“…Marc Taddei, carrying his players along with him to big, bold and resolute effect, the final minutes of the work perhaps taking late-Romantic symphonic expression to an apotheosis of sorts matched subsequently only by Mahler in his ‘Symphony of a Thousand’. Heroes all, the Orchestra Wellington players, sticking with their conductor as if their lives depended on the outcome, and together realising a performance whose impact will be sure to resound within the minds of those of us who heard it for many a day to come.”
“Then there was the sheer excellence and accuracy of the lively orchestral playing and Taddei’s very conspicuous attention to the roles of every section and solo instrument, not to mention the overall architecture of the symphony.”
“Though there was long and rapturous applause I was surprised that no one stood to acknowledge Marc Taddei’s achievement. That he conducted the work without the score might not have been so remarkable in the Jupiter Symphony, but it was in the case of this masterpiece nearly three times as long.”
“The Mozart was a total delight: elegant, exuberant, and joyful.”
“Conductor Taddei, conducting without score, opted for the Nowak edition – and showed a real feel for this pinnacle of the Late German Romantic tradition.”
“…conductor and players seemed to me to sound the work’s opening as if THIS music was the hitherto undiscovered or neglected treasure we had come to hear this evening.”