PRESS

“Conductor Hermes Helfricht, who is currently being courted by the theaters in Hagen and Erfurt for the position of General Music Director, also ensures a tension-filled performance at the podium of the Beethoven Orchestra. In the lyrical scenes, he lets the strings revel above the pulsating winds. The opera and children’s choir deliver a powerful performance in the finale of the first act during the grand “Te Deum.”

Der Opernfreund, Rudolf Hermes

“It is positive to note that the music wasn’t hindered by the staging […] and was able to flourish wonderfully thanks to the superbly playing Beethoven Orchestra. The here discussed second performance was conducted by Hermes Helfricht [who jumped in] with great delicacy and confidence.”

Köln-Bonner Musikkalender

“At least the music unfolds oratorical energy, especially as Hermes Helfricht encourages the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, cleverly positioned at the back of the stage, to play with commitment, rhythmically sharpened and dynamically nuanced. However, this very good conductor is only able to repair the breaks in the work to a limited extent […].”

Opernwelt, Jürgen Otten

“Hermes Helfricht is an exceptional partner in the pit. His high-energy conducting drives the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn to a musical excellence. He doesn’t rely on the glorifying volume, but on the finest nuances, retainable dynamics, and a pulsating synchronization with the staging. Such a seamless integration between the musicians in the pit and the singers on the stage is quite rare; but when happens, it truly elevates and honours the evening.”

Opernwelt, Regine Müller

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“In contrast, the conducting of the first Kapellmeister Hermes Helfricht, who leads the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn delicately and very dance-like, shaping all dynamic changes in the service of the singers, was completely thrilling.”

Die deutsche Bühne, Ulrike Kolter

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“And the Beethoven Orchestra was also on top form under the direction of Hermes Helfricht. There were poignant brass moments, melancholy woodwinds and a wonderfully warm string sound. The singers could feel they were being carried on their hands.”

General-Anzeiger, Bernhard Hartmann

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“Hermes Helfricht conducts the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn with a fine balance between poetic and dramatic passages. The audience thanked him and all the performers with standing ovations for the fantastic musical enjoyment.”

Live in der Oper, Mechthild Tillmann

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“Under the musical direction of Hermes Helfricht, the excellently tempered Beethoven Orchestra Bonn ignites a lyrical tapestry of sound, which is emotionally grippingly colored from scene to scene by individual solo moments of clarinet, oboe and cello.”

O-Ton, Ralf Siepmann

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“Kapellmeister Hermes Helfricht and the Beethoven orchestra, which is also carefully phrased in detail, beautifully capture the slightly wistful, not overly dramatic tone of this opera, which Tchaikovsky described as lyrical scenes.”

Online Musik Magazin, Stefan Schmöe

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“However, conductor Hermes Helfricht on the podium of the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn brings these great romantic feelings to life with all their musical finesse. The sound of the performance is so sensitive that it can be heard down to the finest nuances, making it an event that touches you at every moment.”

Kultur Magazin der Theatergemeinde Bonn, Elisabeth Eineke-Klövekorn

“Under the direction of Hermes Helfricht, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn illuminates Mozart's score with pulsating lightness and color. Mozart's “Turkish music” sounds dynamically percussive and airily catchy.“

Bundesstadt Magazin, Ansgar Skoda

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“The orchestra caresses the ensemble. Under the direction of Hermes Helfricht, the Beethoven Orchestra provides a lively accompaniment to the action on stage. The string sound has warmth, and the intimate woodwind colors light up again and again. The singers can feel that they are in good hands. And in the „Janissary music“, the orchestra can really get down to business.”

General-Anzeiger, Bernhard Hartmann

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“Under the direction of Hermes Helfricht, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn performs with elegance and delicacy.”

Online Musik Magazin, Stefan Schmöe

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The Beethoven Orchestra was led by Hermes Helfricht and was in great form. 
Here Mozart's music was misused as a wonderful-sounding contrast to the unspeakable stage direction [...] - it was good that Mozart's music was sung and played so enchantingly.

Köln-Bonner Musikkalender

“Especially as the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn under the direction of Hermes Helfricht, playing with passion and temperament, supports them with a great deal of feeling.”

