December 7, 2024
Munich Philharmonic, Munich Isarphilharmonie
“Nathalie Stutzmann, the celebrated “Tannhäuser” conductor in Bayreuth , also made her very close relationship to Wagner clear in this small work [Siegfried Idyll] – compared to the operas. With a captivating sound, perfectly heard transitions, exciting and gesture-rich climaxes and changes. Stutzmann had a large cast play as if for an opera, but she always maintained her tonal composure, nothing was noisy or overly pointed. Her plastic sound modeling almost gave you the feeling that you were actually listening to an opera. That was really extraordinary and inspiring. Even with this comparatively small Wagner work, Stutzmann made it unmistakably clear once again that she is currently one of the best Wagner conductors.”
BR-Klassik
“Orchestral brilliance thanks to a great conductor”
Süddeutsche Zeitung
November 22, 2024
Zürich Tonhalle-Orchester, Zürich Tonhalle
“Nathalie Stutzmann brought greetings from Bayreuth with the opening Tannhäuser Overture. The Tonhalle Orchestra was clearly infected by the conductor’s Wagner experience and delivered a brilliant interpretation. Stutzmann brought out the two contrasting layers of the overture, which refer to the basic theme of Tannhäuser, with great clarity. Equally impressive was the attention she paid to the secondary voices as well as the main voices.
The conductor was also in her element in the concluding Symphony No. 5 in E minor by Tchaikovsky. In terms of conducting technique, she had her musicians fully under control, and with her emotionality, she always steered the orchestra where she wanted it to go. At times, you even forgot that you were “only” dealing with a guest conductor that evening. As with the overture, this symphony was also characterized by a sovereign leadership in the large-scale formal aspects.
This was evident, for example, in the way the conductor allowed the famous fate motif to have a different effect on the instrumental progression in each movement. Secondly, she shaped the entire symphony as a dramatic progression by constantly unleashing the forces within the movements and then throttling them back again. The large-scale formal overview also included Stutzmann taking the third movement, the Valse, as a light-footed recovery piece à la Mendelssohn, only to then celebrate the finale, in which the fate motif appears as a grandiose major theme, as a dazzling triumph. The chemistry between the conductor and the orchestra seemed to be absolutely right, as the musicians outdid each other in the solos and ensembles with top performances. Standing ovations from the audience, not an everyday occurrence in the Tonhalle, were the result.”
Bachtrack
July 24-August 27, 2024
Wagner Festival, Bayreuth / Wagner's Tannhäuser and open-air concert
“Nathalie Stutzmann conducts with a genius that makes the music irresistible: The orchestra sings in soft, sweeping, yet very sensibly articulated phrases. One hears the concert in the festival park, where Stutzmann conducted the prelude to ‘Rienzi,’ showing the great admiration that Wagner had for Vincenzo Bellini. Stutzmann brings completely different, stirring ‘Italian’ undertones to Wagner, causing it to tremble and resonate. For the ‘Rienzi’ in Bayreuth 2026, she is the ideal conductor.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine
“But the absolute triumph of this Tannhäuser is our great French conductor Nathalie Stutzmann, who has the Bayreuth audience on the edge of their seats! With her impetuous romanticism and constant sensuality, she displays her eloquence in these waves of furiously unrolled strings, in these blazes of brass and woodwinds, in this subtle agogique that allows her to color one page, to shade another, knowing how to underline these muffled rhythms or these fascinating creepings of bassoons, oboes, English horns, all these instruments that she knows how to illuminate while preserving this sense of the music’s dramaturgical unity. Great art! She’ll be conducting the rare Rienzi here in 2026 – but it’s in Tristan or the Ring that we’re waiting for her, that we hope for her…”
Die Welt
“Nathalie Stutzmann’s conducting of this attractive score was magisterial, and the orchestra responded well to subtleties with elan. The haunting opening notes of the overture drew us immediately into the illusion, casting a spell that didn’t disappear until the rapturous applause brought everyone back into the real world. The musicianship was first class (…).”
Yorkshire Times
“Stutzmann’s conducting, already gifted last year, has won once again.”
Oper Magazine
“The triumphant last performance took place in 2023 under the debut conductor Nathalie Stutzmann. She also conducted the surprisingly scheduled revival (…). Nathalie Stutzmann is a bassoonist by training and has a great singing career behind her, in her first life as a contralto. The festival orchestra team, especially the singers, obviously benefit from this experience. Stutzmann’s reading of “Tannhäuser” unfolds like clockwork, so naturally light and fluid that there is only one word to describe it: Perfection. One is amazed at how bel canto-like this “Tannhäuser” can sound and how finely graded the spectrum of colors is, creating an almost Mediterranean aroma. Next, Stutzmann is to tackle another early work by Richard Wagner for Bayreuth, which, according to the Bayreuth statutes, was previously excluded from the canon of major works: “Rienzi”. We are already looking forward to that.”
