NathalieStutzmann

Press

• Boston Symphony Orchestra debut

  Symphony Hall Boston

  Feb 2025

  • Stravinsky's 1919 Suite from The Firebird provided a stunning mix of focused, quiet intensity and pummeling energy. It's songful moments beguiled: the various solos in “The Princesses’ Round Dance” were enchanting, the “Lullaby” was beautifully shaped, and the noble melodic lines of the “Finale” soared. At the same time, its vigorous spots—be they light-footed (“The Firebird and its Dance”) or slashing (“Infernal Dance”)—were both thrillingly full-bodied and precisely balanced.

    • Boston Classical Review
    • 07 February 2025

  • To watch Stutzmann is to experience in Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso a canvas drawn before your own eyes in Mediterranean colors, flamenco outlines, jocular play, sensual signaling, all unveiled by way of an orchestra that seems to be able to do just about everything.

    • Classical Scene
    • 07 February 2025

• New York Philharmonic debut

  David GeffenHall

  Jan 2025

  • ...crystal-clear in her intentions, the French singer turned conductor sustained a performance of Maazel’s artfully stitched score that swept the listener along in an uninterrupted flow of music, so that when the last chord died away one could hardly believe 75 minutes had passed.

    • New York Classical Review
    • 17 January 2025

• Dvorak: Symphony no. 9

  Warner Classics recording

  Aug 2024

  • This bold, punchy account of the New World, captured live in a pair of concerts, grips like a great concert performance should.

    • Gramophone
    • 17 September 2024

  • Stutzmann has no trouble teasing out the sweeping lyricism of the Largo or tapping into the folksy lilt of the Scherzo's Trio.

    • Artsfuse
    • 02 November 2024

• Metropolitan Opera debut

  New York

  Jun 2023

  • Stutzmann, the music director of the Atlanta Symphony orchestra, is making a splashy Met debut (...). The orchestra sounded polished for her, weighty without being too heavy, the winds beautifully present in the textures from the overture on, the singers never covered. There was no sense of rushing as a lazy way of conveying liveliness, but neither was the tenderness ever bogged down.

    • The New York Times
    • 07 May 2023

  • In the pit, Nathalie Stutzmann put on a fine display in the first of two Mozart operas that she will essentially author this month. (…) Throughout the night, Stutzmann’s interpretation was on point. This orchestral texturing remained consistent throughout, always beautifully intertwined with the singers. This push-pull connection that was so plain to see in the staging was similarly felt in the music-making with the singers given ample space to add ornamentation in arias and even expand recitative passages.

    • Operawire
    • 06 May 2023

  • Stutzmann was game for anything that McBurney threw her way, but the score emerged in all of its beauty and brilliance. The spoken dialogue was amplified throughout the house, but the singing was not. Stutzmann got the balance just right, as she did between orchestra and singer... As in Don Giovanni, which Stutzmann is also conducting at the Met this month, she intuitively knows how to showcase a singer to their best advantage.

    • New York Classical Review
    • 23 May 2023

  • A splendid cast led by Nathalie Stutzmann in an impressive Met debut makes Don Giovanni a must-see... Stutzmann’s striking command of the musical side reveals an exciting new opera maestro... From the first thundering chord of the overture, her orchestra responds with exceptional precision and transparency—particularly the winds.

    • The Observer
    • 05 May 2023

• London Symphony Orchestra

  Barbican Centre, London

  Jan 2022

  • Stutzmann’s conducting is fascinating. As a singer she thinks in long musical phrases and of controlling the breath accordingly and this is replicated in her conducting style – her left hand is extraordinarily expressive in its indications of dynamic precision and minute changes of pace. The Ravel was full of airy textures and all the Baroque and Classical allusions were deftly coloured in by the players. The same was true of the Tchaikovsky, taken at a brisk lick throughout, with a refreshing lack of over-romanticisation and great subtlety at times. Stunning playing by all the principals. It felt like viewing a beloved painting after a very thorough and precise renovation process – familiar and yet with colours seemingly intensified – and therein lay the emotion.

    • Classical Source
    • 27 January 2022

• Verdi, Tchaikovsky

  Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

  Oct 2021

  • The most elegant and articulate words fail to do justice to Stutzmann’s performance. She is a consummate rock star on the podium. With her precise, yet large and wild articulations, she doesn’t “conduct” so much as she seizes the full potential of every note and wrenches it loose from the silence that preceded it. The boon of that fiery summons was evident throughout the orchestra, with each section finding a new depth and life in its sound." "If last night’s performance was any indication, she will guide the ASO to new heights, revitalize its sound and recast it from a respectable purveyor of the classics to a formidable force to be reckoned with.

    • Artsatl
    • 14 October 2021

• Bamberg Symphoniker

  Konzerthalle Bamberg

  Dec 2019

  • "Nathalie Stutzmann, Dirigentin ebenso wie Sängerin, gelang die perfekte Verschmelzung poetischer und gefühlvoller Momente mit markanten, hoch eruptiven Passagen. So viel Kraft und feinfühlige Eleganz, so starke Werkverinnerlichung und Gestaltungssouveränität gingen von ihr aus!"

    • Main Post
    • 01 January 2020

• BBC Proms

  Royal Albert Hall

  Aug 2019

  • The sheer elegance she brings to her formidable technique, the effortless drive towards making much of the music she conducts sound so passionate and the ability to shock us into hearing something quite new in music we think we know is really rather refreshing.

    • Opera Today
    • 08 August 2019