Eivind Gullberg Jensen

“Alden’s direction finds fruition in Eivind Gullberg Jensen’s ideally buoyant, rhythmically alert, liberated conducting, which has the orchestra scurrying off in nervous flurries of sound and tracing Janàcek’s spasmic ostinatos and pent-up climaxes with lyrical finesse: a sensational house debut for the young Norwegian.” (The Financial Times, March 2009)

“Amanda Roocroft, repeating her previous success as Jenufa, steadily shrivels from a sunny, lighthearted girl to an emotional wreck. As she shudders with grief, on being told of the death of her baby, the tenderness of the score captured by the sympathetic conductor Eivind Gullberg Jensen is heartbreaking.” (Evening Standard, March 2009)

“Eivind Gullberg Jensen conducts with admirable restraint and inexorable momentum. Strong stuff, finely done.” (The Guardian, March 2009)

“Musically, Eivind Gullberg Jensen's ENO debut was a total triumph. The orchestra sounded wonderful, possibly the best I've ever heard them. There was an inevitability to the tempos that made everything flow naturally, and Jensen made the difficult job of balancing solo voices against Janáček's dense orchestrations seem a piece of cake. Never once were singers overwhelmed.” (Intermezzo, March 2009)

“Musically the performance was outstanding. Arguably the most striking musical achievement of the evening was the orchestra, and the way Eivind Gullberg Jensen moulded every phrase. I can hardly remember when I have heard the ENO orchestra sounding so good, both lush, incisive and sensitive to a multitude of nuances. These were wonderfully managed under the ever alert Jensen, who proved himself a worthy member of the line of great Janacek conductors at ENO begun by Charles Mackerrras.” (www.onlinereviewlondon.com, March 2009)