Music Director Osmo Vänskä joined the Minnesota Orchestra in September 2003. In his debut season, Vänskä led the Orchestra on an acclaimed European Tour, and his second season saw the release of an all-Beethoven disc, part of an initiative to record the entire Beethoven symphonies for the BIS label. Below are excerpts of what the critics are saying about Vänskä's work in Minnesota and as a guest conductor.

New Yorker Magazine

BEETHOVEN SYMPHONIES NO. 4 AND 5 CD

"Fiery, elegant, bristling with character-this is impressive Beethoven.... The Minnesota Orchestra are extraordinarily proficient: fleet-footed and articulate…"

"…the whole orchestra shines in majestic joy without appearing at all self-important. This is something that Mr. Vanska excels at over and over here: creating a sense of impending event, then delivering even more than he promised…."

"Here is the modern Beethoven recording par excellence…"
More Beethoven CD Reviews


GUEST CONDUCTING

"It was, bar none, the finest and most interesting performance of this music [Sibelius's Symphony No. 5] I've heard: Whole sections took on hitherto unsuspected qualities, as though Vänskä were mining new elements... This was one of the NSO's best concerts of the year."

"And how the LPO warmed to him! This was clearly a meticulously prepared performance: nothing taken for granted... and, above all, a sense of infinite time and space for steadily paced, spare and beautifully placed details."

WITH THE MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA

"Osmo Vänskä … took over the Minnesota Orchestra this fall convinced that it had the makings of a topflight international ensemble. The blazing, incisive and risk-taking performance from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet ballet score … offered clear evidence that he is getting results."

"The Minnesota Orchestra and its new music director, Osmo Vänskä, really do deserve each other."

"One knows many orchestras from the United States that number among the world's elite. And just in case people here in our country don't yet know it: The Minnesota Orchestra belongs among them."

"Vänskä has brought into question the old quality standards of the American 'Top Five.' At least in its Musikverein concert … the Minnesota left no doubt that it belongs in the first league."

"They triumphed in a concert that had Berlin's pampered and sophisticated audience constraining its effusive joy over such resplendent music-making. This concert alone amply sufficed to put the Minnesota Orchestra on Berlin's musical map, and in a secure place. As for its new conductor … Lucky Minnesotans! Lucky Minnesota!"

"Good news that Vänskä is to record the Beethoven symphonies in Minnesota for BIS. On the evidence of this and several other fine Beethoven performances Vänskä has given in London during recent years, this should be one cycle worth waiting for."

"Minnesota Orchestra fits Osmo Vänskä like a glove."

"In his Minnesota troops, Osmo Vänskä has a real band on his hands, an orchestra with—almost despite the phenomenal balance, clarity and articulation of the string section—a lean, wiry, fibrous and muscular quality … Frankly, I could have listened to this lot all night."

"The elite American orchestra, which has an admittedly smooth fundamental sound … proved itself a flexible and responsive ensemble with a high quality of brilliance."

"The BBC Symphony so often plays in a lackluster way, it's a pleasant surprise that under the right conductor it can be a fine orchestra. Standards were certainly higher than usual with Osmo Vänskä … this concert was hugely encouraging, for he is a conductor of outstanding quality, who imprints real character on everything he tackles."

"The Sibelius, unsurprisingly, brought out the best in Vänskä, as he, in turn, encouraged the players of the BBC Symphony to play with an energy, a force and a commitment that presented them at their best. In all, a superb Prom and a highlight of the season so far."

"Osmo Vänskä, music director of the Minnesota Orchestra, took the podium Friday evening at the Aspen Music Festival … one of the memorable conducting jobs of the summer. It was an amazing performance, especially considering that the chamber symphony is made up of students, with a few professionals in the principal positions. Vänskä had them all playing at the peak of their abilities and perhaps beyond."

"Osmo Vänskä's first season at the helm of the Minnesota Orchestra has been a major success: a series of performances never less than interesting and quite often revelatory, whether in new repertoire or old, all this buoyed by what looks to be an increasingly close and trusting relationship with an orchestra that has played all season at the very top of its form."

"The recent appointment of Osmo Vänskä to lead the world-class Minnesota Orchestra is a sign of the times: he's a meticulous and uncompromising interpreter whose collegial manner with his musicians is informed by years of experience as an orchestral player."

"At his best, Osmo Vänskä has the ability to enter a composer's world with his entire being. If he can take his new orchestra and audience with him, his appointment could prove a memorable match."

"His performance of Carl Nielsen's eruptive Fifth Symphony … did much to confirm what earlier experience suggested, that Mr. Vänskä is indeed a master of Scandinavian music … This is unquestionably a conductor to watch."

"He's especially sensitive to dynamics and the role they play in creating drama … the Sibelius was revelatory. Vänskä restored the authentic Sibelian element of wildness, the beauty and terror of nature, and the awe that nature inspires in humankind. Vänskä has real imagination, real understanding."

"Vänskä got everything he asked for: resplendent brass, confident in high volume, and full–voiced yet agile strings… The National Symphony Orchestra was one glorious orchestra … He owns a set of keys that unlock the greatness in the NSO."