Great Review for Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Concerts

Washington Post

May 6, 2022 written by Michael Andor Brodeur

Reif was an arresting force from the podium, his body snapping like a whip, tightening and softening as though he were loaded with springs. At times the work was entirely a matter of his hands, which banished and beckoned sounds from all around him.

The conductor brought the same variety of expression to Mozart’s Symphony No. 39, a piece so perma-polished it can be hard to tell when it’s being freshened. Reif matched a fluid grace with an architectural sensibility, offering a detail-oriented performance with especially pleasing lightness and clarity across the woodwinds.

The Mozart showcased the BSO’s strong, invested and slightly caffeinated sound. Even at their softest or most refined (that Ländler in the third movement was pure delight), the musicians felt fully charged, extra-present.

Reif’s fondness for Strauss was evident in his inhabitation of the suite’s many moods, from the bellowing entrance (Octavian and the Marschallin’s passion a fitting bookend to Henze’s) to its wild waltz(es), which Reif threw himself fully into, indulging their oomph while sharpening their irony.

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