Christian Reif lauded for his debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Christian Reif made his debut in Baltimore on a program of Henze, Mozart, Strauss and Montgomery

Review: Conductor Christian Reif makes a good guest at Strathmore with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
By Michael Brodeur
The Washington Post
May 6, 2022

It was only moments after German conductor Christian Reif had taken the stage Thursday at Strathmore to lead the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra that things swirled into a bacchanalian tempest of unbridled passion and orgiastic revelry.

Reif dealt “Mänadentanz” like a calling card. Its jagged peaks and tranquil valleys, its pent-up energy and ample opportunities for dynamic drama all offered a forecast of the program to come.

Reif, who late this summer will lead his debut season as inaugural music director of the Lakes Area Music Festival of Minnesota, was an arresting force from the podium, his body snapping like a whip, tightening and softening as though he were loaded with springs. At times the work was entirely a matter of his hands, which banished and beckoned sounds from all around him.

The conductor brought the same variety of expression to Mozart’s Symphony No. 39, a piece so perma-polished it can be hard to tell when it’s being freshened. Reif matched a fluid grace with an architectural sensibility, offering a detail-oriented performance with especially pleasing lightness and clarity across the woodwinds.

Reif’s fondness for Strauss was evident in his inhabitation of the suite’s many moods, from the bellowing entrance to its wild waltzes, which Reif threw himself fully into, indulging their oomph while sharpening their irony.

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