reviews : home to mckeich.net
Stroma Players start Festival with a Stunner:
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht…Conductor Hamish McKeich commanded
a long, expectant silence…..Superb scenesetting……….
Lindis Taylor, Evening Post
“....sparkling, entertaining Mozart from New Zealander Hamish McKeich.”
Het Parool, Nederland
"An Ovation for Hamish"
Headline, New Zealand Listener, 2004
“McKeich........gave an intense and expressive performance........”
NRC Handelsblad,Rotterdam
"The fluency and confidence of the Stroma players was very much in evidence, aided by Hamish McKeich's skilful and sympathetic direction."
"McKeich took a more organic approach, occasionally stopping to pull the loose strands together, but allowing the players plenty of room to shape their lines by instinct, or within the context of the whole."
"Throughout, conductor Hamish McKeich encouraged his players with a mixture of specific direction and osmotic repetition, unerringly building the structure phrase by phrase, episode by episode. His grasp of the work's overall shape was evident throughout the work's presentation performance at the day's end, so that the volatile and explosive encounters between incident and stasis that grew from the music's deeply-dreamt origins reached their fruition."
Peter Mechen, NZ Music Reviews
"The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra played well for Hamish McKeich, it's
associate conductor"
Dominion Post, NZ, 2006
More Reviews
Difficult Challenge met and Overcome
Xenakis: Waarg, Thallein, and Naama……..Stroma, under their
conductor Hamish McKeich, performed these difficult, complex works superbly,
with utter conviction……
Lindis Taylor, Evening Post
Ligeti: Chamber Concerto. (1970) ….Under the direction of conductor
Hamish McKeich, STROMA achieved an evocative nuance of colour and a rich
yet sensitively balanced, carefully controlled dynamic…..
Music
in New Zealand
……Conductor Hamish McKeich superintended the close weaving
of LIGETI’S
aurally bewitching micro-textures………
Alan Wells, NZ
Listener
Dorothy Ker: Darkness and Light: ….Throughout, conductor, Hamish
McKeich
encouraged his players…….. unerringly building the structure
phrase by phrase, episode by episode. His grasp of the work’s overall
shape was evident throughout……
New Zealand Music News at SOUNZ: …….February 2005
Hamish
McKeich and the players of the NZSO once again showed the excellence of
their musicianship rising superbly to the various challenges presented…..What
a pleasure it was throughout these readings to experience the work of the
orchestra and conductor Hamish McKeich
New Zealand Music News at SOUNZ: ……..November 2005
Hamish McKeich was again the conductor for the readings, having done so
splendid a job with the music at previous sessions…….A
successful ninth session of NZSO-SOUNZ readings…..the players
full-blooded response to the six new scores rehearsed and presented with
conductor Hamish McKeich.
Kit Powell: Rothko Variations….Hamish McKeich and the NZSO players
generated considerable intensity…..the piece was honed by the conductor
and players….Tribute was paid to the work done….by conductor
Hamish McKeich, praise which was heartily endorsed by all present……
Peter Mechen Online New Zealand Music Reviews
Celebrating New Zealand Music Month 2006….Hamish McKeich, well
known as a conductor and performer familiar with New Zealand works, conducted
the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra…..The Melbourne Age said that John
Psathas’ Saxophone Concerto was given a “blistering performance”……
Music in New Zealand
Capital Times: Music Reviews: Made in New Zealand NZSO 30 May 2007
Conductor: Hamish McKeich, Soloists – Nathan Haines (Saxophone) Ron
Samson (drums)…reviewed by Garth Wilshire….Eve de Castro
Robinson: ‘These Arms to Hold You’…an excellent performance
from soloists, the NZSO and conductor Hamish McKeich…..