General-Anzeiger, Bernhard Hartmann

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“With a Beethoven Orchestra in top form, which can also play Lehár excellently and which, under the careful conducting of Kapellmeister Hermes Helfricht, repeatedly emphasizes the secondary sections and makes audible how well this music is actually composed beyond all the catchy melodies (which someone in the audience is always humming along).”

Online Musik Magazin, Stefan Schmöe

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“This „tidal wave of sparkling, wonderful melodies”, on which the people act, surges out of the Bonn pit with vehemence and melodious exuberance. Under the musical direction of Hermes Helfricht, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn is in excellent form on the day.”

O-Ton, Ralf Siepmann

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“Hermes Helfricht gets the Beethoven Orchestra going from the very first bar. Briskly, sometimes rapidly, he removes the ever-present threat of kitsch from the evergreens and also makes the harp and violins in “Lippen schweigen” sound light and fluid. This perfectly complements all the cheeky details on stage.”

Live in der Oper, Mechthild Tillmann

"It is simply overwhelming how nuanced Hermes Helfricht conducts the Beethoven Orchestra, there is the full spectrum from the soft tones to the heavenly trumpet fanfares and the choruses: Infernal noise and angel’s music. Helfricht uses the entire opera house, the choir sings from the balcony, the trumpets played from far distance."

Feuilleton Frankfurt, Simone Hamm

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"Bonn’s highly talented young conductor Hermes Helfricht had the big apparatus firmly in his hands, stormed energetically through the demonic hell dances, brought excitedly the chromatic orchestral colors in the tristanesque love duet of the third act to utmost tension and did not shy away from using the religious kitsch of the fourth act until the huge final apotheosis, which was slightly softer, but still played with all pious emphasis."

Opernwelt, Uwe Schweikert

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"Conductor Hermes Helfricht is passionately committed to the opera. He and the perfectly prepared orchestra indulge in dazzling sensuality of sound and he coordinates masterfully the brass section and the magnificent choir which are placed in the balconies."

Magazin.Klassik, Karin Coper

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"Hermes Helfricht has been given the honorable task of lifting up this heavy musical treasure. He has an admirable grip on the large apparatus, strength and sensitivity. The choir and a brass section being positioned inside the auditorium, Helfricht combines those with an enormous sense of sound and dares to create spatial music. The Beethoven Orchestra Bonn is in great shape. […] Without a doubt, it is one of the most spectacular opera excavations of recent decades. The audience, most of whom knew neither this opera nor the composer Alberto Franchetti, was surprised, but also overwhelmed and enraptured by the musical power of this work. It was full of enthusiasm. A great success for the Bonn Opera."

NMZ, Dieter David Scholz

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"It’s amazing how enthusiastically and precisely Hermes Helfricht and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn worked for this unfamiliar, but not really distant, territory. Despite Wagner and Verdi being the heroes of this time, the Grand Opera leaving its mark, an independent musical language was still to be heard."

Die Deutsche Bühne, Roberto Becker

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 "This has […] above all to do with the incredible score, which the Bonn Beethoven Orchestra celebrates with tonal power and all the subtlety of chamber music under the young music director Hermes Helfricht. The opera is composed through and there are many intoxicating, purely instrumental intermezzi and interludes. The sounds are undoubtedly „Wagnerian“. There are traces of Parsifal, Tristan or the Valkyrie’s “Schlafzauber” music. There is a nightly tristanesque intoxication scene when Nefta and Asrael recognize each other as lovers, sanctified by the chorus with an Ave Maria Grazia plena."

Klassikfavori, Sabine Weber

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"The grande spettacolo […] was delivered by the 30-year-old Hermes Helfricht, who filled the music – a “new orchestra material specially created for the Bonn production” – with his Beethoven Orchestra with heart, soul and such passion. Alongside the soloists on stage he devotedly organized the choirs placed in the first balcony (Choir of the Bonn Theater and Extrachorus) and the fanfares set up in the side balconies…"

Operalounge, Rolf Fath

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"Resident conductor Hermes Helfricht synchronized all the voices with his orchestra so playfully, that it differentiated the extremes from very tender to overwhelmingly intense- that’s definitely worth hearing."

