GAVRIEL HEINE
CONDUCTOR
Press
Adam: Giselle
United Ukrainian Ballet with Pacific Symphony
Segerstrom Hall
Costa Mesa, California
"The winning conductor Gavriel Heine and the Pacific Symphony performed Adolphe Adam’s gorgeous melodies live, and the music was truly magnificent."
KYLIÁN WISER • Stage and Cinema • 1 July 2023
"This Giselle made magic the old-fashioned way — by the passionate acting and dancing of its principals, and, oh, that symphony orchestra in the pit. Under the blistering baton of Gavriel Heine, The Pacific Symphony squoze every dance-able drop out of the Adolph Adam score. How the live symphony pushed those dancers to move!"
DEBRA LEVINE • arts•meme • 2 July 2023
"With music by Adolphe Adam, and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, conductor Gavriel Heine amazed the audience with incredible precision of a classic tale, whose music was just as important as the choreography itself."
GRACE COURVOISIER • LA Dance Chronicle • 3 July 2023
Bernstein: Candide
Opéra de Lausanne
Lausanne, Switzerland
“The conductor Gavriel Heine motivates the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne to top form and leaves plenty of room for voices, moods and feelings.”
MARCEL BURKHARDT • Online Merker • 14 November 2022
“The singers form a well-knit troupe, under the agile and clear direction of Gavriel Heine, in a poetic staging, tinged with surrealism by Vincent Boussard, and magnificent costumes by Christian Lacroix.”
JULIAN SYKES • Le Temps • 14 November 2022
“The sparkling and fluid reading of Bernstein's music by the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and Gavriel Heine, the luxury and inventiveness put into the extravagant costumes signed Christian Lacroix, the virtuosity of Nicolas Gilli's lighting, everything contributes to making this "Candide" a lyrical garden to cherish and cultivate in our memories.”
MATTHIEU CHENAL • 24heures • 14 November 2022
“The furious rhythm that followed was produced by the baton of the young American conductor Gavriel Heine who studied at the Moscow and St. Petersburg Conservatories. From the Overture, he sparkled with Leonard Bernstein's orchestration and carried both the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and the Lausanne Opera Chorus into a whirlwind that also knows how to subside, when it is necessary to accompany the singers.”
PAUL-ANDRÉ DEMIERRE • Crescendo Magazine • 22 November 2022
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake
Royal Ballet
Royal Opera House (Live Cinema Relay)
London, UK
"U.S. born and Russia trained Gavriel Heine recently resigned from his position of resident conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg after 15 seasons and with the support of the virtuosic Orchestra of the Royal Opera House conducted – as heard through the cinema loudspeakers – the best account of Tchaikovsky’s score I can remember hearing during a live performance. He never held back at the big moments or indulged his dancers and overall this Swan Lake was notable for its classical elegance and narrative fluidity."
JIM PRITCHARD • Seen and Heard International • 21 May, 2022
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin
Opéra de Lausanne
Lausanne, Switzerland
"The American conductor Gavriel Heine, based as a resident conductor at the Mariinsky in St. Petersburg, did a reading full of musicality and drama. He went at all times looking for the passion printed in the score…"
ALBERT GARRIGA • Opera Actual • 13 April, 2022
"Gavriel Heine leaves little to be desired at the desk of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. He presents sonic beauty and a very focused tempo guidance, which offered the singing a great deal of support."
MARCEL EMIL BURKHARDT • Online Merker • 09 April, 2022
"This delicacy of setting the scene goes goes hand in hand so well with Gavriel Heine's sensitive and careful approach, on the podium with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra… By never forcing the format, the conductor responds intelligently to the concern for balance between voice and pit desired by Tchaikovsky, a balance supported by the certain density of the strings, nourished without invading the general chiseling of the interpretation."
BERTRAND BOLOGNESI • Anaclase • 6 April, 2022
"It should be noted that, in the pit, Gavriel Heine, a young American conductor, the first graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, also shakes up the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra by energizing it to the extreme… he knows how to cultivate the finesse of the line at the beginning of Act II, while permeating the entire text with passionate synergy."
PAUL-ANDRE DEMIERRE • Crescendo Magazine • 5 April 2022
"In the pit, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Gavriel Heine, makes tons of pathos."
