Selected Performance Reviews

"The new principal conductor opened the new season. And he did it in such a way that none of us who were present will forget. Never before has Gustav Mahler sounded like this Odense. Jan Wagner can play Mahler in a way that convinces me that Mahler cannot be heard much better anywhere in this world.  The exceedingly high caliber of Wagner's conducting became apparent in Mahler's 1st Symphony, also known as "Titan". 

Wagner could achieve what only the very great Mahler conductors can, namely tame the enormous forces to pianissimo in such a way that none of the power and none of the tension is lost. He could, so to speak, hold the wild animal with one hand, on a short leash at that, and then occasionally unleash the wild animal with enormous discharges of energy, but always get hold of the leash again. 

The orchestra, which was expanded by a large number of music students from Danish academies of music, played prodigiously well. There was a rare zest, commitment and flexibility. The balance between the sections of the orchestra was subtle. The orchestra functioned on the whole as a homogenous, athletic and well-proportioned body. Jan Wagner took us - his audience - by storm." 

Morgenposten

"Here we saw why he has done so well in competitions. Wagner has an eye for conductor-orientated music and knows his score well; he conducts with determination and power. The result was a rough-hewn and very authoritative interpretation of Gustav Mahler's First Symphony." 

Folke Forsman, Huvudstadsbladet

"Opening with Strauss, the South American proved himself a caring creator, capable of bringing music to life, as he carefully shaped the sound of the large orchestra with his hands. A balanced co-operation between the singer and the orchestra was made possible by the conductors sensitivity, unfolding the stories of Death and the drunken peasant or the Grim Reaper on the battlefield in all their gruesomely eerie beauty. After the interval came Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances - passionately shaped into musical dreams. The audience visibly warmed to this conductor who was able to captivate them so effortlessly." 

OF - Post

"It [Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony] can go terribly wrong for the conductor but I have rarely experienced a performance as controlled and organic as when Jan Wagner conducted the Radio Symphony Orchestra on Thursday. The Symphony was indeed truly symphonic. It was brilliant in every way." 

Jakob Levinsen, Berlingske Tidende

Wagner extracts Halle's best

"A popular programme of music by Grieg, Sibelius, Debussy and Stravinsky - under the baton of the Venezuelan-born, Vienna-trained Jan Wagner - drew superbly disciplined and impassioned playing. Wagner's sensitive phrasing and control of dynamics brought even new dimensions to an orchestra which, throughout this season so far, has been magnificently on top form. With all instrumental colours flying high, a magical account of Stravinsky's Firebird was almost a foregone conclusion." 

Oldham Evening Chronicle

" Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 in F. Rich in rousing material, packed with orchestral interest, distinguished for its clear lines and emotional persuasiveness, it was heard from the Melbourne Symphony three months ago under Andrew Litton: this time around, Jan Wagner brought quite a different interpretation. Wagner emphasized the symphony's majestic authority, right from the opening horn and bassoon fanfare and he kept the latent hysteria of the two outer movements well under control. Instead of giving us a series of spectacular orchestral outbursts, the conductor wove the melodies of the opening two movements into substantial sentences, giving the score a coherence that escapes many among his flashier, attention grabbing peers." 

Clive O'Connell

"Jan Wagner's talent for creating a pliable sound picture from the various shapes and contrasts in the instrumentation came out to the full. Under Jan Wagner's direction, Nielsen's "Inextinguishable" was like a huge buoyant structure - supple and seamless from beginning to end." 

Fyens Stiftstidende

"from the first bar of Bela Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra Jan Wagner showed himself as a great and outstanding talent. It was his music and his composition and it sparkled. The orchestra had no choice but to follow. He is a great conductor, no doubt about it." 

Morgenposten

"Brahms C minor Symphony is great and exciting music but can have a common interpretation. This was not the case with Jan Wagner on the podium. The music unfolded with broad strokes, sensitivity and beauty Wagner had all the power to carry through a consistent expressive interpretation extraordinarily free and charged sound". 

"Jan Wagner demonstrated his greatness and conducted a Sacre that Tivoli is guaranteed never to have heard before .. His precise attacks came like lightning and at the same time Jan Wagner had the capacity to maintain the context and inner surprise in Stravinsky's music .. Jan Wagner, together with fantastic playing from the orchestra, delivered a performance that shows him as one of the truly great conductors." 

Morgenposten

"Jan Wagner conducted the symphony with extraordinary concentration and profound knowledge of the score. The concert was Wagner's through and through. He showed great courage and accomplishment, and it is to be hoped that similar surprises will be in store in the future. With the news that Jan Wagner is to stay in the post until 2002, the Odense Symphoniorkester is at the beginning of one of its best seasons." 

Fyens Stiftstidenede

"Jan Wagner conducted the work with an energy and an intensity, but most importantly, with a sense of architecture which raised the music into the cosmic realm, a realm which only music can describe. As a conductor Jan Wagner has - in my experience - two sides. He either conducts with great fantasy or with straight forward, honest craftsmanship. In the Mahler symphony he was fantastic; all of the music was inside him, and he transmitted this to the players and hence also to us. It is a performance like this that makes one realize that he truly is something special." 

Svend Erik Sørensen Fyens Stiftstidende