English National Opera / Olga Neuwirth’s Lost Highway
"... the performance, marking the start of this month's ENO-Young Vic collaboration, can hardly be faulted. The conductor Baldur Brönnimann controls the mix of live and electronically processed music seamlessly, just as the director Diane Paulus marshals the stage and video action in a slick production."
The Sunday Times, 13 April 2008
"So what of the score? Shreds of Carissimi slide languidly into half-heard lines from a Broadway standard, a Purcellian dying fall, Mahleresque cadences, generic jazz riffs from trumpet and sax, a yawn of slide guitar, skeletal stirrings of percussion, a sudden conflagration of knotted, humid bass, a pregnant wash of ambivalent, green-blue chords. In appropriating other people's songs, Neuwirth is backgrounding herself, but the minutely wrought joins and merges of live and recorded sound are themselves often mesmerising and were, under conductor Baldur Brönnimann and sound-designer Markus Noisternig, immaculately dovetailed."
Independent on Sunday, 13 April 2008
"The music perfectly catches the mood of the original film. In fact, "Lost Highway" is so faithful to Lynch's original ... that one wonders if it would not have been more practical to just to show the film and have it accompanied by this wonderful orchestration (consummately handled by conductor Baldur Brönnimann and his 24-piece orchestra)."
Time Out, 10 April 2008
"Supplemented with guitar, accordion and pre-recorded audio feeds, the orchestra under the direction of Baldur Brönnimann, proves highly adept in producing the teeming, wheezy sounds of urban malaise, now and then stumbling woozily into distorted snatches of popular song before whirling back into the aural world of blood-steeped nighmare."
The London Paper, 9 April 2008
“Wander into the Young Vic for any one of the six sold-out performances and you'll find a living, breathing, hyperventilating evocation of Lynch's inner world. The great thing about Lost Highway – ENO's first collaborative show with the Young Vic – is that it refuses to conform to preconceived notions about music theatre; it isn't governed by rules as to when or where it might be appropriate to speak or sing...
The dialogue itself is hyper-amplified to take on the allusion of a movie soundtrack, while the band (under Baldur Brönnimann) create an extraordinary kind of emotional static – the musique concrète of Hades – that has absorbed the myriad musics of Lynch's world, from popular songs like "Unforgettable" to Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera.”
The Independent, 8 April 2008
“The cast, led by Mark Bonnar and Quirijn de Lang as the two halves of the doppelganger hero, is good; the orchestra, under Baldur Brönnimann, is alert; and the staging by Diane Paulus assembles contemporary clichés without making them seem overly tired.”
Financial Times, 8 April 2008
“Lost Highway is based on the 1997 David Lynch film and endeavours to recreate the surreal, lurid, raunchy world of that psychological thriller. Fusing video, dialogue and music, both live (a 27-piece ensemble ably conducted by Baldur Brönnimann and pre-recorded electronics), Neuwirth captures the menace lurking round every corner.”
Evening Standard, 7 April 2008
"Baldur Brönnimann conducts with authority..."
The Daily Telegraph, 7 April 2008
“Neuwirth uses a volatile mix of 20-piece live band... efficiently conducted by Baldur Brönnimann..."
The Times, 7 April 2008
“Baldur Brönnimann conducts with unfailing zest and panache – the 27-strong ensemble drawn from the ENO Orchestra responding with alacrity, and with the interplay of live and sampled instrumental sound ideally judged for this acoustic. Indeed, as an exemplar of what is possible within the domain of music-theatre, Lost Highway could hardly be improved upon: no-one interested in what such an endlessly re-inventive genre currently has to offer should miss seeing this astounding production.”
Classicalsource.com, April 2008
Royal Northen College of Music / The Marriage of Figaro
"The RNCM prides itself on offering its young artists a genuinely professional taste of performance in its opera productions... Above all, it had great distinction musically, with the orchestra making beautiful sounds under conductor Baldur Brönnimann's expert hands."
Manchester Evening News, December 07
Scottish Chamber Orchestra / MacRae, Schumann, Beethoven
"... a persuasive account of an often-overlooked work [Schumann's Cello Concerto], as was that of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony - a performance full of energy, atmosphere and well-judged lightness."
The Guardian , June 2007
"Contrasting but complimentary strands from strings and wind, cleverly woven by conductor Baldur Brönnimann, evoked the woodlands in MacRae's typical style. ... Baldur Brönnimann controlled the SCO exactly for the opening extended crescendo [of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony]. ... The two succeeding Allegros were brilliant and must have been just as the great master intended."
Scottish Provincial Press, July 2007
Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra: Vero Aotea Series
"Conductor Baldur Brönnimann stirred up all the soul torments of the composer's Byronic hero."
New Zealand Herald , April 2007
"Swiss conductor Baldur played MC and host with a delightful sense of humour that had the audience laughing out loud."
Thread, April 2007
Northern Sinfonia
"Baldur Brönnimann, the young Swiss conductor, was impressively well prepared for the rehearsals, and was evidently committed to understanding the works and offering a good rendition of them. He not only ensured that the notes were accurately placed, but he also engaged with character and expression, which is more than we often get in performances of new music. How reassuring to feel that for the person in charge the new works were not a bothersome distraction from his real job of conducting classical masterpieces, but a central part of what he does. Brönnimann and his band were outstanding in approaching sensitively the two student pieces, Reverberations by Matthew Rowan and Ramses by Kelcey Swain, and in tackling the two hardest challenges of the evening, my Peregrine and Barry's From the Intelligence Park, a hair-raisingly difficult piece to play. It was exhilarating to witness the conductor's pacing of Peregrine, gradually gathering momentum towards and effective dénouement, and their fearless plunging into the angular ensemble unisons of From the Intelligence Park."
Agustín Fernández, composer, following a performance of his works. 15 November 2006
Musikkollegium Winterthur
"Baldur Brönnimann conducted the Musikkollegium Winterthur, achieving great clarity of expression and musical shape, particularly bringing out the dialogue between the wind and strings that Arriaga employs so distinctively. ... The result was an expressive interpretation, in which Brönnimann and the orchestra collaborated well... The conductor balanced the different dynamics with great care and gave a beautiful and moving performance... the rhythmic poise of the orchestra and their conductor was very exciting. Overwhelming!"
Der Landbote, October 2006
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Last Public SSO Studio One Concert
"…an evening of contemporary, cutting-edge Nordic music, conducted with breathtaking clarity and conviction by Baldur Brönnimann"
The Herald, November 2005