CRITICAL ACCLAIM

"After basing his career in Europe for roughly 20 years, the American conductor James Conlon has cut back his ties overseas to focus more on his home country. This is good news for many admirers of this dynamic, insightful and adventurous conductor."

"James Conlon is a maestro on a mission…. Because of this musical archaeologist's limitless energy, music once deemed "degenerate" and banned from performance is now filling the world's concert halls."

"James Conlon's career is the story of brilliant promise fulfilled brilliantly. Few artists have consolidated early success with the sustained and enduring excellence Conlon has achieved…When Conlon is leading a performance, music and drama never seem to be at odds….All of it is marked with a joyous sense of urgency that bespeaks the prodigy he once was - and a richly satisfying command that reflects the master he has become."

SYMPHONIC PERFORMANCES

New York Philharmonic

"...it was hard to resist Mr. Conlon's impassioned, tautly shaped performance [of Zemlinsky's Die Seejungfrau], which he conducted from memory. And the luxuriously orchestrated music summoned luminous playing from the New York Philharmonic...the concert concluded with a stirring performance of Liszt's symphonic poem Les Preludes...it sounded like a model of economy and craft, thanks to the spacious, crisp and vibrant performance by Mr. Conlon and the orchestra."

"...he conducted the symphonic fantasy Die Seejungfrau [Zemlinsky]. The New York Philharmonic gave a stupendous performance, one of the finest things I've heard from them in years."

"Die Seejungfrau is a lovely discovery, and the Philharmonic under Conlon made every note sound absolutely gorgeous."

With the Boston Symphony Orchestra

"Conlon's all-out performances of Mozart's "Paris" and "Linz" symphonies were intelligent, resourceful, and bracing, and Saturday night, he delivered a feral performance of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring." Conlon's work was reason enough to be at Tanglewood last weekend."

"Conlon and the orchestra turned in a devastatingly charming reading of Schubert's Symphony No. 3, brimming with elegant work from every quarter...Conlon has a flawless sense of timing and character, giving you the feeling that he, the orchestra and its hearers were sharing a happy secret together."

"The performance [of Zemlinsky's Die Seejungfrau] was assured…Conlon, who made a striking recording of the work, clearly loves this unusual piece and knows it inside out - he led all 45 minutes of it from memory."

Philadelphia Orchestra

"The performance [of Mahler's Sixth Symphony] was compellingly played and refreshingly clear-headed...Mr. Conlon drew rich, sonorous playing from the orchestra...In the tormented Finale, Mr. Conlon's dramatic flair, honed by his extensive work in opera, paid off, for the music had an involving narrative urgency."

"James Conlon took over the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall for Mahler's Sixth Symphony and came through with flying colors: conducting from memory, he was in total control of this complex, sprawling work and in close rapport with the musicians...At the end, the players, refusing to stand, applauded their fine maestro."

The Cleveland Orchestra

"Conlon, who devotes much of his energy to the dissemination of works by composers who died in the Holocaust, conducted a performance [of Viktor Ullmann's Symphony No. 2] that blended warmth with clarity and expressive depth…[In Dvorak's Symphony No. 7] Conlon seized the opportunity to let those themes register and penetrate, shaping a spacious, elastic performance that expanded and contracted with organic fluency…Conlon connected so vibrantly with the music and the musicians that Dvorak's explosion of tender and exuberant ideas always received their urgent due."

"...the [Zemlinsky's] Lyric Symphony is an engrossing collection of songs that demands attention, as the Cleveland Orchestra and guest conductor James Conlon acknowledged to glistening effect last night at Severance Hall...Conlon revealed his experience in opera by shaping the work as a series of interconnected scenes. The avalanche of poetic radiance throughout the score emerged in all its incandescent beauty."

Minnesota Orchestra

"James Conlon…one of this country's most respected conductors, has made this work [Mahler Symphony No. 6] one of his specialties…and this week he's doing it with the Minnesota Orchestra, leading a series of performances that no Mahler lover would want to miss…Conlon obviously has thought so long and hard about this music...At the finish, bringing to an end what surely will be thought of as one of the highlight concerts of the season, with the audience standing and cheering, the players gave Conlon, who had conducted this massive work from memory, warm applause of their own."

San Francisco Symphony June Festival 2006: "Romantic Visions: From Paradise to the Abyss"

"Thursday's concert [Verdi Requiem] found Conlon -- the polymath American conductor who has spent far too much of his career in Europe -- at his most commanding. Conducting from memory, he led a performance that was at once huge and finely detailed. Conlon offered a fascinatingly alternative approach to the score, one that looked less to the stage than to the visual arts for resonance. In his view, the majestic, sweeping scenes of Verdi's imagination emerged with colors blazing, assembled like giant frescoes in sound."

