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Arthur Fagen
conductor
Music
Director,
Atlanta Opera
Principal
Guest Conductor,
Haydn Orchestra, Bolzano, Italy
(Updated
September 2011 - please discard any previous versions)
|
Arthur Fagen is in great
demand as a symphony and opera conductor in Europe, Asia, South America and the
United States, regularly appearing at the most prestigious opera houses, concert
halls, and music festivals around the world.
Mr. Fagen was born in New York, where he began his conducting studies with
Laszlo Halasz. Further studies continued at the Curtis Institute under the
guidance of Max Rudolf, and both at the Salzburg Mozarteum and with Hans
Swarowsky. A former assistant of both Christoph von Dohnanyi (Frankfurt Opera)
and James Levine (Metropolitan Opera), Mr. Fagen’s career has been marked by a
string of notable appearances: he has conducted the Lyric Opera of Chicago,
Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Munich State Opera, Deutsche Oper
Berlin, Staatsoper Berlin, New York City Opera, and orchestras like the
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, Munich Radio Orchestra,
Tokyo Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie,
Orchestra della RAI (Torino, Naples, Milano, Roma), and the Bergen Philharmonic,
to name but a few. From 1998 to 2001, Mr. Fagen was regularly invited as Guest
Conductor at the Vienna State Opera. Opera productions conducted by Mr. Fagen
last season include Siegfried, Götterdämmerung in Dortmund, Ariadne auf Naxos in
Bolzano, Ballo in Maschera at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, as well as two Ring
Cycles.
From 2002-2007, Mr. Fagen was the Music Director of the Dortmund Philharmonic
Orchestra and the Dortmund Opera. Following his successful concerts with the
Dortmund Philharmonic at the Grosse Festspielhaus in Salzburg, Arthur Fagen and
the Dortmund Philharmonic were invited to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the
Palais de Beaux Arts in Brussels, and toured in Salzburg, Beijing and
Shanghai.
In October 2007, Mr. Fagen conducted a new production of Turandot at
the Atlanta Opera, where he opened the season with enormous success and
inaugurated the new Opera House, the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center. Soon
after, in February 2008, he conducted the contemporary opera Cold Sassy Tree by
Carlisle Floyd in Atlanta. In the same month he was appointed Professor of
Music in instrumental conducting at Indiana University in Bloomington.
The 2007/2008 season included engagements with the Israel Symphony Orchestra,
Holland Sinfonia, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Dortmunder Philharmoniker, Sicily
and Rome’s Symphony Orchestras, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Opera
de Nice, and concerts in Spain (Las Palmas, Navarra) and Taiwan, among others. A
CD of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies with the Staatskapelle Weimar was released in
October 2007 on the Naxos label. In the 2008/2009 season, Mr. Fagen
conducted Beethoven’s Fidelio in Portland, Akhnaten by Philip Glass, and
Wagner’s Fliegende Hollaender in Atlanta, and was invited to conduct concerts in
Italy, Spain, Poland and South America. He conducted the NDR Hannover in
Braunschweig and at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and the Winterthur
Orchestra in Switzerland.
Mr. Fagen has an opera repertory of more than 70 works. He has served as
Principal Conductor in Kassel and Brunswick, as Chief Conductor of the Flanders
Opera of Antwerp and Ghent, as Music Director of the Queens Symphony Orchestra,
and has been a member of the conducting staff of the Chicago Lyric Opera. He has
conducted the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera,
Munich State Opera, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, New York City Opera, Opera
Capitole de Toulouse, Bordeaux Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Staatstheater Stuttgart,
New Israeli Opera, Baltimore Opera, Edmonton Opera, Spoleto Festival, Teatro
Colon Buenos Aires, and many others. On the concert podium, Mr. Fagen has
appeared with internationally known orchestras including the Czech Philharmonic,
Prague Spring Festival, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra,
Tokyo Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie,
Slovak Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic
Orchestra, Orchestra della RAI (Torino, Naples, Milano, Roma), Orchestra San
Carlo, the Orchestras of Naples, Genoa and Sanremo, the Bergen Philharmonic, and
the Dutch Radio Orchestra, among many others. Arthur Fagen was the first prize
winner of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Conductors Competition as well as
prizewinner of the Gino Marinuzzi International Conductors’ Competition in
Italy. Mr. Fagen has recorded for BMG, Bayerischer Rundfunk, SFB and WDR
Cologne. He records regularly for Naxos, for whom he has completed the 6
symphonies of Bohuslav Martinu; the complete piano concertos will be released in
2010.