General-Anzeiger Bonn, Olaf Weiden

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"The young conductor Hermes Helfricht, first Kapellmeister of Bonn Opera House, deserves great praise for his remarkable conducting and his extraordinary presentation of Franchetti’s powerful, spacious and powerful score. He managed to keep the entire choral, orchestral and vocal apparatus under control with ease and led everyone through the whole evening with concentration and extraordinary musicality. The Bonn Beethoven Orchestra delivered a first-class performance and can be classified among established international orchestras."

 Pro Opera (Mexico), Oxana Arkaeva

“The Beethoven Orchestra under Hermes Helfricht as well as the vocal ensemble give the audience an outstanding rebirth of the score!”

 Klassikfavori, Jukka Höhe

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“Hermes Helfricht and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn savor the richness of Meyerbeer's melodies and ensure glorious fortissimo in the second act with the brass instruments placed all around the auditorium.”

Opernloderer, Klaus J. Loderer

 "On the podium of the Beethoven Orchestra, Hermes Helfricht succeeds in a fluent rendition of the score, which seldomly boasts a late-Romantic flourish, often accompanies an atmosphere and here and there provides with islands of vocal exuberance."

Brugs Klassiker, Manuel Brug

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"And the music? It’s remarkably “good,” to put it rather bluntly. In any case, the music can keep up with the club of the mentioned hits of the year 1920. Certainly it seems comparatively retrospective for this time: In principle, this is the most palatable German late romanticism, in which Wagnerian leitmotif technique and the declamation style of the “Ring” tetralogy with Straussian orchestral colour, harmony and “nervous counterpoint”. And there are echoes of Debussy’s Impressionism. But Franckenstein activates this vocabulary for a scenically coherent, breath-taking musical language with compelling build-ups. Hermes Helfricht on the podium conveys all this congenially with the Beethoven Orchestra."                                                                         

Kölner Stadtanzeiger, Markus Schwering

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"Franckenstein wrote multicolored, often loud, but never very heavy music for this purpose, in which the success patterns of his time are almost completely reflected. Something often begins with a Wagner-sounding phrase, swings up to slightly domesticated arches a la Richard Strauss, to land on a meaningful cadence. The transparency of the orchestral writing with its unusual, sometimes a little self-serving sound effects also makes one think of Puccini or Massenet. And the beginnings of jazz and film music have also had an influence on this score, in which church tones and pentatonic sequences provide Eastern colouring. All of this is performed in Bonn by Hermes Helfricht and the Beethoven Orchestra in an elastic, dynamic and yet transparent way."

Die Deutsche Bühne, Andreas Falentin

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"Musically, he (Franckenstein) goes full orchestral. Almost uninhibited. Today his music sounds like the musical version of a Wagner-spiced Puccini sound. Melodically catchy in the arias, opulently erupting in the many choral passages. Mixed with Far Eastern sound color. The principal conductor of the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Hermes Helfricht, and his musicians are audibly enthusiastic about it. And the protagonists follow them."

Concerti, Joachim Lange

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"The Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, under the baton of Hermes Helfricht, has no trouble with Franckenstein’s score. On the contrary. What rises from the orchestra pit, based on a late-Romantic and post-Wagnerian compositional technique as well as his own compositional and harmonic elements that point to upcoming styles, may absolutely fulfill opulent expectations. A number of sequences suggest Franckenstein’s openness to operetta. There are also echoes of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly from 1904 and, above all, Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss, premiered eight years earlier, partly in imitation, partly in amazing variations."

O-Ton –Kulturmagazin, Ralf Siepmann

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"Musically, the opera is certainly just as challenging as Strauss’ “Salome”, which is about the same length, and the singing is very demanding too. Bonn can do that. Hermes Helfricht lets the opulent score shimmer sensually with Beethoven Orchestra Bonn."

Opernfreund.de, Martin Freitag

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"Happy times for opera lovers, when there were still ensemble and repertoire theaters and beautiful works like Li-Tai-Pe by Baron Clemens Franckenstein, premiered in Hamburg in 1920, which were firmly anchored in the performance schedules. Artistic directors and dramaturges should make a pilgrimage to Bonn or at least appreciate the WDR Radio recording and convince themselves of the attraction of the play about China’s most important poet. […] In harmonious harmony with the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn conducted by Hermes Helfricht, it was a feast for the ears."

