Lawrence Renes

"This second programme in the Philharmonic's new season saw conductor Lawrence Renes again in place of Edo de Waart - and standing tall following his direction of Rachmaninov's Second Symphony."

"There were several reasons for logging this performance in the memory bank, mainly the impression it gave of hearing the work for the first time. Coming in, unusually, at well under an hour, Renes wasn't for hanging about with indulgent speeds or living for each goose pimple, his solid overview of each of the four substantial movements requiring a melodic flow that was urgent but never manic." (South China Morning Post, September 2011)

"The Mahler…came off brilliantly. Sitting down to conduct, Renes was a chamber musician among colleagues, and the collective vigour and stylishness of the performance was like a superior account of, say, the Schubert Octet, but much more moving…The symphony, with its extraordinary ending, seemed freshly miraculous." (The Sunday Times, June 2011)

“It was an intelligently crafted and thought-provoking piece — given a fine performance here under the young Dutch conductor Lawrence Renes. And let’s see more of him! In Shostakovich’s massive Eighth Symphony he galvanised the BBC Symphony Orchestra into playing with palpable passion, flamboyance and driving energy." (The Times, April 2010)

“Playing the composer's 1890 revision of [Bruckner’s Eighth] symphony, Renes gave a performance of the monumental piece that brought energy and excitement not only to big, full orchestra moments, but small, delicate passages as well… This is a piece of stark contrasts, in which the soaring sound of the full orchestra often drops quickly to just a few instruments. Renes and the orchestra made those contrasts work with intense, interesting music-making in the piece's smallest moments, as well as in the grandest. Crescendos, often stretched over repeated phrases, and artful pauses, just the right length to let the previous chord decay in the hall while maintaining energy, were both part of this fascinating interpretation.” (Journal Sentinel, November 2009)

“No praise can be too high for the chorus work, still more that of the orchestra which, under Lawrence Renes, is forever powering towards, in Oppenheimer’s words “a brilliant luminescence”, trumpet-topped and grimly magnificent.” (The Independent, February 2009)

“Chris Alexander and Lawrence Renes, then, had much going in their favour. But they must still be warmly congratulated for welding their constituent elements into one of the most comprehensively moving and beautiful opera productions that I can remember experiencing.” (Seattle Times, October 2008)