Critical Acclaim:
Premiere of
Bernard Rand’s Vincent:
“Conductor Fagen
led with assurance and understanding. Rand’s orchestration was masterful. At no
point was there a lack of balance between the orchestra and the singers.”
Opera News – July 2011
Gouvy’s Der Cid at the
Saarländischen Staatstheater, world broadcast live:
“Guest conductor Arthur Fagen with the Saarland State Orchestra has the score perfectly under control, frequently allowing the proper swell without covering up the singers.” Trierisher Volksfreund – June 7, 2011
“The State Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fagen has no easy game. Gouvy has packed the melody-rich score with elegant and virtuoso music. Many sections have an intimate chamber orchestra brightness - certainly a throwback to Gouvy’s French cultural legacy. Fagen carefully reins volume of the orchestra to let the voices to be heard and the text understood.” Pfaelzischer-Merkur.de - June 6, 2011
“Under the careful and inspired musical direction of Arthur Fagen we hear the work of an better than average composer. It is no wonder that the attention showered on Gouvy in Paris, Berlin and Leipzig before Gouvy initially with in the realm of instrumental music: he composed symphonies and Kamrnerrnusik.” Die Rheinpfalz – June 6, 2011
“Arthur Fagen conducted the almost half-century overdue first performance. This is not to be missed now, with the Saarland's State Orchestra under Arthur Fagen bringing out the technically well written and carefully orchestrated music.”
Deutschlandfunk / "Kultur heute" – June 4, 2011
“Vocally and musically brilliant. Most commendable was the fresh, lively playing of the orchestra. Led by the American guest conductor Arthur Fagen, who only received the work eight weeks before he first met the orchestra, the playing was extremely gripping and accurate, far from any kind of routine.” Klassik.com - June 3, 2011
“Not to be missed: when the Saarlands State Orchestra under Arthur Fagen reanimate throughout the technically well written and carefully orchestrated music for Der Cid.” Nmy.de - June 4, 2011
Saarland Staatsoper Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fagen had a great success, bringing out the composer’s colorful score to the audience, among which there were many French guests - the first act in full volume, the second and third act as well to expressive and nuanced. The enthusiastic audience thanked all. A truly interesting and powerful work that will hopefully repeated by many opera houses and with conductor Arthur Fagen had an excellent interpretation.” Der Neue Merker – June 3, 2011
Premiere of Vincent by Bernard
Rands:
“Best to characterize the
performances as being of high quality; things in the pit were even more
impressive, as Arthur Fagen guided the school’s Philharmonic Orchestra through
Rands’s peaks and valleys, so eloquently crafted to match Vincent’s own.”
Musical America.com – April 14, 2011
“Orchestral interludes
separate the individual tableaux in Vincent. In this production,
projections of the painter’s works and letters are also interspersed between
major scenes. It is soon apparent that all components of the opera and of the
production were carefully arranged to resonate with Van Gogh’s painting style
and with each other. The libretto soon refers to a well-known characteristic of
Van Gogh’s brushwork. As Vincent, in the throes of spiritual conviction, seeks
to emulate Christ as an artist, he describes how Jesus has created with “flesh
that swirls and glides and grabs the light.” The same can be said of Rands’s
approach to many moments in his orchestral texture, as thick bands of color
alternate with rich polyphonic curlicues. The production opened with a real-time
“drawing in light” of Vincent’s signature on the proscenium curtain, as the
orchestra played insinuating solo gestures under the compelling baton of Arthur
Fagen, matching the gentle curves of the letters on stage. The
orchestration is magnificent, and its vibrancy and variety can be considered the
most immediately fascinating aspect of the score.”
