Norrköping Symphony Orchestra / John Pickhard The Flight of Icarus, The Spindle of Necessity, Channel Firing (BIS)
"The Norrköpinger Sinfonieorchester, conducted by Martyn Brabbins, showed itself at its best, and translated Pickard's scores into technically outstanding and gripping, needle-sharp soundworlds. The resulting intensity, coming from a total dedication to the task, is tangible and audible every second. The music doesn't come across as heavy, but keeps a natural transparence, which is enhanced by the exemplary recording quality."
Klassik.com, May 2008
BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Dvorák & Bartók
“The BBCNOW musicians were in top form, and their playing was all the more vivid for Brabbins' contrasting of the mischievous humour of the second and fourth movements with the elegiac outpouring at the heart of the piece.”
The Guardian, January 2008
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Judith Weir Weekend at the Barbican Centre
"… Martyn Brabbins' conducting superbly illuminated the work's sensuous, yet strangely threatening, sound world."
The Guardian, January 2008
"…Michael Finnissey's tone poem Red Earth, a brilliant piece of 1980s Modernism… gave Sunday's closing concert its focus, in a superbly coralled rendition under Martyn Brabbins."
The Financial Times, January 2008
"… The Vanishing Bridegroom… was given an atmospheric concert performance on Saturday under Martyn Brabbins's direction."
The Times, January 2008
"The BBC Symphony Orchestra negotiated its way deftly through the ambiguities of Weir's tantalisingly suggestive score under the assured baton of Martyn Brabbins."
The Evening Standard, January 2008
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, BBC Symphony Orchestra / David Sawer From Morning to Midnight (NMC)
"Along with the half-hour suite from his Coliseum opera, the disc includes The Memory of Water, for strings, the orchestral, Bentham-inspired "the greatest happiness principle", and the surreally brilliant ensemble piece Tiroirs."
The Times, December 2007
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / BBC Proms 2007
"…the performance [of Harrison's Panic] under Brabbins was wonderfully precise."
The Guardian, August 2007
London Sinfonietta / György Ligeti Aventures & Nouvelles Aventures
"Martyn Brabbins's conducting generated its own electricity. Performers froze to the end of his finger, awaiting the tiny beat that would set off a plink, a howl, or the crockery's demise."
The Times, May 2007
"The blue-gowned orchestra is superbly conducted by Martyn Brabbins."
The Guardian, May 2007
Oper Frankfurt / Bloch Macbeth (prod. Keith Warner)
"Unter seiner Leitung schaerfte das gut disponierte Frankfurter Museumsorchester nicht allein die oft schroffen Konturen des Werks, sondern entlockte ihm auch die reichen, fast impressionistischen Farbwerte und das differenzierte Panorama der Instrumentallinien."
"Under (Brabbins') direction the A team Frankfurt Museumsorchester not only brought into focus the often jagged contours of the work, but also seduced us with the rich, almost impressionistic colours and the varied panorama of the instrumental writing."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 2007
"Dirigent Martyn Brabbins aber hatte das Ensemble hervorragend mit den Anforderungen dieser Hochkomplizierten Musik vertraut gemacht und erreichte ein Hoechstmass an Spannung und Konturenschaerfe."
"However, conductor Martyn Brabbins was outstanding in his ability to familiarise the orchestra with this demanding and highly complicated music, and achieved a high level of excitement and clarity of line."
Frankfurter Neue Presse, January 2007
Philharmonia Orchestra / Queen Elizabeth Hall / Elgar, Walton & Hellawell
"…the pièces de résistance were the two Elgar "overtures" (really symphonic poems) that framed this all-English programme. Martyn Brabbins and the Philharmonia gave In the South and Cockaigne the sort of glamorous sound and sweep that augurs well for their tour to Mexico next week."
Financial Times, October 2006
BBC Proms
"...spine-tinglingly visceral..."
The Guardian, July 2006
Cheltenham Festival
"The concert began appropriately with Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave overture, and ended with an account of Mahler's uncaledonian fourth symphony that I found deeply affecting."
The Sunday Times, July 2006
Het Residentie Orkest / Amsterdam Concertgebouw / Shostakovich One Act Operas
"Het stuk werd, net als de andere fraai door het Residentie Orkest gespeeld. Vor dirigent Brabbins heeft Sjostakovitsj kennelijk wenig geheimen."
"…beautifully played by the Residentie Orchestra. Shostakovich evidently holds few secrets for conductor Brabbins."