CLAUDIO POLONI • Concertonet • 04 April, 2022
"In addition to the visual ... and musical (the OCL and Opera Choir galvanized by Gavriel Heine), this version of "Eugène Onéguine" is magnified by an international cast, but very involved in the idiomatic expression of the Russian soul."
MATTHIEU CHENAL • 24 Heures • 04 April, 2022
Puccini: Tosca
Northern Lights Music Festival
Chisholm, Minnesota, USA
"The floor-level orchestral area also looked unusual. String players wore masks, sat further apart than usual, and had their own music stand instead of sharing. Plexiglass divided them from the woodwind, and from a socially distanced brass section which stretched to the limit of the amphitheatre area.... Gavriel Heine was an unflappable presence in this far-flung configuration, his conducting punchily dramatic when needed but notably sensitive to the music's lyrically delicate moments."
TERRY BLAIN • Opera UK • September 2020 edition
“The orchestra was expertly led by Gavriel Heine, and the brass section exploded with energy in the infamous opening chords.”
CALLIE COOPER • Schmopera • 31 July, 2020
Verdi: Otello
Ópera de Bellas Artes
Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City
“The hero of the evening was the young conductor Gavriel Heine, who was able to extract from orchestra, choirs and soloists what, in my opinion, was a performance that I would have regretted not having seen.”
LUIS GUITERREZ • L'Ape Musicale • 11 July, 2019
"The musical direction was entrusted to Gavriel Heine, with an illustrious literary surname and Russian training at the Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg. The passion of his fortissimi carries that Russian footprint, this time depending on the Italian grandiloquence and the requirements of the libretto. In the ensembles and choruses, he took all the necessary brilliance and in moments like the duet of Otello and Desdemona of the first act and the final scene in the fourth act, he was able to extract the essential pathos from the score to enhance the character of the work."
ENRIQUE R. MIRABAL • InterEscena • 10 July, 2019
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet
Boston Ballet
Boston Opera House, Boston, USA
"The Boston Ballet Orchestra, under guest conductor Gavriel Heine, gave raw, lusty life to Prokofiev’s acerbic, bittersweet score in an interpretation that was full of tempo contrasts."
JEFFREY GANTZ • The Boston Globe • 16 March, 2018
"Mariinsky resident conductor Gavriel Heine led the evening, offering robust energy to the pit of the Boston Ballet Orchestra. The orchestra followed suit, phrasing some spots with such fury that I found myself constantly wishing for the pit to be elevated for better projection. Brass and woodwinds lead the ensemble to a beefy resilience."
RACHAEL FULLER • Boston Musical Intelligencer • 17 March, 2018
“Dance buffs and Boston Ballet Fans will find that Jane Bourne's staging and Gavriel Heine's conducting are as masterful as the ballet itself... Heine sharply captures the haunting passages as well as the soaring ones in Prokofiev's exquisite music.”
JULES BECKER • South End News • 29 March, 2018
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake
Mariinsky Theatre
Saint Petersburg, Russia
“The impeccable sound of the Mariinsky orchestra under the baton of the skilled Gavriel Heine, filling a theatre made specifically to hear this richness, was nothing short of exquisite on 14 November. With energetic verve every instrument, from the winds to the percussion, came together to meet Tchaikovsky's score the way it was intended.”
CATHERINE PAWLICK • Vaganova Today • 14 November, 2017
Minkus: La Bayadère
Mariinsky U.S. Tour
Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra
Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, USA
"Gavriel Heine keeps the story moving along with his skillful conducting of The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra in the familiar Ludwig Minkus score."
CAROLYN KELEMEN • DC Metro Theater Arts • 19 October, 2017
"Ludwig Minkus’s score is wildly uneven. It has moments of great lyricism, pretty waltzes, and playful interludes, but also some plodding, repetitious bits. Yet, through thick and thin, the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, conducted by the Mariinsky’s Gavriel Heine, was superb, with especially beefy mid-range brass, lovely violin and harp solos, and animated percussion..."
ALEXANDER C. KAFKA • DC Theatre Scene • 19 October, 2017
Chopiniana/Le Spectre de la Rose/Dying Swan/Scheherazade
Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra Tour
Segerstrom Hall
Costa Mesa, California
"With a stellar Gavriel Heine conducting an equally marvelous orchestra, the dancers not only seemed to float on gossamer layers of tulle, but their every move appeared to be an organic response to the lush music of Chopin."