Sequenz21.com - April 12, 2011
“And where it counts, with the
music, all of the soloists along with the orchestra and the mellifluous chorus,
under the spirited baton of Arthur Fagen, manifest the excellence that is the
signature of the renowned training program at the Jacobs School.”
Huffington Post – April 11, 2011
“The Piano
Concerto No. 1, written by the 35-year-old Martinů two years after he’d left his
native land for Paris, is a neoclassical piece dressed in a sort of neobaroque
style that he may have absorbed from Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, Prokofiev’s
“Classical” Symphony, and music he’d possibly heard by one or another of Les Six
in some of the Parisian cabarets. Breezy, brisk, and a bit cockeyed, Martinů’s
score delights in bending the ear with tuneful bitonality. But the piece also
recalls the composer’s not-so-distant homeland and romantic roots, as it does in
the meltingly beautiful, Czech-tinged Andante movement.”
“Martinů was
well into his Parisian period when he wrote his Piano Concerto No. 2. The
bitonality and French cabaret elements seem largely gone, as the music takes on
a more serious, almost Brahmsian, cast. It’s as if Martinů is returning to his
romantic roots. The Poco Andante confirms as much with a movement which,
according to the note authors seems to be an unabashedly romantic homage to
Brahms.” If you’re just beginning to explore the music of Martinů and/or you’re
on a budget, this fine Naxos release can be recommended without reservation.
Once again, there is much to enjoy on this new Naxos recording. Certainly if you
acquired the first volume, you’ll want this one. And though I may have expressed
a slight preference for one or another version of these works, Koukl and Fagen
do not disappoint. Fine performances and a well-engineered recording make for a
positive recommendation.”
Jerry Dubins, Fanfare, May 2011
"Vincent", Bernard Rands, Indiana, USA ( World première)
The orchestra,
conducted by Arthur Fagen, played with sonorous beauty, delicate and powerful by
turns .... So impressed was I by the opera and its production that I returned
for a second performance. This is an opera that should be taken up by the
operatic establishment. .... Dramatic and accessible, it is an opera from the
heart to the heart.
Charles H. Parsons, American Record Guide, June 2011
.....the impeccably prepared cast on
opening night (lead roles alternate) .....performed admirably. Best to
characterize the performances as being of high quality; things in the pit were
even more impressive, as Arthur Fagen guided the Philharmonic Orchestra through
Rands’s peaks and valleys, so eloquently crafted to match Vincent’s own.
Susan Elliott, MusicalAmerica.com, April 14, 2011
Fagen and the
Orchestra respond with stunningly articulated clarity, and the close-up recorded
sound is as fine as one could wish for. If we add to this the informative notes,
this becomes a must purchase.
Alan Becker, The American Record Guide, March / April 2011
Arthur Fagen and his Orchestra accompany
with a fine sense of ensemble....
Jan Smaczny, BBC Music Magazine, February 2011
Bruckner 4th Symphony at Indiana University:
“Fagen, who conducted without score,
led an integrated and spacious reading. The
“And the orchestra from the Mittelstaedt, east
of Brno, playing under Fagen delivered a clean and accurately detailed
accompaniment.”
Fonoforum - July 2010
Mozart’s “Magic Flute,” Atlanta Opera:
“All of these built toward
a tidy, fast-paced Flute led by conductor Arthur Fagen….
Fagen created a generous
orchestral sound that supported the soloists nicely.”
OperaNews.com – June 2010
Martinu Piano Concertos, Naxos Records:
“Koukl and Fagen tackle the music with crispness, verve, and electric wit. They let Martinu sound like Martinu, without bombast, despite the echoes of Shostakovich. Pianist and conductor make the most of lyrical moments, a listener’s mind isn’t tempted to wander. As one might expect, the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic offers first-rate accompaniment.” American Record Guide - June 2010
Mozart’s Magic Flute:
“The almost-capacity crowd Saturday night
laughed merrily at the jokes and cheered mightily when the music turned athletic
and epic. Arthur Fagen, a regular conductor with this company, brought out
colors from the orchestra and paced the drama sympathetically.”