Parool, June 2006
Philharmonia / Stravinsky The Rake's Progress
"It was also the best played, with exquisite work from the Philharmonia under Martyn Brabbins."
Anna Picard, The Independent, June 2006
"Neil Bartlett's new production of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress is an effervescent curtain-raiser to this year's Aldeburgh festival. It's the first time Bartlett has directed an opera. But with a cast of young soloists - all graduates of Aldeburgh's Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme - and the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins, this is a staging full of wit, energy and expressive intensity....
...it's the brilliance of Stravinsky's music, and the pacing and insight of Brabbins's conducting, that make this evening so rewarding."
Tom Service, The Guardian, June 2006
"Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress was mounted at Snape Maltings by soloists from the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, a chorus from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Philharmonia Orchestra, crisply conducted by Martyn Brabbins."
Paul Driver, The Times, June 2006
BBC SSO, National Youth Choir of Scotland / Hellawell, Bernstein, Debussy and Bartók
"...a power-packed performance of the Bartók."
The Scotsman, April 2006
"...the SSO was in mindblowing form for Piers Hellawell's excitingly hectic Dogs and Wolves (a first performance), ravishingly hypnotic in Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune, and ... ultimately incandescent and super-articulate in the finale of Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra."
The Herald, April 2006
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Bennett
"Brabbins and his responsive orchestra gave us a performance of much sighing beauty."
The Times, April 2006
Philharmonia Orchestra / Britten, Holst, Elgar and Tchaikovsky
"…the sound of Martyn Brabbin's performance never seemed saturated or lacking in spaciousness. The internal detail the close focus revealed was an added bonus."
"That spotlight on instrumental detail suited the ballet music from Holst's otherwise forgotten opera The Perfect Fool, extrovertly delivered by Brabbins, and especially the multitude of woodwind contributions in his equally well characterised account of the Enigma Variations. This reinforced an admiration for the expert musicianship of the Philharmonia's principles, as well as for the imaginative doublings in Elgar's textures."
The Guardian, October 2005
Cheltenham Festival
"He is surely destined to change musical life in more than Cheltenham."
The Times, July 2005
"It is not just that he is exceptionally versatile…it is also a mature personality."
The Financial Times, June 2005
"The appointment…shows that his breadth of experience has finally come into focus."
The Financial Times, June 2005
Hallé Orchestra / Ravel Mother Goose, Holst The Perfect Fool
“The darkest of the score’s three incarnations, it became, in Brabbins’s hands a very adult work, shot through with premonitions of lost innocence and adolescent sexuality… Thrilling, polyrhythmic stuff, [The Perfect Fool] was given a hair-raising performance by Brabbins that left you wondering why it is played so infrequently and why so few choreographers are drawn to it.”
The Guardian, February 2005
English National Opera / Tippett A Child of our Time
Martyn Brabbins’s account of the score is grippingly urgent and muscular; the singing of the ENO chorus, so central to the work, is full-blooded, and the four soloists…first-rate too.”
The Guardian, 24 January 2005
“…conductor Martyn Brabbins drew impassioned playing from the orchestra.”
The Daily Telegraph, January 2005
"The spirituals…are, harmonically speaking, the richest moments in a spare and soulful musical landscape, one that is wonderfully served by the conductor, Martyn Brabbins, ENO’s excellent chorus and the heartfelt soloists…”
The Independent , January 2005
“Martyn Brabbins conducts with appropriate soulfulness and clarity – the Romantic lines of the opening and dark colours of deep strings and brass are particularly well done, and there is a fine set of soloists…”
The Times, January 2005
“The unfazeable ENO chorus met all challenges heroically and the orchestra and soloists, under Martyn Brabbins’s expert baton, gave quality performances.”
The Evening Standard, January 2005
BBCSymphony Orchestra / Birtwistle The Second Mrs Kong
“…This contains some of his most hypnotically beautiful writing, at least when the huge forces are controlled with as much flair as Martyn Brabbins displayed here…”
The Times , November 2004
“…Brabbins’s performance reaffirmed this as one of the great operatic achievements of our time.”
The Guardian , November 2004
“Martyn Brabbins conducted the BBC Symphony in it to great effect."
The Financial Times , November 2004
“Brabbins at the BBCSO persuasively displayed the strange, glinting colours of this mesmerising score…"
The Evening Standard , November 2004
“…The BBC Symphony and tremendous soloists [gave] it their all under Martyn Brabbins…”
The Observer, November 2004
“The performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Apollo Voices, the conductor Martyn Brabbins, and cast…could hardly be faulted.”