Klassik.com
“Hearing the orchestra of the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth perform the overtures to The White Lady and Carmen has a delicious and somewhat surreal quality (…). Under Stutzmann’s vivacious baton, the orchestra is absolutely perfect, demonstrating a lightness, suppleness and liveliness not often seen in its usual repertoire. (…) The scherzo of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony no. 7 offers an impressive build-up of tension, further testimony to Stutzmann’s versatility. (…) Finally, the evening closes with the prelude to Parsifal: here again, we sense that Stutzmann has a lot to tell us in this work, and the conductor impresses with the diversity of the repertoires she defends with talent.”
Forum Opéra
“But the absolute triumph of this Tannhäuser is our great French conductor Nathalie Stutzmann, who has the Bayreuth audience on the edge of their seats! With her impetuous romanticism and constant sensuality, she displays her eloquence in these waves of furiously unrolled strings, in these blazes of brass and woodwinds, in this subtle agogique that allows her to color one page, to shade another, knowing how to underline these muffled rhythms or these fascinating creepings of bassoons, oboes, English horns, all these instruments that she knows how to illuminate while preserving this sense of the music’s dramaturgical unity. Great art! She’ll be conducting the rare Rienzi here in 2026 – but it’s in Tristan or the Ring that we’re waiting for her, that we hope for her…”
Opera Online
“Nathalie Stutzmann is already the third conductor of the production and only the second woman to conduct at the Bayreuth Festival. As was the case last year, she impressed with a mature interpretation. As an orchestra conductor who enjoys conducting the huge romantic works, she is well equipped to deal with the festival orchestra. The overtures and the entrance of the guests at the Wartburg show a multilayered and dramatically oriented design of the instrumental layer. As a former singer, Stutzmann also succeeds in coordinating the sounds from the pit perfectly with the singing on the stage, leading the singers and yet allowing them their freedom.”
Bachtrack
June 18, 2024
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Woodruff Arts Center
“Stutzmann is giving the orchestra the shot in the arm it needs to reach new dynamic heights. This is a new orchestra, one imbued with a youthful vigor it hasn’t had in years. What was a fitting close for this season was also a promise of even greater things to come.”
ArtsATL
May 17-26, 2024
Teatro Regio, Torino / Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer
“The Impetuous Wagner Holländer of Nathalie Stutzmann
Undoubtedly, she is the star of the show (…). Her conducting was impetuous, passionate, and flawless. Total harmony pervaded the hall, a perfect fusion of voices and orchestra guiding the spectators to a peaceful place of the soul.”
La Stampa
March 1, 2024
The Philadelphia Orchestra, Philadelphia Kimmel Center
“A Beethoven buffet from Nathalie Stutzmann and The Philadelphia Orchestra
As she has done so often throughout her time as Philadelphia’s second-in-command, she offered a shot in the arm to the most recognizable music, balancing an artist’s attention to detail with a showman’s sense of big-picture grandeur. (…)
In Stutzmann’s hands, you never wanted it to end.”
Bachtrack
February 12, 2024
London Symphony Orchestra, London Barbican Center
“Nathalie Stutzmann underlined [Bruckner’s] Ninth’s many points of correlation with the previous eight numbered symphonies, as a fitting albeit incomplete culmination to his life’s work. The performance confirmed her intuitive gifts as a Brucknerian, three days after she and the London Symphony Orchestra had given a no less illuminating and unselfconsciously distinctive account of the Seventh.”
Bachtrack
“The London Symphony Orchestra under Nathalie Stutzmann give an exemplary performance of Bruckner’s last symphony. (…)
On Sunday evening, the LSO under Nathalie Stutzmann – along with London Symphony Chorus and soloists Lucy Crowe, Anna Stéphany, Robin Tritschler and Alexander Tsymbalyuk – not only made the attempt, but planted a flag on the summit. (…) Stutzmann and the LSO demonstrated a consummate understanding of all this in their account, presenting the whirl of the composer’s thematic utterances with clarity, verve, and a relentless attention to the dynamic, speed and timbre that marks each one out.”
musicOMH
January 22, 2024
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Woodruff Arts Center
“When all the elements of [Bruckner’s] Symphony No. 9 are balanced and in place, the experience is nothing less than transcendental. (…) This was Stutzmann at her best, taking apart a familiar piece of music and carefully reassembling the bits into a fresh new whole.”
ArtsATL