Atlanta Journal Constitution - April 25, 2010
Conducting Martinu, Naxos Records: Editor's
Choice:
“Koukl receives splendid support from
the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra under Arthur Fagen and Naxos’ sound
is first rate, clear and bright with the right balance between soloist and
orchestra. Warmly recommended.”
Gramophone - March 2010
‘Lucia di Lammermoor,’ Indiana University:
“Conducted by a knowing Arthur Fagen, the
musicians contributed an orchestral environment that fulfilled the composer’s
intent: for the music to emerge, at once, as beautiful and dramatic. In behalf
of the singers, Fagen added flexibility to an also admirably controlled reading
of the score, providing them thereby with both needed guidance and an
opportunity for vocal flight.”
Herald Times - February 8, 2010
With the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic
Orchestra, Zlin:
“Arthur Fagen already demonstrated his
credentials as a Martinu conductor with his generally excellent complete
symphony cycle for Naxos, and this first installment of the piano concertos also
is very fine.”
Classics Today.com – February 1, 2010
“Maestro Fagen highlighted the subtleties of
the Sanremo Symphony with fine direction and a high degree of orchestration.”
Riviera24.it – November 24, 2009
Conducting the Richmond Symphony:
Under the baton of Arthur Fagen the Richmond
Symphony performed this challenging work at Saturday's Masterworks concert with
Yang Wei on pipa, a Chinese lute. Fagen and the Richmond Symphony deserve high
marks for introducing this piece to Richmond. Fagen kept the tempos brisk and
brought a full, balanced sound from the orchestra. The evening started with
Beethoven's Egmont Overture, which Fagen also kept moving along.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch - November 16, 2009
“The conductor obtained a big, warm romantic
sonority without muddying colors or obscuring musical details. Fagen and the
orchestra made the Franck an unusually (at least for me) engaging experience,
sustaining momentum in tempos that threaten to plod and taking care to reveal
Franck’s new wrinkles in repetitions and reappearances of the motifs around
which this symphony is built. He also drew the fullest, warmest bass-string
sound that the orchestra has produced since moving back into the Carpenter
Theatre.”
Letterv.com - November 15, 2009
“Arthur Fagen pulled off at least a semi-miracle
in the second of two Metro Collection chamber-orchestra concerts. He obtained
fine sonorities, mostly proper balances, even a bloom to string sound, in
Randolph-Macon College’s Blackwell Auditorium, which has the driest acoustic of
any venue in which this orchestra plays. Fagen also demonstrated mastery of
Austro-German classical and romantic style, not surprising from a conductor who
has spent much of the past decade working in Central Europe. His handling of
Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll,” with long-breathed phrasing and modest applications
of portamento, was high-romantic without lapsing into mannerism. His brisk
pacing and sharp accenting of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor accommodated
the more assertive treatment that the “historically informed” movement has
brought to music of the classical period – but, again, without quirky
interpretive distractions, and without trying to make modern instruments sound
antique. The meticulous ensemble playing and well-phrased, expressive solo
contributions that Fagen obtained were especially notable, since the orchestra
was performing without its concertmaster, Karen Johnson, and several of its
principal wind players. One never got the impression that the B-team was on the
job. The Mozart, in fact, was as stylish and focused as any performance of this
composer's music that I can recall from this orchestra.”
Letterv.com - November 8, 2009
“Maestro Fagen clearly knew what he was about.
He had prepared his musicians carefully, also instilling in them a feel for the
textures and nature of the chosen repertoire, two well known classics by Richard
Wagner and Cesar Franck. Conductor Fagen made sure that the reading of the Rhine
Journey music featured burnished brass and luxuriant strings, just as Wagner
called for. He also didn’t shortchange Franck’s D Minor, which makes abundant
instrumental demands as the score introduces and develops two contrasting moods.
Tuesday’s performance befittingly espoused the quiet passages and seethed
intensity when the music demanded decibels. And as should have occurred, the
conflicting attitudes merged into a unified musical statement.”