VICTORIA LOOSELEAF • Fjord Review • 17 October, 2017
Glazunov: Raymonda
Mariinsky U.S. Tour
Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra
Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, USA
"It was a refreshingly vibrant moment in an evening that for the most part reveled in its glorious cobwebs – amplified by the conductor Gavriel Heine, who wrested from the score every drop of grandeur it would allow."
ANNE MIDGETTE • The Washington Post • 26 February, 2016
"The music was well played by the Kennedy Center Orchestra, with the American, but Russian-trained, conductor Gavriel Heine shaping it lusciously..."
"...the finest passage occurred without motion onstage. As the first scene of Act I concluded, Raymonda slumbered in a chair on our right. On our left, at the back, a tapestry depicting Jean suddenly turned into the armored Mr. Askerov. He stood still. Nothing else happened — except for Glazunov’s music lavishly conjuring all the longing between them and our view of a Provençal courtly garden at twilight."
ALASTAIR MACAULAY • The New York Times • 24 February, 2016
Lehar: The Merry Widow
Northern Lights Festival Opera
Aurora, Minnesota (USA)
“Judging from the enthusiastic audience at the opening night on July 10, the festival has galvanized the Iron Range community, and the performance had plenty of oomph... But the performance's driving force was Heine. He had an accomplished orchestra to work with and made the most of the opportunity, encouraging vibrant performances from both players and singers and setting flexible tempos that brought out the score's rhythmic lilt."
GEORGE LOOMIS • Opera (UK) • October 2015
Prokofiev: Cinderella
Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra Tour
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
Los Angeles, California
“What you heard was Gavriel Heine leading the company orchestra in a sumptuous and often profound performance of the score.”
LEWIS SEGAL • Los Angeles Times • 11 October 2015
"The Mariinsky Orchestra deserves special mention for magnificent playing. They elevated Glazunov’s serviceable music for Raymonda and powered the whole of Prokofiev’s expressive score with phenomenally detailed playing, making this easily the best music of any recent local dance performance in Los Angeles. Ratmansky is finely attuned to his scores. His choreography is as detailed as the music. But it was the orchestra and Gavriel Heine’s expressive conducting that gave us the clean edgy rhythms, color, and sweep that made it seem essential."
STEVEN WOODRUFF • Bachtrack • 10 October 2015
“Prokofiev’s scores for Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella are simultaneously exuberant and sensuous, dark and ironic. To hear Cinderella played by the Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Gavriel Heine as they accompany the Mariinsky Ballet is to experience all the lushness and dissonance this music has to offer. The brilliance of Prokofiev’s composition is honored from its elegant waltzes to its abrupt harmonic shifts… it is a night to revel in the beauty of the Mariinsky dancers and the gift of Prokofiev’s music as played by the exhilarating Mariinsky Orchestra.”
JANE ROSENBERG • Seen and Heard International • 10 October 2015
"Add to the ballet the lush, vigorous and brilliantly chromaticized sounds of Prokofiev’s 1945 brooding score, with American-born Gavriel Heine deftly helming the glorious 64-piece Mariinsky Orchestra, and this is a “Cinderella” to remember."
VICTORIA LOOSELEAF • Fjord Review • 10 October 2015
"But what kept jumping up at us was Prokofiev's music -- because the Mariinsky Orchestra under Gavriel Heine was brilliantly resonant and edgily stratified, undergirding the whole performance."
DONNA PERLMUTTER • LA Observed • 26 October 2015
Prokofiev: Cinderella
Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra Tour
Zellerbach Hall
Berkeley, California
"All went extremely well Thursday in the pit, where American-born Gavriel Heine conducted the 64 members of the Mariinsky Orchestra in a large-scale, effortlessly brooding performance of the Prokofiev score, finding and sustaining the music’s pensive lyricism. It doesn’t get any better."
ALLAN ULRICH • San Francisco Chronicle, 2 October 2015
"Bolshoi Ballet-trained Alexei Ratmansky’s sleek choreography and the marvels of Prokofiev’s score handled boldly by the orchestra and deftly by conductor Gavriel Heine, added luster to the production’s glamour."