"With the charismatic Conlon on the podium, Friday's performance came across with incendiary force. The conductor never lost sight of the opera's [Zemlinsky's A Florentine Tragedy] relentless momentum, and each richly colored episode came across as part of a cohesive whole."

"As he has throughout this June Festival, Conlon shaped a performance of almost extravagant grandeur while maintaining a fierce level of rhythmic and interpretive discipline."

Los Angeles Philharmonic

"Given their history together - Conlon has been visiting the orchestra since 1977 - there could be no surprise that the American musician again proved a model of mastery and mellowness… Conductor Conlon is the real thing: a master of the orchestra with genuine theatricality and no discernible narcissism. Cherishable."

National Symphony Orchestra

"James Conlon drew out the playing of luxuriant beauty from the orchestra [First act of Wagner's Die Walkure]. A gifted an experienced maestro…Conlon maintained a strong yet never willful presence and constantly drew on the NOS's commanding virtuosity and rich sound."

"The brilliant American conductor would be a catch for any top U.S. orchestra. Conlon's masterful ear for detail and pacing inspired a performance [First act of Wagner's Die Walkure] that, even in a concert hall setting, had the visceral impact of a fully staged opera…the orchestra produced a remarkably rich, cohesive sound, releasing the full range of earthy and celestial colors in the score under Conlon's incisive guidance."

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

"Conlon relishes big choral and orchestral challenges and he kept everyone's attention focused squarely on what makes this symphony [Beethoven's Ninth] a timeless masterpiece. The opening movement didn't try to plumb the metaphysical depths and was better off for it. It was muscular but songful, urgent but sensitive to Beethoven's frequent shifts of tempo. It set the stage for an epic music drama that would climax in the magnificent finale."

CLIBURN COMPETITION

"James Conlon takes up the subject [Encore! With James Conlon - PBS series on Cliburn finalists] with enormous intelligence and charm…throughout the series Conlon's boyishness and practicality lend amiable credibility to his arguments. As a conductor well-versed in the international symphonic and operatic worlds, he knows how artists tick."

"[James Conlon's] work with finalists through three Cliburn sessions identified him as a major mentor of young talent."

PARIS OPERA PERFORMANCES

LA BOHÈME at the Paris Opera

". . . The hinge of this success is James Conlon, who was applauded by his musicians, in whom he inspired passion and elegance. Thus the Chief Conductor officially assumes his position as musical leader with a grand slam!"

"With an orchestra in superlative form at his disposal…what conductor today could lead Puccini's La Bohème better than James Conlon? He is a miracle of equilibrium: his dramatic intuition never fails, nor betrays the transparency of the music...In full command of his skills, Conlon exudes maturity to his fingertips. He is the hero of this new production."

"Conlon continues to interpret Puccini according to the composer's own words... It is in this manner that Conlon succeeds better than any other conductor. What a joy to see the score's subtle harmonies rendered so sublimely. What a gift to hear the sonorities of the orchestra adjusted to the timbres of the singers. Hugues Gall has once again chosen wisely in bringing to the Bastille a conductor who in musical and in human terms is able to remain true to the score, which detracts neither from his warmth or his authority."

LOHENGRIN at the Paris Opera

"The orchestra of the Bastille is the company's major strength and it played for its chief conductor, James Conlon, with a high degree of subtlety and beauty of sound."

"Musically, matters could not have been much better than they were. James Conlon was in easy command of a responsive orchestra, conducting with lyric expansiveness and dramatic purpose."

"James Conlon conducted the score with unerring sensitivity and respect for the crucial balance between the pit and the stage. Nothing was too hurried or too lingering, and the evening unfolded as naturally as the pages of a book."

"...the Opéra orchestra is in fine fettle in the more than capable hands of James Conlon. Above all orchestrally...this was a luminous, viscerally exciting production ...."

"...the musical quality of this Lohengrin is amazing. At the head of this big success is the Principal Conductor of the Paris Opéra, James Conlon, who succeeded in drawing from the score lyrical élan and a magic with great impact."

DER ZWERG and L'ENFANT ET LES SORTILÈGES at the Paris Opera

"James Conlon, the Paris Opera's chief conductor, has had much to do with the Zemlinsky revival of recent years, including a recording of "Der Zwerg," so the production at the Palais Garnier is in solid musical hands, and the orchestra followed him in bringing to life this lusciously rich and tension-filled score...Conlon and the orchestra gave the same care to Ravel's fastidiously delicate and archly amusing score as they did to Zemlinsky's...."

"I cannot imagine Der Zwerg better conducted: incisive and recklessly romantic by turns, with the Dwarf's halting, expressive music poignantly realized."

"James Conlon provided the musical foundations of this marvelous and continuously surprising production: late-Romantic, sonorous splendor in the Zemlinsky, refined with many changing styles in the Ravel."