HeraldTimesOnline.com - November 5, 2009
Conducting the Winterthur Symphony
Orchestra:
“The conductor Arthur Fagen led the
‘Italian’ Symphony splendidly with focused and clear contours.”
Neue Zurcher Zeitung - October
23, 2009
Conducting Rossini's 'L'Italiana in
Algeri,' IU Opera - Bloomington IN:
“And surely, the production's music
director, Arthur Fagen, was a major factor in that achievement. One heard the
results of his leadership also in work of the pit musicians, the concert
orchestra, which handled the score's bustle and lyricism with an impressive
level of assurance and grace.”
www.heraldtimesonline.com - September 28, 2009
Headline: Terrific ride through the border
region
“The fun in this kind of musical crossover was
clearly written on the face of the conductor of the Radio Philharmonic
Orchestra, Arthur Fagen. He steered his ensemble energetically through the
rhythmic challenges.”
Flensburger Tageblatt - August 22, 2009
“Fagen led the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
in works by Gershwin, Arnold and Copland - rhythmic, sensitive and richly
nuanced.”
www.hl-live.de - August 22, 2009
“Arthur Fagen, who has become the most frequent
conductor here since the company’s riesumazione, has also seen the quality of
this orchestra’s playing improve drastically. Whatever brought this on, it’s
certainly quite welcome... Finally, the orchestra was able to get beyond
worrying about just getting through the playing and staying together, and
respond to Fagen’s dramatically sensitive reading. He coddled his singers, but
found time for intense displays of emotion when the orchestra was playing
alone.”
Wagner Notes - May 2009
“Flying Dutchman” with Atlanta Opera:
“Their sympathy with each other and
conductor Arthur Fagen lifted the show to a spiritual realm.”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution - April 30, 2009
“Arthur Fagen, who led Turandot and Carlisle
Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree during Atlanta Opera’s first season at the Cobb Energy
Performing Arts Center, returned to the company to conduct Akhnaten, creating a
cohesive wash of pulsating sound.”
Opera News - March 2009
Philip Glass’ “Akhnaten,” Atlanta Opera:
“Atlanta Opera gave it the same care it
gives its usual fare: an orchestra, conducted by Arthur Fagen, that caught the
sweep of the music.”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution - January 26, 2009
Conducting the IU Symphony Orchestra:
“On Wednesday evening, the IU Symphony took the
stage in the MAC. It did so with splendid results, thanks to conductor Arthur
Fagen. As an orchestral leader, he made an impressive first appearance, having
selected a most demanding program and then training and inspiring his musicians
to excel in its execution. He built toward a beautifully shaped reading of
Tchaikovsky’s fervid and poignant Sixth Symphony, “Pathetique... with its
gorgeous melodies and a composer’s desire to express the human journey through
life to death, his own very much included. The Sixth is, of course, a great
symphony, a masterpiece. Fagen made sure his musicians treated it as such. The
reading was high voltage, meaning, however, not only that the massive
fortissimos were properly stupendous but that moments of melting sweetness and
those of longing and despair also gained the utmost in eloquence of
articulation. This was a fine performance.”
Herald Times Online – November 2008
Conducting the symphony orchestra of
Navarra:
“This season’s penultimate concert of
Bruckner Symphony 4 was notable for the extraordinary interpretation of guest
conductor, Arthur Fagen. Conducting by memory, he tends to conduct as the
maestri of earlier eras, with settled and unhurried tempi, giving leeway to the
musicians, while maintaining tension and contrast. One of the best qualities of
this performance was the containment of the brass. The whole sounded round,
grounded, solid with beautiful timbre even in the strong passages. The result
was a clear version, exalted, bright and very well organized. That’s because
Fagen’s reading makes evident the contrast of the grandeur of God and the
intimacy and simplicity of the supplication.”
Diario de Noticias Navarra – June 15, 2008
“This interpretation of Bruckner was
interesting for its sound quality, as was the Mozart symphony: clean, graceful
and balanced. But the best thing was the structural design of the ‘Romantica’
that Fagen imposed - elegant, sober, no overdone gestures, not a hint of
arrogance or prententiousness: dynamic and yet contained, secure and compact.”
