Reviews

A simply magnificent account of Britten’s Frank Bridge Variations: Curtis’s tempos and structural command were enormously impressive. On this showing, under Curtis’s most excellent conducting and admirable sense of interpretative styles, the Swan Orchestra’s players were revealed to be of international standard
Kings Place, Robert Matthew-Walker 

I’ve never known the reliably excellent Orchestra of the Swan play to the standards it’s achieving at the moment with one of Haydn’s symphonies urbane and witty under David Curtis’ direction.  Mendelssohn’s Symphony no4… The orchestra was on fire here, Curtis’ tempi swift and flowing, dynamically shaped and bursting with controlled energy 
Birmingham Post

A packed house for this concert by Orchestra of the Swan, a genuine esprit de corps, with players as keenly alert to each other as they are to conductor David Curtis
Daily Telegraph

David Curtis has raised this jewel of an orchestra (Orchestra of the Swan) to an impressive level of performance
The Guardian

The performance was astonishing.  I know and love this symphony (Beethoven Eroica) so well, but wasn’t prepared for the brightness, clarity and well-balanced tone Curtis and his players delivered. This orchestra clicked with detail, accents were spot-on and structures well-built…  but best of all was the awesome catafalque of sound Curtis drew in the adagio’s funeral march
Birmingham Post

Curtis is a reassuringly calm yet always encouraging and cajoling presence on the rostrum 
The Gramophone  

Charismatic, inspiring…a conductor who deserves wider recognition
Birmingham Post

Orchestra of the Swan styles itself as an ensemble of possibilities, clearly believing them to be infinite, and so it should…a tribute to the conductor and players that a far-from-easy programme should have elicited such a warm reception
The Guardian

Curtis introduces the music from the podium and has a nonchalant manner which plays down the mission to illuminate, but his grip on the music is firm.  Orchestra of the Swan really showed its mettle in Britten’s Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge, defining repertoire for a chamber orchestra of this size and all the work’s parodying humour surfaced with a genuine exuberance
Musical Opinion

A vivid sense of an excellent, up-for-it orchestra and conductor
BBC Music Magazine Bax/Ireland Piano Concertos

David Curtis’s conducting, is close to Boult’s, if more intimate, and slightly more perceptive
The American Record Guide

Orchestra of the Swan and conductor David Curtis, spaciously recorded in Birmingham Town Hall, do the sheer rhetorical sweep of the orchestration full justice.
International Record Review 

Orchestra of the Swan make fine work of these scores under the able leadership of David Curtis 
Fanfare Magazine USA/Mozart Piano Concertos

This is a wholly delightful release.  Tempos are relaxed, phrasing is shapely and there’ clearly a good working relationship between pianist, orchestra and conductor David Curtis
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