LOU FANCHER • SF Weekly • 2 October 2015
"But I note Gavriel Heine led the Mariinsky Orchestra through Prokofiev’s 1945 score, and their exuberant rendition made the entire evening worthwhile."
CLAUDIA BAUER • DanceTabs • 3 October 2015
"What I most appreciated about this "Cinderella" is that Ratmansky, however imperfectly, picked up on the darker, gloomy aspect of Prokofiev score in which an edgy sarcasm co-exists with lovely melodic and harmonic material. As performed by the Mariinsky Orchestra -- with its splendid woodwind and brass sections -- the complexity of that music was beautifully served by the American-born, now St. Petersburg resident, conductor Gavriel Heine."
RITA FELCIANO • Dance View Times • 3 October 2015
"In the pit, the Mariinsky Orchestra, impeccably conducted Thursday by Gavriel Heine, made the score sound bright and new."
JANICE BERMAN • San Francisco Classical Voice • 5 October 2015
Glazunov: Raymonda
Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra Tour
Segerstrom Hall
Costa Mesa, California
"On the plus side, it has a gorgeous score by Alexander Glazunov, with Hungarian-scented folk accents and stirring strings, and mesmerizing solos for harp and piano. Conductor Gavriel Heine elicited opulent sound from the Mariinsky orchestra."
LAURA BLEIBERG • Los Angeles Times • 25 September 2015
"Yet thanks to outstanding performances by the Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra, it (Raymonda) transcends anachronisms to surge forward on the Slavic physicality of Alexander Glazunov’s score and Petipa’s bold choreography so as to reveal a singular ballet heroine who definitely deserves prime time… Paired with the exquisite Mariinsky Orchestra, conducted by Gavriel Heine, Tereshkina demonstrated the waves of security and fragility that pulse with Raymonda's changing moods."
JEAN LENIHAN • Orange County Register • 25 September 2015
Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty
Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg
"The tempi throughout the ballet are nigh on perfect, considerate to the dancers yet full of urgency when necessary, and the Mariinsky orchestra under the intelligent baton of Gavriel Heine produces ravishing individual and collective sound. I pray that one day Heine will conduct ballet at Covent Garden."
MIKE DIXON • Dance Europe • March 2015
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake
Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra Tour
Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, USA
"The Mariinsky Orchestra was in very fine form under the baton of Gavriel Heine, who shaped the sweeping melodies of Tchaikovsky with focus and flair, drawing a lush, glorious sound from the musicians."
OKSANA KHADARINA • Fjord Review • 27 January 2015
"Gavriel Heine, the first American-born graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, gave the company much better tempos and energy, and helped make this ballet seem to be all about explosiveness and newness. From the bold splashes of the ballet’s overture to the last fall of the curtain, this “Swan Lake” gave the carefully protected Russian classic a fresh new look. "
MARIANNE ADAMS • danceviewtimes.com • 28 January 2015
Rite of Spring/Le Spectre de la Rose/Dying Swan/Paquita
Mariinsky U.S. Tour
Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra
Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, USA
"Visually and musically spectacular"
SARAH KAUFMAN • The Washington Post • 28 January 2015
"Watching the Mariinsky dancers last evening, I kept wondering what it would have been like to critique the 1913 opening. Is there now more appreciation for Stravinsky’s demanding score? Conductor Gavriel Heine sensitively directed The Kennedy Center Orchestra this time around, and principal dancer Daria Pavlenko soared in those two dozen or more difficult jumps... We’ll never know what really happened so many years ago, but we can certainly see the genius of Nijinsky and Stravinsky and the Mariinsky Ballet in this current run at The Kennedy Center."
CAROLYN KELEMEN • DCMetroTheaterArt.com • 28 January 2015
Apollo/A Midsummer Night's Dream
Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra Tour
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, UK
"...Outstanding performances in a triple whammy from the dancers, orchestra and singers... As far as the aural pleasure was concerned, the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre – conducted by Gavriel Heine – played Felix Mendelssohn’s score sublimely... Stravinsky’s score (Apollo) was played superbly on a great night for the musicians."
GRAHAM WATTS • londondance.com • 9 August 2014
"Gavriel Heine conducted Stravinsky’s score with obvious devotion..."
