News

Nathalie Stutzmann is awarded Opus Klassik 2023 “Concert Recording of the year” with Xavier de Maistre and WDR Sinfonieorchester for their recording of Mosolov and Glière’s harp concertos, released in September 2022 on Sony Classical. The award ceremony will take place at Konzerthaus Berlin on 8 October 2023.

Critics are praising Nathalie’s performances at The Metropolitan Opera in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte!

“Stutzmann is making a splashy Met debut” The New York Times
“Nathalie Stutzmann in an impressive Met debut makes Don Giovanni a must-see” Observer
“Conductor Nathalie Stutzmann made her Met debut in a musically excellent Don Giovanni” Financial Times
“The great winner of the evening is undoubtedly Nathalie Stutzmann” Forum Opéra
“Nathalie Stutzmann was as much the star of the show as Mattei” Music OMH
“A great overall musical performance opening night, one of the best one has heard in this opera” New York Classical Review
“Hurrah for Stutzmann’s debut” Broadway World
“Nathalie Stutzmann delivered [in Die Zauberflöte] another tremendous performance from the pit” Operawire
“Stutzmann conducted this opera’s magical score with brisk but flexible tempi and the Met Orchestra musicians responded superbly” Bachtrack
“Stutzmann literally and figuratively gave the performance the right tone. Her debut at the Met as a conductor is impressive” Place de l’Opera
“She should get a medal for making auteurs sound as good as they do” Vulture

See the full press reviews at this link.

Photo: Jonathan Tichler / Met Opera

Nathalie Stutzmann’s first recording as Principal Guest Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, featuring pianist Haochen Zhang in Beethoven’s complete Piano Concertos, is released today under BIS Records:

“Together, Zhang and Stutzmann’s Beethoven is at once stylistically assured and not quite like any other. (…) one might well ask what we’ve done to deserve yet another brilliant collaboration in the Beethoven concertos. Yet Zhang/Stutzmann/Philadelphia is precisely that, and I urge you to not miss it.”
Gramophone

“The Philadelphia Orchestra’s playing is also uniformly excellent. Listen to how beautifully Stutzmann shapes the opening exposition of the first concerto, distilling an atmosphere of excited expectation. Zhang’s perfectly realizes Beethoven’s unexpectedly genial response, though the ease with which he tosses off the following deluge of rapid passagework is mightily impressive. The entire movement has a lightness that sounds fresh and newly minted. The slow movement has more introverted, played with a beguiling lyricism by Zheng and the orchestra, while the final movement returns us to the playful high spirits of the first. A similar joy de vivre is found in the second concerto, and both performances are definite highlights of the set.”
The Classical Review

“To both honor the score and imbue it with individuality and a genuine point of view is no easy task, yet Zhang’s enlivening pianism and Stutzmann’s stimulating leadership work wonders throughout these reference-worthy performances. Enthusiastically recommended.”
Classics Today

« Et c’est là que le travail, stupéfiant de clarté et de rigueur, de Nathalie Stutzmann exprime toute sa valeur. Parce qu’au-delà d’un ordonnancement (un peu difficile au départ) implacable de l’action, il explose littéralement dans l’émotion que dégage son orchestre, apportant un vécu irrépressible aux émois des protagonistes. Une fascination qui culmine somptueusement dans l’immense crescendo final. Parvenir à dire tant de choses en si peu de temps et après tant d’action dans les heures qui précèdent, tient du prodige. »

“The amazingly clear and rigorous work of Nathalie Stutzmann expresses here all its value. Because beyond the (initially somewhat difficult) implacable ordering of the action, it literally explodes in the emotion her orchestra gives off, bringing an irrepressible experience to the protagonists’ emotions. A fascination that culminates sumptuously in the huge final crescendo. To be able to say so much in so little time and after so much action in the preceding hours is a prodigy.”

Serge Matin, Le Soir

« La cheffe française Nathalie Stutzmann fait d’éblouissants débuts à la Monnaie de Bruxelles, dans cette “Dame de Pique” à la réalisation musicale soignée.
Nathalie Stutzmann conjugue légèreté et profondeur, théâtralise les solos instrumentaux, s’amuse du pastiche mozartien du deuxième acte, et tire de l’orchestre une grande variété de couleurs et de nuances. On tire son chapeau d’autant plus bas que le metteur en scène a compliqué sa tâche, en installant sur scène un pianiste qui joue parfois des arrangements non prévus par Tchaïkovski. »

“The French conductor Nathalie Stutzmann makes a dazzling debut at La Monnaie in Brussels in a musically meticulously crafted “Queen of Spades”.
Nathalie Stutzmann combines lightness and depth, dramatizes the instrumental solos, plays with the Mozartian pastiche of the second act, and draws a wide variety of colors and shades from the orchestra. We take our hats off all the more low that the director has complicated his task, by installing on stage a pianist who sometimes plays arrangements not planned by Tchaikovsky.”

Sophie Bourdais, Télérama

« Nathalie Stutzmann électrise La Dame de pique
Nathalie Stutzmann pétrit une pâte sonore d’une irrésistible puissance, soulève les tempêtes, fait passer sur les trois actes le grand vent des passions que la mise en scène s’emploie à éteindre. C’est là sans aucun doute la plus incontestable victoire de la soirée – et une nouvelle étape dans l’ascension d’une cheffe que rien ne semble pouvoir arrêter. »

“Nathalie Stutzmann electrifies The Queen of Spades
Nathalie Stutzmann shapes a sound of irresistible power, stirs up storms, blows over the three acts the great wind of passions that the staging strives to extinguish. This is undoubtedly the absolute victory of the evening – and a new step in the rise of a conductor that nothing seems to stop.”

Emmanuel Dupuy, Diapason

See the full press review of Pikovaya Dama at this link.

Nathalie Stutzmann will make her Bayreuth Festival debut in 2023 leading a production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser, an opera she already performed in 2017 at Monte-Carlo opera to great critical acclaim. She will be the second woman in history on the podium of the Bayreuth Theater.