Daniele Rustioni makes a successful debut at Carnegie Hall with Met Orchestra

Rustioni brings dramatic impact, sonic splender to Met Orchestra concert “…Rustioni will be leading Verdi’s Falstaff at the Metropolitan Opera in March. Youthful, lithe, and athletic, the Milan-born conductor is a captivating presence on the podium. He brought excitement, as well as finesse, to the music and the Met Orchestra sounded fantastic on the stage of Carnegie Hall under his baton. …Rustioni led a performance [Bartok Concerto for Orchestra] that emphasized the prevailing pensive quality of the score. He was enabled in these efforts by the gossamer-like playing of the strings. Solo turns were deftly executed and the fugue in the Finale was etched to perfection. But was the shimmering sounds of the violins and violas hanging over the orchestra like a cloud that seemed to suspend time. …In this performance [The Firebird Suite 1919] Rustioni leaned as heavily on Stravinsky’s debt to earlier Russian composers, as he did to the young composer’s innovative genius. The brilliant colors that Rustioni summoned from the orchestra instantly called to mind the music of his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov, but there were other flashbacks as well. The great slashes of brass in the finale summoned “The Great Gate of Kiev” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. It was an exhilarating performance.“The “Dance of the Firebird” and the feverish “Infernal Dance of King Kashchei” were extravagant displays of exotic colors and rhythms. In closing measures of the ‘Berceuse”, Rustioni crouched low to achieve the most shimmering of pianissimi. The attacca that followed caused people to jump out of their seats. Among the sonic splendors, however, the solo turns in the woodwinds and brass stood out. They are always wonderful at the Met, but there was a vibrancy to their sounds that had nothing to do with volume, but more the acoustical vibrancy that comes from being center stage at Carnegie Hall.” New York Classical Review, Rick Perdian

The Met orchestra, onstage “…Under Maestro Rustioni’s baton, the Met orchestra was beautiful, rounded, elegant. …Rustioni made a fine partner in the Mussorgsky, paying close attention to his singer, as opera conductors are perhaps more accustomed to doing than conductors without that experience. In “The Field Marshal”—the final song of the set—the Met orchestra demonstrated an elegant savagery. The evening concluded with a suite from Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird. Maestro Rustioni is consistent… Like the Concerto for Orchestra, the Firebird suite was beautiful, suave, intelligent. …“ The New Criterion, Jay Nordlinger