JIM PRITCHARD • Seen and Heard International • 9 August 2014
"Apollo was performed with pleasing care - to fine playing from the Mariinsky Orchestra under Gavriel Heine..."
ISMENE BROWN • theartsdesk.com • 11 August 2014
"The Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre under the baton of Gavriel Heine played the overture with great feeling and atmosphere – especially in the lightness of the string section – and set the tone for the ballet... It was a magical performance for both sight and sound"
MARGARET WILLIS • DanceTabs • 11 August 2014
"The playing by the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra was warm and sweeping, with fine singing by Kiandra Howarth, Anush Hovhannisyan and the National Youth Choirs GB Chamber Choir."
HANNAH WEIBYE • Bachtrack • 11 August 2014
Delibes/Ashton: Sylvia (Premiere)
Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg
"The beauty and delight of Delibes' music was masterfully conveyed by the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra under the direction of Gavriel Heine."
IGOR STUPNIKOV • Saint-Petersburg Vedomosti • 7 April 2014
Lerner/Lowe: My Fair Lady (Premiere)
Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg
By George, she’s got it!
“The Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Gavriel Heine, was apparently enjoying itself in the pit on Saturday, performing with ease, drive and courage.”
GALINA STOLYAROVA • The St. Petersburg Times • 22 February 2012
The Mariinsky passes the light genre test
“…the quality of the production is surprisingly high: carefully crafted staging and images, rousing choreography and a sparkling orchestra under the direction of Gavriel Heine are among its undisputed merits.”
GULARA SADYKH-ZADE • Fontanka.ru • 22 February 2012
Bartok: Bluebeard’s Castle
Mariinsky Theatre tour
Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow
A dark start to the Golden Mask
“But the main hero of the production was the orchestra, which, even in the absence of Gergiev, painted a vivid picture under the direction of the young American Gavriel Heine: expressive and stylish, majestic and tragic. It spun its own strikingly gripping saga…”
ALEXANDER MATUSEVICH • OperaNews.ru • 30 January 2011
Sinfonieorchester Basel
Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet, Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
Stimmige Interpretation
"It has been a long time since the Hall of the Stadtcasino seen such a carefully prepared performance of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet overture that corresponds so closely to the concept of the composer, presented to the public. The Sinfonieorchester Basel, under the energetic, no-nonsense, elegant and focused direction of the New Jersey-born conductor Gavriel Heine (who stepped in for the indisposed Nikolaj Znaider), designed a sound-world with filigree shading in a manner familiar to all: a lineature of sound, polished to perfection.
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 c-Moll, op. 67, is famous as a composition with a four-note motive chords, that the entire world knows and hums. This so-called symphony of Fate with its penetrating pathos will turn 200 years old this December. And here it wasn’t about the preparing the orchestra to play in a fresher manner. Not losing the vision of the entire picture as a whole, Gavriel Heine, with his impressive way of conducting, constructed the mood and atmosphere in such a way, to show the public a firm and plastic sound-picture, with a dynamic that was full of life.
The first movement was full of decisive rhythmical flow, and in the powerful-in-contrast second movement, the skillful modeling of the fields of tension was especially pleasing. If music can breathe, then it was indeed felt in the third movement. Then, an effective transition to the finale, from Minor to Major. Inspiring to hear, sharpening and pulsing vital elements grew in the Finale. The public, sitting quietly as a mouse for 35 minutes, presented the musicians with enthusiastic applause at the end."
PAUL SCHORNO • Basellandschaftliche Zeitung • 17 November 2007
Valery Gergiev Masterclass with Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
De Doelen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, September 2007:
"Most spectacular is candidate number three, the American Gavriel Heine. [...] Penetrating eyes, a stickless hand-ballet with fingers that pluck the sound from the air - he is a conductor with pronounced charisma, who wants a lot, and also gets it."
Spectaculairder is kandidaat nummer drie, de Amerikaan Gavriel Heine. [...] Borende ogen, een stokloos handenballet met vingers die de klank uit de lucht plukken – hij is een dirigent met uitgesproken charisma, die veel wil, en het krijgt ook.
FRITS VAN DER WAA • De Volkskrant • 08-09-07
Le nozze di Figaro
Mariinsky Theatre debut
“Some days prior to the closing of the season, the name of a new conductor appeared on the poster of the Mariinsky Theatre: the young American musician Gavriel Heine debuted with Mozart’s opera “The Marriage of Figaro.”