"Solid like a rock...James Conlon formidably defended that music [Zemlinsky's] which he has championed on disk as well as in the theater...in that score [Ravel's] whose genial conciseness was appreciated following The Dwarf, Conlon rediscovered the effective discretion of an Ansermet."

PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE at the Paris Opera

"...Conlon raises the tension with artistic mastery of rhythm and color, a special sense of dramatic continuity...which brings this very special score to a rare incandescence."

"But the true happiness of the evening comes from the music arising from the orchestra pit, perfectly mastered by James Conlon. He exudes its philters for us with a sense of the total effect and a discretion that does full justice to the score."

RECORDINGS

Music of Alexander Zemlinsky

"Lyric Symphony" Preludes and Interludes

"Though he shuns the distinction, the American conductor James Conlon is the world's leading exponent of the music of Alexander Zemlinsky. Mr. Conlon's cogent yet richly textured account, with robust singing from Bo Skovhus and Soile Isokoski, makes one wonder why the piece is so seldom recorded."

Der Traumgörge

"It [Der Traumgörge] is beautifully brought to life, thanks to James Conlon and his Cologne forces. Conlon's championing of Zemlinsky has been one of the most deeply satisfying spectacles of the past decade, with discovery after dazzling discovery lovingly performed and impeccably recorded by EMI. This latest is among the finest of Conlon's Zemlinsky cycle, and there is not a weak link in the entire large cast."

"...Conlon's cast is very strong and his command of the score impressive. He reveals that what had seemed an intriguing but confused opera is in fact one of Zemlinsky's most personal, accomplished and fascinating scores."

"...Conlon extracts a sense of Zemlinsky's unique integrity with an incisive, even reverent polish (particularly in the cornucopia of instrumental solos). He also handles the composer's rhythmic tricks with ease and a natural flow...This little opera is a discovery well worth making."

"Conductor Conlon and EMI have done important and committed work to raise Zemlinsky's profile in recent years; Der Traumgörge is possibly the finest fruit of that labor to date."

Der Zwerg

"...the work has a sort of febrile glow, well set forth in EMI's recording under James Conlon, a strong admirer of Zemlinsky's music and an expert in the romantic style."

Die Seejungfrau

"Conlon's version can be warmly recommended. His care over texture, detail and the moulding of Zemlinsky's long and beautiful lines is exemplary and loving, his orchestra can provide a huge, densely Straussian sound when required -- the love music in the first movement is beautifully warm, the storm scene magnificently powerful yet never opaque."

Eine florentinische Tragödie

"This recording of Zemlinsky's one-act opera grows more compelling with each hearing."

Complete choral music and orchestral songs

"Mr. Conlon elicits rich, luxuriant textures from his forces. Most importantly, though, he has illuminated the choral riches of this neglected composer."

"Zemlinsky's music is stunningly good, and the performances brim with excitement every step of the way. The three Psalms are truly extraordinary. The 13th is full of anguished sighs and deep sonorities of immense power. A celeste, glockenspiel, and a pair of harps lend loads of pastoral charm to Psalm 23, while the 83rd begins with a gentle instrumental plea that soon builds to a choral imprecation of seeping passion. The intensity level is incredible!"

"…this conspectus of [Zemlinsky's] achievements in the fields of choral music and orchestral song is full of fascinating music and imaginatively performed."

Stravinsky's Le Rossignol and Renard

"...a very successful recording of Le Rossignol (The Nightingale)...Conlon does his usual superb job of balancing orchestral textures...he seems to have reached the age when competent conductors grow into great ones..."

Madame Butterfly

"Conlon's direction, which avoids the excessively broad pacing favored lately by several big-name conductors, propels the opera with an unhurried urgency. Puccini's dynamic markings are carefully observed, and the transitions are handled with exceptional control and subtlety."

Viktor Ullmann's Symphonies No. 1 and 2; Lieder; "Don Quixote"

Conlon…captures the vitality and aggressive spirit of this music with his dynamic yet sensitive readings. These are vivid and dramatic performances that are refreshingly vibrant."

Franz Liszt's St. Stanislaus

"Recorded during Cincinnati's May Festival, this spectacular-sounding disc obviously captured not an abstruse exercise in musical archeology but some involved music making...conductor James Conlon should take great pride in the dynamic result."

"This project undoubtedly required many hands, but you have to tip your hat to conductor James Conlon. As he has been doing for the music of Zemlinsky, Conlon shows himself as one of relatively few conductors of stature willing to consistently take roads less traveled. Or in this case, never before traveled."

"…under [Conlon's] baton [The Cincinnati Symphony] has a gorgeous, dark color to it. The pacing and the large scale crafting of orchestral passages is impressive -- the mark of a conductor who not only understands the music but is able to translate it to musicians. Conlon's expertise in opera and choral music clearly helped this recording shine."