Symphony of Sorrowful Songs

English National Opera

London, UK

“There’s a big difference in hearing Gorecki’s music — built on folk laments or ancient church modes that are piled up into vast polyphonies — performed live. The music seems less austere and calculated; in fact it feels freighted with far more emotion and impact. At least it does here, with the Russian-American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya drawing wonderfully shimmering sounds from the ENO orchestra in the pit…”
–The Times

“It’s visceral stuff… In the pit, Lidiya Yankovskaya leads a refreshingly unsentimental reading of the score. This is an affecting piece of contemporary music theatre from a resurgent opera company thinking outside the box.”
–The Guardian

“The ENO Orchestra shines bright, with the American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, making her ENO debut, drawing out a wonderful, opulent warmth.”
–iNews

“The music opens with a barely audible whisper from the double basses – under conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, the orchestra plays superbly throughout.”
–Evening Standard

“Literally underscoring the piece is ENO’s orchestra, its widely variegated string tone – the foundation of Górecki’s sonic conception – wonderfully realised under the baton of Lidiya Yankovskaya.”
–The Stage

“An unexpectedly astounding staging was perfectly complemented by the phenomenal orchestral performance conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya…”
–London Unattached

“As soon as the inexorable tread of the double basses began under the serenely secure conducting of Lidiya Yankovskaya, the music cast its spell.”
–The Telegraph

“Russian-America conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya is a fascinating figure in the pit: sans baton, her hands weave and undulate with expert precision in alignment with Chevalier's powerful voice…contributing to a work which elevates the affecting source material to new emotional levels.”
–BroadwayWorld

“Conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya…the slow-moving orchestra makes the emotion feel far larger than that of any one individual.”
–Financial Times

“Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, excelled. She provided ideal support in the pit, and clearly has the measure of this tricky score, at times so seemingly unvaried in mood and tempo, so leaving the conductor to ensure it lives and doesn’t stagnate. The first movement’s great arch was superbly shaped, the counterpoint’s unhurried radiance shining in the hands of the ENO players.”
–Bachtrack

“The ENO orchestra was on fire and Lidiya Yankovskaya paced the piece perfectly.”
– Seen and Heard International

“With sublime performances from both Chevalier and the English National Opera Orchestra, conducted superbly by Lidiya Yankovskaya, this staged version of Symphony of Sorrowful Songs is deeply moving and an undoubted success.”
–Opera Online

“It wasn't a dramatisation so much as a poetic visual meditation on the music. Lidiya Yankovskaya and the orchestra brought beauty and rich expressivity to the orchestral score.”
–Planet Hugill

“Lidiya Yankovskaya conducted the ENO orchestra in another house debut; the score’s prevailing lyricism is unforced and sense of pulse disciplined, which gave processional shape to the installation-like character of the show. Most striking was Yankovskaya’s grasp of the architecture of the long first movement, with a simple ascending figure that begins in sepulchral basses and rises in a slow spiral towards the first soprano entry, as the enormousness of the loss the music and staging describe dawns on character and audience alike. Here this economical music was nourished with control and focus, providing a clear channel for Bywater’s emotional narrative to emerge.”
–OperaWire

“Lidiya Yankovskaya – first time at the ENO – conducted the pit, wrapping a deep warmth into the sound and music, allowing the slowly unfurling artistic interpretations of the many metaphors of grief to very slowly play out on the stage.”
–GScene

“A transcendent performance on opening night by the ENO Orchestra under Chicago-based conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya.”
–Musical America

“Yankovskaya and the ENO orchestra gave a committed and absorbing reading of the score which appreciated the narrative arc of the individual movements and the work as a whole.”
–The Cross-Eyed Pianist

“Played with clarity and warmth by ENO Orchestra, conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya, the symphony sounded unaffected as ever. Its modal style and mellow, layered string sound burrow into the listener’s soul, without bombast.”
–The Observer

“Yankovskaya, making her ENO debut, draws sinewy, focused playing from the ENO Orchestra, strings taut but glowing – particularly striking in the organ-like sonorities of the final movement.”
–The Tablet

“As one of the great, unswerving originals of modern music, Górecki was expressing a passionate connection to the folk culture of the Tatra mountain region, south-east of his home city of Katowice. This was certainly something understood by the conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, who drew playing of visceral intensity right from the haunting, folk-inflected first movement, harking back to Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater in its mountain-air mysticism.”
–Opera Magazine