“Even before the start of the performance, there was an assumption that a person with the surname of a poet and the first name of an archangel, meaning no more and no less than “the strength of God”, should be fortunate. To gather such a strong cast for a debutant at such a time of year doesn’t always work out. The presentiments of success were justified from the first measures of the opera. The light overture dashed along in one breath, after which in a similarly easy and spontaneous manner began the duet of the enamored Figaro and Susanna.
It was pleasantly striking that Gavriel Heine did not at all gather to show what a debutant of genius he was. In every way he desired one thing – to show what a composer of genius Mozart was, and what tremendous music he wrote. The conductor was – and the conductor was not: he was like an invisible man, but in point of fact he was perfectly on top of the issues.
Already during the overture the conductor elicited admiration for how correctly and dynamically he set up the blocks of the score, aspiring to execute Mozart's masterpiece delicately and as close to the original as possible. It is possible to say that he selected the path of authentism - "historically authentic performance". And so it continued - throughout the length of the entire opera not once arose a glitch in tempo. It seemed that the conductor played his chess game as if Mozart was playing it himself. Therefore everything converged in the dramaturgy of the performance as well. The main sense of the opera was revealed to the listener with maximum transparency – the narrative of a sweet and lingering (truth be told, not without a slightly bitter aftertaste) search of one’s second half…
…Such performances, when every word is understandable without translation even in Italian, when slaps in the face turn out to be real and synchronized to music, happen infrequently. The very biased art of opera quite depends, probably, on the movement of heavenly bodies. And, apparently, on the conductor.”
VLADIMIR DUDIN • Saint-Petersburg Vedomosti • 24 July 2007
Sinfonieorchester Basel, Switzerland
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances
“RUCKSHAU AUFS LEBEN”
“…spielte das Sinfonieorchester Basel die Ouverture “The School for Scandal”… das Heine elegant und fein ausgearbeitet dirigierte.
In Rachmaninows letzter Komposition herrscht eine gedämpfte, fahle Stimmung vor… Gerade für diese spezifische Klanglichkeit zeigte Heine viel Sinn. Er verstieg sich nie in bravouröse Prahlerei mit oberflächlichen Effekten, sondern leistete vor allem im unteren Bereich der Dynamik konzentrierte Detailarbeit mit Elastizität im Tempo. Selbst die virtuosen Fortissimo-Ausbrüche kamen immer intensiv und bedacht daher und trugen wohl massgeblich dazu bei, dass das Publikum nach dem unerbittlichen, lange ausgehaltenen Tamtam-Schlag beeindruckt applaudierte.”
…The Sinfonieorchester Basel played the Overture "The School for Scandal"... elegantly and finely directed by Heine.
In Rachmaninoff’s final composition, a softened, pallid disposition prevailed… Heine showed much sense of the direct line to this specific sonority. He never went so far as bravouröse bragging with superficial effects, but rather worked in concentrated detail with elasticity of tempo, performed above all in the lower area of the dynamics. Even the masterly fortissimo-outbreaks always arrived intensively, considered beforehand, and therefore probably contributed significantly to the fact the public applauded, impressed, after the inexorable, long sustained Tamtam stroke ."
FABIAN KRISTMANN • Basellandschaftliche Zeitung • 25 Mai 2007
“Sinfonische Tänze bildeten den effektvollen Schlusspunkt… Gavriel Heine sparte nicht Effekten, sei es das kompakte, duftige und atmosphärisch dichte lyrische Streicherthema im kopfsatz, seien es etliche knallige Blechbläserstellen oder der lange ausklingende Schlussschlag. Das Gefühlspedal wurde eifrig bedient, sicherlich kein Fehler bei derart pathosfüllter Musik.”
Symphonic Dances served as an effective closing point… Gavriel Heine spared no effects, whether it was the compact, heady and atmospheric lyrical string theme in the opening movement, were it the sharp brass outbursts, or the long-ringing sound of the final blow. The “pedal point of feeling” was well served, surely not a mistake in this pathos-rich music.
