“What a great musician! Han-Na Chang captivated us in concert. For her, Orchestre Métropolitain played as if they were on tour at the Carnegie Hall. In fact, they played Shostakovich in the manner Shostakovich should be played: as a matter of life and death. Han-Na Chang seemed to have a concept for the smallest detail.. It is the nature of the sounds, the harmonic saturation, sometimes the ugliness or the voluntary distortion which constituted the framework of this great and cultivated interpretation, an unforgettable Shostakovich.”

“Chang, whose advance instructions are clear even to the average viewer, kept this work in high gear, giving it dramatic dynamics with close instructions to the musicians… she gave the pauses a wide horizon, upping their attention quotient. If it was a dream programme for the Masterworks series, it was also a dream performance of them.”

“Chang had a masterful sound progression with the orchestra who played in a manner I did not know they were capable of. This applies especially to the subtle sounds that they produced, and which were unheard-of before. Or, what about the second half’s Landler (an Austrian dance), which she conducted with a playful elegance and lightness that could put her on the podium of Musikverein in Vienna for the New Year’s Concert. She allowed the musicians to take freely responsibility where appropriate; they appeared not only as competent members of the orchestra, but as independent soloists with their own musical will. At the same time, she held a tough grip among the musicians to involve them in the unfolding of Mahler’s drama.”

‘’It demands great precision and skill of a conductor to make Mahler 2 sound uncomplicated and easy to tackle and it´s abundantly clear to all that Han-Na Chang possesses a body language which demonstrates what she is after. It is nevertheless Han-na Chang and the orchestra that glows strongly. For the entire performance, the conductor has exemplary eye contact with all of those who need it. She knows this music inside out and the musicians reciprocate her enthusiasm. Its obvious that she takes her job very seriously’’.

“Chang conducted without a score and had clearly internalized the music so thoroughly that she was able to bring out nuances that I hadn’t heard before… Tchaikovsky concludes the movement by playing ​“can you top this” with himself multiple times, but she made each big moment feel both necessary and inexorable. The standing ovation that followed the final chords was immediate and entirely justified.”

“With the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, she found the spiritual depth of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. At 33-years-old, Han-Na Chang is simply one of this generation’s most exciting conductors. She shaped Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in a way that gave new insight into one of the most regularly performed orchestral works. She dared to make unexpected choices related to the form of the work, but everything still fitted in very clearly with the meticulously shaped whole.”

“Chang, a diminutive, dynamic firebrand, struck everyone as a natural choice for such an ensemble… If ever a Prom could be described as thrill-a-minute stuff, this was it; the ferocious drive was still present in the hair-raising first movement allegro and the elated finale. But there was also a beautiful, honeyed introspection in the andante, and real finesse and detail in the waltz. It was a hugely enjoyable Prom.”