Dr. Allen Robert Gross
Music Director & Conductor
REVIEWS.
Links to: Video Clips ~~ Reviews ~~ Clippings
Honored by the National Endowment for the Arts
with five successive grants
to bring access to Artistic Excellence to the community.

Gross has the rare ability to excite an orchestra, to get it to reach beyond its capabilities. His beat is vigorous and sharply cut; he projects assurance and enthusiasm from the podium, clearly in charge. . . In Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, Gross realized the seldom-delivered forceful, irresistible rhythm this symphony is mainly about. While observing every repeat, he was able to shape the argument in a distinctly individual manner, with sharpened edges and the willingness to hold back at the right times in order to crank up the energy level later. . . Clearly, Santa Monica has found something special in its new music director."
Richard S. Ginell, LOS ANGELES TIMES

"Der amerikanische Dirigent Allen Gross is ein nicht nur stilbewußter, sondern auch von Einmaligen, Unverwechselbaren eines jeden Werkes faszinierter Interpret. Die enorme Einsatzfreude, aud die er im Orchester trifft, nutzt er zu unermüdlichem Feilen ebenso wie zum engagierten Verlebendigen der Partitur. Historiches wird ihm Gegenwart."
[The American conductor Allen Gross is a style-conscious interpreter who is also fascinated by the unique, distinctive qualities of each work. The tremendous enthusiasm which he arouses in the orchestra is used to polish as well as to vitalize the score. For him, the historical becomes the present.]
Heidelberg TAGEBLATT


"He got his players . . . to play with wonderful spirit and freedom. This orchestra did not play tentatively, even in such difficult music as Richard Strauss' Don Juan, which opened the program. . . . Beethoven's First Symphony romped joyously, its instrumental detail frank and characterful, its accents emphatic and springy. . . . In all its essentials, the music bloomed."
Timothy Mangan, LOS ANGELES TIMES


"Mozarts Sinfonie B-Dur KV 319 modellierte Gross als atmendes Miteinander frhklassiker Gesten, die von Elementen des galanten Stils bis zu solchen des Sturm und Drang reichen."
[Gross molded Mozart's B-flat Major Symphony K. 319 into a living embodiment of early classic gestures, which combines elements of the "galant" style with those of the "Sturm und Drang."]
Heidelberg TAGEBLATT


"Gross directed the [Mahler Fifth Symphony] with simplicity, clarity, and fluidity. He never dawdled over transitions or noodled over details. He didn't delve into personal distortion. Thus, in a swift 65 minutes, this reading was strong on continuity, enlightening in its rhythmic focus. The Fifth emerged as a piece of music first, a diary of Mahler's emotional excesses a distant second. It was refreshing."
Timothy Mangan, LOS ANGELES TIMES


"Erste Überraschung: die Ouvertüre, der Orchesterklang. Der Mut und die Fähigkeit zum Piano, ja Pianissimo. Die Kunst des musikalischen Feinschliffs ließ an diesem Premierabend immer wieder aufhorchen. Das ist in erster Linie Allen Gross am Pult zu danken."
[First surprise: the overture, the orchestral sound. The courage and the ability to attain "piano", even "pianissimo." On this opening night one heard time and again the art of musical refinement. This is primarily due to Allen Gross on the podium.]
RHEIN-NECKAR ZEITUNG


"The evening began with director Allen Robert Gross leading his top-caliber ensemble in a superb interpretation of Mozart's Serenade in D Major (Koechel 320-'Posthorn'). The delicacy of execution was exemplary, maintaining a sound perfectly in character in spite of coming from a group nearly three times larger than most orchestras available to Mozart. . . . Gross's choice of the overture to Verdi's opera "La Forza del Destino" had just the right amount of 19th-century bravura and stylistic tradition to let the listener gently back down to earth for the journey back home.
Andrew Glick, THE OUTLOOK


“The experience was thrilling.... Allen Robert Gross coached the musicians to such a level of technical finesse and intimacy with the music that, together, they unleashed its full emotional impact. He presided over the performances with the relaxed, inspiring, and precise gestures that stem from total confidence in the orchestra’s competence.”
Frans van Rossum SANTA MONICA MIRROR


"Schumanns 'Rheinische' - temperamentvolles, intensives, vitales Musizieren." "Ein geschloßenes Konzept, eine große Linie, die das Publikum spürbar beeindrückte."
[Schumann's "Rhenish" Symphony - passionate, intense, vital music-making. . . . A unified concept, a broad line, which palpably impressed the audience.]
MANNHEIMER MORGEN


"At the helm of [Katherine Hoover's Eleni: A Greek Tragedy] stood Gross, who is to be commended for making such clear sense out of a dense complex score."
Peter Lefevre, THE OUTLOOK


"I admire the sheer gall of Allen Robert Gross in taking on difficult programs - last season's Mahler Fifth, a case in point; his players seem to accept the challenge as a compliment. Everthing I've heard from them . . . has been edgy, spirited, outgoing and nicely balanced."
"Gross and his eager orchestra gave [Weill's Symphony No.2] a performance both loving and careful."
Alan Rich, LOS ANGELES WEEKLY


Ein Glück, daß die musikalische Leitung von Allen Gross die immer noch mitreißende, schräg-aggreßive Musik von Kurt Weill so vorzüglich ist."
[Fortunately Allen Gross' conducting of the still captivating, discordantly aggressive music of Kurt Weill is so superior.]
AACHENER NACHRICHTEN