The Sunday Times, November 2004
“[The Second Mrs Kong] received a superb semi-staged London premiere this week from the BBC Symphony Orchestra – back on tip-top form under Martyn Brabbins…”
The Independent on Sunday , November 2004
Ensemble Moderne / Birtwistle Theseus Game / Deutsche Grammophon
“…the performance concludes an essential disc for all devotees of the composer’s muscular, energising music.”
The Daily Telegraph , September 2004
“Compelling listening; vintage Birtwistle.”
The Financial Times , August 2004
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Elgar-Payne 3rd Symphony
“…Brabbins manipulated its conflicting moods – muscular lyricism in the opening movement, sombre self-communing in the adagio, swaggering ceremonial in the finale – with consummate assurance.”
The Guardian , July 2004
“Elgar would surely have been delighted with the completed work and last night’s robust, passionate, mellow sounding, deeply searching performance, given by Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.”
The Evening Standard, July 2004
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Carter Of Rewaking
“Here the soloist Gweneth-Anne Jeffers, creamy-toned and secure in her handling of Carter’s soaring, aspiring writing, while Brabbins, Cheltenham artistic director-in-waiting, deftly fitted the CBSO’s counterpoints around her.”
The Guardian , July 2004
“And Michael Berkeley, in his final year as festival director, was rewarded with a full house, while giving Cheltenham audiences a closer, highly complimentary, look at his successor, the conductor Martyn Brabbins.”
The Financial Times , July 2004
“Brabbins was marvelously alive to the music’s strangeness and its uniquely profound terseness”
The Sunday Times , July 2004
BBC Philharmonic / Cyril Scott / Chandos
“In all three works Martyn Brabbins has total control of the music’s ebb and flow…”
Gramophone, June 2004
“Martyn Brabbins finds his way through the shifting, cloudy textures with great skill.”
The Guardian , May 2004
Opera North / Smetana The Bartered Bride
“…Martyn Brabbins gave his orchestra plenty of rein. After proving their mettle with a tight, trim overture, they cavorted around with just the abandon you want in a piece not built for politesse.”
Opera, April 2004
“…Martyn Brabbins pilots the orchestra through a brilliantly suspense-building overture of rushing fugatos and a courtly romp through the ensuing folkeries.”
The Times , January 2004
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / MacMillan / MacRae / Goldschmidt / Shostakovich
“If there was one outstanding factor which unified the programme played last night by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra…then it was the performance of conductor Martyn Brabbins, working absolutely at strength, with flair colouring his familiar fastidiousness. The overriding quality he displayed, on top of his craftsmanship, was clarity, as simple and profound as that.”
The Herald , March 2004
BBC Philharmonic / Holloway 60th Birthday
“…Sustaining Holloway’s intricate textures and immense climaxes magnificently throughout, the BBC Philharmonic and Martyn Brabbins were outstanding.”
The Guardian , October 2003
Bayerische Rundfunk / Skempton, Oehring & Ives
“…This concert of new music appeared compellingly uncertain and uncramped by convention – exactly how it should be.”
Abendzeitung, July 2003
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Fuchs & Kiel / Hyperion CDA 67354
“…You can’t fault the magic wand of Martyn Brabbins … nor the spirited and sensitive playing of the BBC Scottish band…”
BBC Music Magazine , May 2003
London Sinfonietta / Harvey Bird Concerto with Pianosong; Pintscher Tenebrae
“…Conductor Martyn Brabbins – what would adventurous concerts do without him? – led us through this disorientaing shadow world with his usual ease…”
The Times , April 2003
“…conductor Martyn Brabbins held the complicated structure together with ease – it looked like quite a feat of co-ordination between the soloist, ensemble and the live electronic treatment…”
The Daily Telegraph , April 2003
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Turnage Weekend
“…the BBC Symphony Orchestra, superbly conducted by Martyn Brabbins…”
The Times , January 2003
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival / Nørgard & Duddell
“…the man who has become indispensable to new music in Britain, Martyn Brabbins.”
The Times , November 2002
“…The BBCSSO tackled this demanding programme with gritty professionalism, and Martyn Brabbins, whose range of musical sympathies seems inexhaustible, conducted with his customary formidable authority.”
Huddersfield Daily Examiner, November 2002
“…All four works were superbly delivered by the BBC Scottish under Martyn Brabbins…”
The Daily Telegraph , November 2002
24 January 2005