in concert attendances. In 2004, this went up another 17 percent and earned the orchestra a handsome profit of $90,000. In 2005, there has been another 12 percent increase. 'I'm thrilled about this. It goes against an international trend in which orchestras have seen a big loss of audience share. But not in Christchurch!'"
In a companion piece, "The Taddei Show", respected Christchurch critic Ian Dando reviews the remarkable risks that Marc Taddei takes and continues to pull off year after year:
"His innovations this year alone surpass those of the Christchurch Symphony's entire history before he arrived as its music director four years ago. The orchestra's previous CEO had provocatively rubbished New Zealand music as "the kiss of death". How ironic, then, that 1500 people turned up to hear the quintet of new Kiwi works ..."
"The two strongest points...under Marc Taddei were frenetic passion and the players' tight cohesion... Taddei's innovative programming makes him by far the gutsiest music director the CS has had."
The Press, July 2005
"In the whole work, the conductor Marc Taddei demonstrated his understanding of every tiny element of the work. Under his leadership the orchestra succeeded in delivering an astonishing performance...[Taddei] had a deep insight into Mozart. Moreover, his ideas were well thought out in detail."
International Association of Theatre Critics (Hong Kong) 2004
"(Bouquet for Marc Taddei) the orchestra's music director, whose energy, exuberance, drive and vision proved beyond all doubt that music is an essential feature of daily life in a 21st century city."
The Press 2004
"Taddei's interpretations of Mozart's Overture to the Impressario and Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 were precise but fresh, and he has a charming sense of humor."
Best of New Orleans 2004
"Marc Taddei skillfully took the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra to new heights with an outstanding concert that was nothing short of brilliant in all aspects. ...Taddei had the audience on the edge of their seats."
The Press 2004 - full review
"People accurately comment how the CS playing standards have shot up recently. With this concert its upward curve still climbs impressively."
Ian Dando in the Christchurch Press 2004 - full review
"Conductor Marc Taddei delivered an evening of exhilarating music in this Masterworks concert with its exciting works, their dynamic interpretation and superlative performances under his baton."
The Press 2004
"DON QUIXOTE A MILESTONE FOR CS (review title) - It was a feather in the cap for Marc Taddei and his troops."
The Press 2004
"The infectious vivacity which Marc Taddei brings to the conducting platform is mirrored by the spice he has added to the orchestra's repertoire."
The Press 2003
"We could clearly hear Marc Taddei's very dramatic way with this symphony. From the dramatic opening horns to the headlong tempo of the finale, this was real Tchaikovsky - unleashed and uncompromised."
The Dominion Post 2003
"Sample the most frenetic track, Ginastera's Malambo, and you'll be hooked. Conductor Marc Taddei's freshness and immediacy in his interpretations are invigorating and stem from the dramatic intensity in his approach and quitting of climaxes , his lively nuancing of phrases and keenly struck tempi."
The Press 2003
"It was delicately done, with many nice expressive touches, completing yet another cleverly programmed and well-managed Christchurch Symphony concert."
The Press 2003
"Marc Taddei prepared the score fastidiously separating its complex and continually changing foreground from background material and shaping the whole with a finely judged dramatic momentum."
The Star 2003
"Overall this is one of the best Harolds you'll find anywhere, and the Bartok will appeal to anyone dissatisfied by previous editions of the score."
American Record Guide Jan/Feb 2003
"…conductor Marc Taddei urged his players to a new level of sophistication and polish"
The Press 2003
"Marc Taddei coloured things exquisitely, shaping and highlighting phrases and allowing each glorious moment to sparkle."
The Press 2003
"Under the skillful guide of Marc Taddei the NZ Symphony glides and crashes on to victory with precision and energy. Marvelous."
Music dish.com 2002
"Easily the best performance of Harold in Italy that I have heard on disc…"
Dominion Post 2002
"Marc Taddei is fast becoming recognized as a major conducting talent…"
The Dominion 2001
"Taddei's musical direction is superbly stylistic…"
The Listener 2001
"Marc Taddei directed a taut and exciting interpretation…"
The New Zealand Herald 2001
"Taddei (proved to be) a thoroughly idiomatic conductor, with a feel for texture and luxurious string sonorities a feature."
The Dominion 2001
"Marc Taddei is a real interpreter with boldly romantic inclinations…"
The Dominion 2000
"What is it about this group of musicians, with their conductor Marc Taddei, that constantly awe me with their inspirational playing?"
City Voice 2000
"Marc Taddei is revealing himself to be a thinking interpreter of all the works he conducts, as well as showing a rare ability to train an orchestra."
The Dominion 1999
"Here in our midst we have a conductor who is young, charismatic, and is able to communicate his emotions and visions of these great works to an orchestra, so that they can reach out and touch an audience like very few can actually do."
City Voice 1999
"Marc Taddei was the man for the job. He conducted with the elan audiences have come to expect from his work…an easy communicator with players and audience alike with a rare clarity of beat as well as intention, occasionally airborne with enthusiasm."
The Dominion 1999
"…with Taddei revealing real interpretive gifts as a conductor, this was a concert to warm the heart."
The Dominion 1999
"…unforgettable moments of complete rapport and inspiration between conductor and orchestra…"
City Voice 1998
"his sense of commitment to the music was palpable."
The New Zealand Herald 1996
Marc Taddei
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