SIEGFRIED SCHIBLI • Basler Zeitung • 25 Mai 2007
Sinfonieorchester Basel
Le Tombeau de Couperin, An American in Paris
Facettenreiches Musikpaket
(...) Das Sinfonieorchester Basel bot ein bunt gemischtes Programm an mit vielfältig unterschiedlichen Stimmungen und Klangfarben.
Der junge amerikanische Dirigent Gavriel Heine, seit drei Jahren Chefdirigent des Kharkov Symphony Orchestra (Ukraine), dirigierte, angereichert mit einer optisch wirkungsvollen Prise Theatralik der dezenten Art. Damit kam er bei den Musikern und beim Publikum gut an.
Eröffnet wurde das Muttertagskonzert mit Maurice Ravels "Le Tombeau de Couperin" in vier Sätzen (...). Dem Orchester oblag die dankbare Aufgabe, differenzierend äusserst nuancenreiche Klangbilder in reicher instrumentaler Besetzung "malen" zu dürfen, ein Anspruch, der mit disponierendem Blick auf das Ganze sorgfältig modelliert wurde.
(…)
Zum Abschluss Gershwins "An American in Paris". Da war der in New Jersey geborene Dirigent in seinem Element. Beflügelnd sein Dirigat, dem das Orchester mit pulsierendem musikantischen Gestus folgte und dieses unterhaltsame Opus mit konzertantem Drive einem begeisterten Publikum präsentierte.
Enriched with a visually effective, yet discreet, touch of dramatic gesture much liked by the musicians and the public, the young American conductor, Gavriel Heine, who has been the Principal Conductor of the Kharkov Symphony Orchestra (Ukraine) for three years, conducted the concert.
The Mother’s Day Concert was opened with Maurice Ravel’s “Le Tombeau De Couperin” in four movements (…). The orchestra was given the gratifying task to be allowed to “paint” in a discerning way images of utmost tone richness in a richly instrumented arrangement. This demand was fulfilled as the music was modeled with care under the delegating eye (of the conductor) overseeing the whole....
…Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” concluded the concert. That’s when the New Jersey-born conductor was right in his element. His inspiring way of conducting gave wings to the orchestra, which followed in a pulsating and musically intense manner, presenting this entertaining work with aliveness and drive to an enthusiastic audience.
PAUL SCHORNO • Basellandschaftliche Zeitung •16 May 2006
Kharkov Symphony Orchestra
Montenegro tour
"The Romanian Folk Dances of Bela Bartok … passed by in an exchange of vibrant rhythmicity, enticing graciousness, memorable sensuality, singing melodicism and lively temperament, which the energetic conductor Heine channeled both suggestively and creatively, in both the fast and tonally flowing slower movements.
(…)
The Kharkov Symphonists expressed affinity for their Russian heritage by turning to Arensky’s Variations on a theme of Tchaikovsky… The combined leading of broadly shaped and juicily singing lines, thanks to disciplined and inspired musicianship, gave the possibility for the oblique shaped legato in the main theme, saturated sonority and melancholically painful, darkly coloured shades, but also for sharper, more dramatic, even scherzotic accents of the faster, rhythmically charged variations shaped by the beautiful motions and clear gestures of the conductor."
Marija Adamov • Pobjeda (Montenegro) • 15 July 2005
Kharkov Symphony Orchestra
Kharkov, Ukraine
“…The 10th anniversary concert, on January 29, was an encounter with the American Gavriel Heine. Kharkovites remember him from his performance at the International Festival “Kharkov Assemblies”, when he literally astounded the audience with the newness and naturalness of his interpretations. This time, Heine again enraptured his audience. Young, energetic, unbelievably charming and emotional, he fired up the musicians with his temperament and subordinated them to his own personal vision of the works. The musicians played in one breath, keenly following the clear direction of the conductor. The amazing combination of the emotional grasp of the music, the control of all articulations and phrases, and the relationship of the various groups of the orchestra, allowed Heine to anew open up the worn down works of the world classics.
Under his direction orchestral colors came alive: noble and clean (!) chords of the brass, characteristic timbres of the woodwinds, and unforced, coloristic sounds of the strings. The musical events never let the listener go for even a minute…
The Kharkovite • Kharkov, Ukraine • Feb. 2, 2003
Photo: Andrey Nastasenko
Photo: Sila Avvakum