REVIEWS
www.granma.cubanet.cu 17/12/2009: Zollman, Sowing a Seed
…Zollman sowed a seed in both the musicians and the public that attended the concert he directed at the Amadeo Roldán Theater: A lesson on what is expected from an orchestra conductor faced with a style. In his hands, Mozart was a living being, as if the genius from Salzburg would have written his scores for the people of today.
Zollman’s final selection was Symphony 38 in D Major, K. 504 - ..Recurrent in the concert programs, the public knew it and ended by acknowledging the devotion of the director and his disciples as one of the best performances ever made in the Havana auditorium.
The alternation of exultant and calm passages, the balance between the Apollo-like dimension and the dance spirit, and the contrast between discursive tensions and the melodic delight, were exemplary present all the time. And there’s something that didn’t go unnoticed: Zollman’s gestures. There are directors who insist on time beating, as if they were metronomes; there are others who exaggerate at the podium. Zollman’s hands draw scores with minimum suggestions. They rather transmit a state of confidence. That’s another lesson. Pedro De La Hoz
www.hudebnirozhledy.scena.cz: December 2008
...On the rostrum was the Dutch conductor Ronald Zollman, somebody who is particularly keen on music of our time. (…) First of all he drew very trustfully , along with the Philharmonic , the outlines of Ligeti’s Atmosphères, and I admired the sense of lines expressed by the individual musicians.
The concert’s second part opened with Orpheus by Liszt. In this work, Zollman was able to sculpt the music thanks to very noble gestures, giving to this work the right antique stature, thanks to the musical motion of smooth and suggestive sonorities. And finally, he was full of life in the suite from Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin... It was fascinating to see how the members of the Philharmonic gave their best under the conductor’s directions, and to experience their enthusiasm while discovering the work’s instrumental lines and the various soli. All the performers deserved the public’s unanimous and enthusiastc applause .... Miloš Pokora
La Nacion 17/05/2007 : Estupenda dirección para la Filarmónica
…Pero lo más notorio y cardinal de este recital es que en el podio estuvo un director estupendo que demostró, una vez más, que la Filarmónica puede sonar muy bien si se la conduce como lo hizo Ronald Zollman.
…Zollman, con una gestualidad muy precisa y con un conocimiento cabal de la partitura, se atuvo a la calidad de sus componentes teatrales y construyó una interpretación impecable ubicando en primer plano los conflictos dramáticos, en tono de comedia, de la sinfonía. …La obsesiva y ultraminuciosa orquestación de Ravel encontró una lectura atenta de Zollman y una realización impecable por parte la orquesta en su conjunto y por cada uno de los solistas que deben asumir tareas puntuales. La obra pasó bella y breve con los mejores colores, con todas las exactitudes y con los fraseos más convincentes. Pablo Kohan
Westdeutscher Zeitung (Mönchengladbach): 13/01/2006: Beautiful New World
…What Ronald ZOLLMAN achieved in Dvorak’s 9th Symphony with the Niederrheinischer Sinfoniker in the concert-hall of Rheydt made one want more of it. The subtle melodies made their way to one’s very heart.
…Zollman created in the concert hall one of those rare musical moments in the slow movement, leading its melancholy English horn solo with the softest strings accompaniment into an incredibly fascinating and totally captivating experience, all the way to the last dying sound of the double-bass. The applause never ended.
The first half of the programme: Samuel Barber’s Overture “The School for Scandal” and George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris”: here too, Zollman sovereignly leads the way through the grand stage sets which spontaneously spout up out of sheer joy. ark
Rheinische Post : 13/01/2006 : When a Bohemian has the blues…
…In Dvorak’s 9th “New World” Symphony, everything sounded perfect: the artistically concealed yet progressively ripening first theme of the opening allegro molto movement, then the moving solo of the English horn (…), the impetus of the scherzo and finally the popular finale.
…Above all soared the exemplarily precise beat, sometimes fiercely full of fire, sometimes carefully soft, of a dynamic leader and exceptional conductor : Ronald Zollman. A great deal of the never-ending applause rightly went to him.
Rheinische Post (Krefeld): 12/01/2006: Symphony from Another World
Will the magic work as intensively in the next three performances? Who knows? There is no guarantee. “A concert is very fragile”, says Zollman. Even when each and every detail has been polished beforehand. That the dynamic maestro did exactly that was obvious. The delicacy with which he treated the background details and smallest elements enhanced the richness of the colours as well as the individuality of each movement and the general structure of Dvorak’s most famous masterpiece (…).Homesickness, nostalgia, in a word : the blues is present throughout the mostly jolly American in Paris, George Gershwin’s way of describing in an American way his own impressions of Europe. Zollman narrated the different episodes with the drive of an enthusiast and the precision of a policeman under the Arc de Triomphe..Sabine Zeller
Rheinische Post (Mönchengladbach): 12/01/2006: Symphonic Greetings for America
…Supple-limbed Zollman flexibly underlines here a strong accented chord, describes there a soft wood-wind cantilena with subtly elegant wave-like arm gestures, or energetically throws both arms over his head to fire the brass into a fanfare. Fireworks of deep, dark feelings are obviously what he wants in Dvorak’s 9th “New World” Symphony (…) Dirk Richerdt
Westdeutscher Zeitung (Krefeld): 12/01/2006: A Concert under the Sign of America
…ZOLLMAN, who conducted the Sinfoniker for the third time, steered the whole performance with great intensity. The orchestra reacted with remarkable ensemble to all the demands that the conductor conveyed with baton, arms and body. Holger Elfes
Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace Mulhouse : 17/10/2004
From the very first note, Ronald Zollman was able to install a climate of energetic elegancy and discrete rigor, achieving so to avoid the dullness of an exaggerated aesthetic approach as much as the danger of bad taste due to the trap of an exaggerated picturesque interpretation. On the contrary, this interpretation was defined by a refined classicism, it was conveyed with perfect serenity, in full conscience of the work’s seductive aspects as well as of its more vigorous qualities.