Diario de
Navarra - June 14, 2008
Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsodies” with Liszt’s
Weimar Orchestra for Naxos Records:
“This was a pleasant surprise. These are
expansive and often imaginatively phrased readings with great flair and bold
splashes of color. That’s evident most of all from 2, where Fagen - like
Scherchen, Mehta and Ivan Fischer - employs Liszt’s rarely heard original
version. No. 3 here effectively becomes a concerto for the cymbalon, a pungent
paprikash flavor that combines effectively with Fagen’s indulgent lingering over
the ripely swelling strings. Sound is warm and detailed. It’s good to have such
a satisfying account of the Hungarian Rhapsodies from Liszt’s own orchestra.”
American Record Guide - May-June 2008
“The spectacle of ‘Dream of a summer night,
full of modernism and poetry…’ carried by the great American conductor Arthur
Fagen.”
Nice Matin - April 27, 2008
Naxos CD of Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies with
the Staatskapelle Weimar:
“The Staatskapelle under Arthur Fagen
succeed in a worthy interpretation which thoroughly convinces by its
transparent, light tone quality, continuously propelled by a lively pulse.”
Klassik.com - March 16, 2008
Leading the Staatskapelle Weimar in Liszt’s
“Hungarian Rhapsodies” for Naxos:
“It’s no surprise that he leads Liszt’s own
orchestra in lively and enjoyable performances of the six Hungarian Rhapsodies -
this release earns a solid recommendation in a series of works that appear less
frequently together on a single disc than their erstwhile popularity might
suggest.” ClassicalToday.com - December 2007
As Principal Guest
Conductor of the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano, Italy:
“The things already
good about the company are now even better. Thus the reliably fine chorus here
sounded vibrant, clear and really loud. The brutal choral sections of Act 1 were
piercing, potent, thrilling to experience. Thus conductor Arthur Fagen could
draw intensely colorful sounds from the orchestra, at once gauzy and crystal
clear, like an Impressionist painting that's recently been cleaned. The lavish,
quasi-kitschy “choiserie” sets, rented from the Dallas Opera, properly fit the
stage, filling the space without overpowering us.”
Atlanta Journal Constitution – September 30, 2007
Bidding farewell to Dortmund:
“Fagen conducts a farewell with deep feeling with great
emotion producing a standing ovation. The orchestra became wax in Fagen’s
hands.”
RN Kultur - June 20, 2007
Conducting “Masked Ball”
in Naples:
“The happy hand of Arthur Fagen produces grandiose
quality in both the orchestra and chorus.”
“Arthur Fagen, as the head of an
inspired orchestra is precise and excellent in this famous Verdi score.”
Naples, June 1, 2007
Wagner’s “Ring” at Dortmund:
“Arthur Fagen has a wonderful feeling
for the micro-structure of Wagner’s compositions and pays particular attention
to motives and voices.”
www.onruhr.de - April 17, 2007
“The Orchestra in Dortmund under
Arthur Fagen’s direction performs the music exactly as it’s written – with
beaming colors and illuminating sounds. He conducts the overpowering score with
great sensitivity for sound.”
Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung – April 17, 2007
Verdi’s “La Traviata” with the
Atlanta Opera:
“Conductor Fagen gets much of the
credit. His understanding of Verdi’s early style was sensitive, dramatically
coherent and exquisitely balanced. He breathed with the singers. He drew from
the orchestra – quite properly for an opera premiered in 1853 – sounds that were
stylistically closer to Rossini’s lean classicism than to Puccini’s voluptuous
romanticism. Not an off-the-rack maestro, Fagen seemed like an undiscovered
treasure. I hope he’s invited to conduct again.”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution – October 14, 2005
“The Orchestre
Philharmonique de Nice under the baton of Chief Arthur Fagen has been able to
make all the nuances and return all emotions, especially this time of great
beauty between the two first acts.”
www.theoperacritic.com