Press articles

"Preu, Spokane Symphony explore Mozart's range of emotions"
   Travis Rivers (The Spokesman Review), 3/21/2011

"Mozart rules! That was the Spokane Symphony's message in a dramatic performance of an all-Mozart program Saturday night at The Fox.

Conductor Eckart Preu opened the concert with the overture to “Don Giovanni,” a work the conductor described as his personal favorite among Mozart's operas. Preu's deliberate pacing of the three powerful chords that open the overture allowed the subsequent drama to unfold with increasing tension. Overtures are often simple throwaways in a concert setting. Not this time." continue »

"Guest leads PSO to heavenly peaks"
   Christopher Hyde (Portland Press Herald), 3/10/2011

"Eckart Preu is one of the finest guest conductors to lead the Portland Symphony Orchestra in recent memory, as witnessed by two standing ovations from a capacity crowd at Merrill Auditorium on Tuesday." continue »

"MSO takes lively foray into underworld"
   Jon W. Sparks (The Commercial Appeal), 2/21/2011

"The Memphis Symphony Orchestra has gone to hell.

And it's all good.

Saturday night's Masterworks concert at The Cannon Center for the Performing Arts was a splendid tour of the underworld viewed through the musical minds of Stravinsky, Offenbach and Miguel del Aguila.

The concert, themed "Firebird & the Infernal Dance," was a lively foray led by guest conductor Eckart Preu, who brought energy and wit to one of the MSO's most consistent and satisfying outings.
" continue »

"Piano mastery makes Chopin concerto transcendent"
   Travis Rivers (The Spokesman Review), 2/14/2011

"Pianists with dazzling technique grow thick on the ground. But pianists who combine technical glitter with an ability to make the instrument sing with the tonal colors of a great vocalist are rare. The Spokane Symphony had just such a soloist for its concerts this weekend at The Fox." continue »

"In performance: Fairfax Symphony"
   Joan Reinthaler (Washington Post), 11/22/2010

"For a number of years, the Fairfax Symphony has been functioning comfortably at the perfectly acceptable level of many other competent county and small city orchestras. With its Saturday performance of John Adams's Violin Concerto at George Mason University's Center for the Arts, however, it moved up a notch." continue »

"Stamford Symphony delivers scintillating performance"
   Jeffrey Johnson (newstime.com), 11/19/2010

"In a performance that sizzled and sparkled, the Stamford Symphony continued its 2010-11 season with a program of music by Ligeti, Chopin and Schumann.

"Fear not," said conductor Eckart Preu from the stage just before conducting the Ligeti, "this is an early piece." He described the work, which is a delicious sound world very rarely played, as being inspired by two memories from Ligeti's childhood." continue »

"Eckart Preu - In the vanguard of a new generation"
   Arden Anderson-Broecking (Darien News), 10/26/2010

"Recently, I had the pleasure of a conversation with Maestro Eckart Preu, conductor of the Stamford Symphony since 2005, Maestro Preu is one of a new generation of expressive conductors, one which believes in presenting a wide variety of musical style and periods, and who believe that outreach and audience development and support from all directions are all factors essential to the preservation of classical music. " continue »

"Symphony soloists heighten powerful evening"
   Travis Rivers (The Spokesman Review), 10/25/2010

"The Spokane Symphony provided its large audience Saturday at The Fox with a long, intense evening of music-making, with gripping performances of powerful works by Johannes Brahms and Bohuslav Martinu leavened by the charm of Antonin Dvorák." continue »

"Stamford symphony opens season with inspired performance"
   Jeffrey Johnson (The Advocate), 10/22/2010

"The Stamford Symphony opened it's 2010-11 season with a program of music by Prokofiev, Brahms and Beethoven.

The jewel of this concert was a razor-sharp performance of the famous fifth symphony by Beethoven on the second half of the program." continue »

"Whats Playing? - Stamford Symphony opening concert"
   (The Advocate), 10/20/2010

"First, thanks to Eckart Preu and the Stamford Symphony for opening their first weekend of concerts with "The Star-Spangled Banner." It was lustily sung by the large audience and lustily applauded." continue »