And with the same know how, he brought Cesar Franck’s unique Symphony to a happy end. (…) He brought not only clarity and coherence, there was also a drive from the beginning until the end. A long and warm applause from the audience, and from the orchestra as well, expressed everyone’s satisfaction at the end of the evening. Denis Lustenberger
Mannheimer Morgen: 31/06/2004: Wild Furore with Waltzes
Program: Mozart Symphony #36 “Linzer”- Mozart Bassoon Concerto (soloist Dag Jensen) – Karol Rathaus Suite “Uriel Acosta”- Ravel La Valse
With Mozart one can go wrong many ways. But Ronald Zollman took many right decisions, when one takes the modern Mozart interpretation style with its direct, sometimes dry straightforwardness into account. (…). There is no doubt that Zollman’s imposed an interpretation which was characterized by elegant tempi, moving sonorities, and that these were all carved for the listener’s enjoyment. This wasn’t a choice, which would easily lead to a triumph, but the National Theatre’s Orchestra followed the directions of their guest conductor with great impulse in the string section, with swift entries in the wind section and good sustain of the basses. (…).
Die Morgen: 30/06/2004: About Ravel La Valse
… Here we recognized the opera specialist Ronald Zollman fully in his element. Through Ravel’s musical Grotesque with its feeling of three in a bar pushed to the extreme, the conductor showed his ability to allow the National Theatre Orchestra’s to exhibit their full capacities in developing the music’s triumphant sound waves. (…). All this was made perfectly clear in Zollman’s conducting. Uwe Rauschelbach
Le Républicain Lorrain (Metz) : 25/02/2003
MOZART: Don Giovanni , ouverture /MOZART-TRIEBENSEE : 6 arias from Don Giovanni / CHOPIN : Variations on « La Ci Darem La Mano » (soloist : Brigitte Engerer)/ STRAUSS : Bulesque / STRAUSS : Don Juan
…This “Don Juan” came to life under his multiple facets thanks to the Orchestre National de Lorraine, conducted by Ronald Zollman from the concert’s start until its end. At the beginning already, with Mozart’s overture it was the Commander’s statue which was knocking at the Arsenal’s door. (…) The fever rose one level higher with Richard Strauss’ eponymical symphonic poem, in which Zollman literally exploded, bounding on the podium as Bernstein would have done, delivering an ardent Don Juan, acting as a peacock as his model would have done, delivering the work’s spectacular -and admittedly slightly shrill- heroism with full commitment. It was at the same time a sensual extrovert (very successful call of the horns this time!) interpretation, opposing the bad and cursing hero to the angelic feminine counterparts.… Georges Masson
WAZ 12/02/2003 : Melodies that are full of energy and speak to the heart
(Ronald Zollman), obviously a lover of efficient accents –this was clear from the first minute (of Brahms’ Third)-, a conductor who emphasizes the voluptuous passages of this melodious symphony, much to the advantage of the work. The second movement itself, a rather chamber-music kind of piece, came out in a steady healthy mezzo forte.
Debussy’s Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un Faune contains many an expressive solo for the winds, and indeed, the wind players of Dortmund performed in a way that allows them to compare with no shame with the Munich Philharmonic, which was heard last Friday in the same concert hall.
A beautiful evening. Martina Lode-Gerke
Westfälische Rundschau: 12/02/2003: Entwined in the raptures of Nature
With his generous and energetic gestures, Ronald Zollman conducted the Dortmund Philharmonic’s fifth concert into an impressive sound festival.
From the very first theme, which sounded grandioso, he established lithographic accents and emphasized sound splendour and musical engagement. Zollman proved he has the accurate feeling for that chatoyant and ever changing music (Roussel Bacchus and Ariane): he gave the musicians of the orchestra the opportunity to display all their glamour and strength.
Rheinische Post: 1/06/2002
(…) The Niederrheinischer gave further with Strawinsky’s Petrushka a performance which was full of wit and joyful music-making: the clarinets sounded with the necessary incisive tones, while the double-basses conveyed the right contrasting deep sound and the trumpets let hear the hero’s call. All these elements came over very spontaneously and with great clarity.
Ronald Zollman handled it all with great understanding for the score and with tremendous flexibility. He managed to get great cohesion from his orchestra of 100 musicians, giving the right impetus throughout the score. Was this the reason for the long ovation from the players’ part? From the hall came a long applause. Myriam Vanneste