Bernhard Gueller – Press

“I much enjoyed Gueller’s account of the last Brahms symphony, characterized by lushly measured tempi which gave full opportunity for winds to bloom. This was truly autumnal Brahms (particularly the Phrygian-themed Andante), with lovely attention to detail but guided throughout by an unfaltering sense of the final, magisterial goal.”

“Gueller’s affinity for Brahms makes any time he conducts this composer’s music a revelation. In it, we heard references, not to the fields and flowers and the optimistic sunshine of the 19th century, but to it’s emotional underlay.”

“The orchestra, sensitive and intuitive as always under Gueller’s amazingly suggestive baton, distinguished itself by performing minor miracles of tonal and instrumental colour. From concert to concert they just get better and better. They are developing a warmth of colour and sound not often heard in small orchestras that do not have the players to layer up the quilts of sound in larger orchestras. They also are developing a uniquely intuitive artist’s palette where the pigments are all live and aware and independently creative as they mix and mingle under the brush of Geuller’s beat.”

“Gueller has a genius for underlining the momentum of a phrase into a model of clarity and intelligibility… The programming concept of surrounding Beethoven’s rhythmic masterpiece with asymmetrical energy (Stravinsky) and serene, golden balance (Haydn). Gueller is masterful at this kind of musical gem-setting.”

“Gueller … is a podium master. His skill and profound musicality enabled him to concentrate on how best to bring out Schumann’s many elegant musical ideas and structures.”

“It takes a Gueller…Listening to the final minutes of the finale was one of the most shattering experiences I have ever had at a symphony concert. It takes something rare to know and experience that excitement but to keep control of it at the same time, which is perhaps the ultimate skill of the performing artist…All in all, there could be no finer way to end the season.”

“He draws enthusiastic, but precise playing, caressing every dynamic nuance in the score with the kind of precision and skill which allows each of these eight sketches in sound to make its mark: in turn piquant or charming to suit the character of each.”

“Symphony Nova Scotia’s Bernhard Gueller has a way of going to the heart of the matter that compels attention. He knows how orchestral music works. He knows it on the surface level, the level of technical skill, a matter of instrumental balance and tempo that are indicated by way of gesture, and felt by way of artistic subtleties of weight and inflection. More than this, he understands musical drama and plot with intuitive certainty. Players under his guidance, knowing through the rehearsal process how he wants things to go, respond in performance to the most subtle hints of contour and colour.”

“Gueller has a fine conception of [Sibelius Symphony No. 2], and he did not fall into the frequent trap of taking the first movement too fast. His relaxed tempo and pulsing rhythms spoke eloquently of frozen evergreen forests…”