REVIEWS
Rachmaninov / Hallé Orchestra
"Phillips is a dynamic presence on the podium and on tonight's evidence has an uncommon ability to pick up a familiar piece by the scruff its neck and shake invigorating new life into it...
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...Phillips's account was distinguished by a cohesion that kept the dance and symphonic elements of the work in perfect equilibrium"
Bachtrack
Delius / Britten Sinfonia
"Under Jamie Phillips’s direction the Britten Sinfonia played the score sensuously….."
The Times
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"Jamie Phillips’s refined, insightful conducting brought home just how lovely the serenades, nocturnes and choral dances really are, as well as emphasising the passages of hammering ferocity and brooding darkness..."
The Guardian
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"Jamie Phillips and the Britten Sinfonia responded sensitively and warmly"
Classical Source
Vaughan Williams / BBC National Orchestra of Wales
“Jamie Phillips and the orchestra clearly and thoroughly entered into the spirit of the music…
...Phillips never lost sight of the dramatic trajectory of the work. The slowly emerging excitement of the Preludio and the shadowy puppet-show of the Scherzo with its hobgoblin interruptions were given full measure. The string playing was simply glorious all around…
...Phillips set an initial daringly slow speed, and carefully controlled the gradual acceleration towards the overwhelming climax with an impressive sense of majesty.”
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Seen and Heard International
Schubert / Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie
"Jamie Phillips brings his full bodily vitality to the podium. He seems to be pumping his power and energy into the orchestra and it works..."
Neue Westfälische Zeitung
Shostakovich / Württembergische Philharmonie
"...the brilliant way in which the British guest conductor Jamie Phillips and the orchestra interpret the work, with well-chosen tempi, grandiosely staged absurdity in the first movement, and a second movement determined by threatening and plaintive motives..."
Reutlingen General-Anzeige
Korngold, Tchaikovsky / Oxford Philharmonic
"Although the two works programmed in this concert were featured on the basis that fate intervened calamitously in the lives of their composers, the compositions themselves exhibited a thrilling defiance of that, made all the more tangible by the energetic direction of Jamie Phillips on the podium . . ."
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". . . Phillips wisely led a more reticent interpretation of the work [Korngold’s Violin Concerto] so that its more symphonic character came out rather than simply constituting a medley of hit themes from Korngold’s back catalogue of film music."
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". . . this overall taut and high-spirited account of the Symphony [Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5] told greatly in its favour, vindicating Phillips’s ardent vision of it."
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Seen and Heard International
Mozart, Casken, Prokofiev / Hallé Orchestra
"Phillips shaped this performance with clear affection, giving the impression that he was telling the audience a new story and eliciting fine performances from his players . . . Prokofiev uses a huge orchestra and the Bridgewater Hall stage was full. The balance can be tricky but under Phillips’s direction the melodies emerged successfully from the orchestra in the grand first movement."
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Bachtrack
Wagner, R. Strauss / Nash Ensemble
"Most satisfying of all in the performance directed by Jamie Phillips was the unruffled serenity at the opening and close, where time appears to stand still."
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Bachtrack
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
"Phillips led the DvoÅ™ák wonderfully. The conductor greatly emphasised the dynamic and expressive contrasts... Equally attractive, Phillips presented Ravel's ballet Mother Goose. It was colourful, light and graceful, and all the fairy-tale elements were properly underlined... It's good to hear NOSPR in such a good form!"
Klasyczna PÅ‚ytoteka