Operagazet, Christoph Molitor

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"Hermes Helfricht’s conducting of the excellent Beethoven Orchester Bonn similarly made a strong case for the work, ‘in itself’ but also as something eminently viable for the modern stage. Textures, balances, and tempi all convinced, in another crucial element of assuring us this was no mere act of musical archaeology."

seenandheard international, Mark Berry   

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"Franckenstein illustrated all this in a beguilingly lavish musical way. His late-Romantic style gets its necessary spice from a subtly dosed pinch of exoticism and impressionism, the score is extravagantly full and is celebrated accordingly by the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, which is confidently led through the evening by its first resident conductor. […] All in all, it’s as fresh as it is gorgeous!"

nmz, Guido Krawinkel

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"Young and highly talented resident conductor Hermes Helfricht conducted with dedication and verve, musically, the performance is absolutely flawless – the choirs powerful, the ensemble scenes colorful."

Opernwelt, Uwe Schweikert

"Hermes Helfricht creates with the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn a brilliant Verdi-sound from the pit."

Das Opernglas, Th. Molke

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"Likewise the ever present and very precise Beethoven Orchestra, with which the young conductor Hermes Helfricht brings out a wealth of colour."

General-Anzeiger, Bernhard Hartmann

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"Hermes Helfricht at the podium of Beethoven Orchester works carefully and with great attention to detail – there is much to hear from the score worth communicating: drilling low alterations and enharmonic recolorations."

Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, Markus Schwering

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"At the podium was Hermes Helfricht the young First Kapellmeister, […] The Beethoven Orchestra Bonn was in dazzling form and highly attentive on the premiere evening, obviously particularly well prepared. This had been heard quite differently in the past. Very good coordination with the stage, clean winds, rich string sounds and a large number of various colours were a joy to hear; it almost sounded like an Italian opera orchestra with its typical brio. It can be done, especially with a young conductor."

Kulturcram, Michael Cramer

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"Hermes Helfricht has the reins firmly in his hands and leads the Beethoven Orchestra to a brilliant Verdi-sound. Musically, this Don Carlos owed nothing."

Das Opernmagazin

“Musically, this was first of all Hermes Helfricht’s evening. The 28-year-old First Kapellmeister of the Bonn Opera animated the eleven members of the Beethoven Orchestra to genuine baroque spielfreude, made the dance rhythms sway to their heart’s content and the love sighs languish with skill.“

Opernglas, A. Laska

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„The Beethoven Orchestra, which has been reduced to eleven musicians, also performs excellently. Hermes Helfricht on the podium elicits glowing sound speeches from it again and again – the drought turns into fullness.“

Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, M. Schwering

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„Even the Bonn version, orchestrated by Kapellmeister Hermes Helfricht and shortened to 90 minutes, reveals that the musical and dramatic substance of the piece is more than opulent. And he wrote the parts fittingly for the soloists. […]
Pauli Jämsä and conductor Hermes Helfricht sit at two harpsichords in the half-raised orchestra pit… Helfricht creates an Italian baroque sound with this small cast and a gripping accompaniment for the singers who perform magnificently. The audience is captivated by the timeless conflict. “

Das Opernmagazin

“For this, Janáček provides the often-virulent orchestral surface, which is broken up by special chamber-musical and the for Janáček typically folkloristic or sentimental moments […] The orchestra is the cohesion and provides the tragic grounding to which the vocal level docks as a completely independent level. The Beethoven Orchestra Bonn under the only 27-year-old First Kapellmeister Hermes Helfricht does wonderful justice to this important task with a tight, dense and yet transparent arrangement.“

Concerti, Sabine Weber

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“…above all, the pointed orchestration under the musical direction of Bonn’s First Kapellmeister Hermes Helfricht is a highlight of the opera evening. The Beethoven Orchestra Bonn plays Janáček’s intoxicatingly exuberant music dramatically and concentratedly with a multi-layered, impulsive and finely balanced sound“

Kultur extra, Ansgar Skoda

“…in view of the historical setting and the character of this music.
This is in excellent hands with Hermes Helfricht, the new First Kapellmeister of the Bonn Opera. Unlike … at the Cologne Opera, Helfricht does not expose the post-modern citation procedure and also hardly exposes the off-beat colourfulness of this score. In Bonn, “The Emperor of Atlantis“ is lively theatre music, even powerful at times despite being played by only 13 instruments, bursting with creative drive and idiosyncratic harmonic solutions, following in the footsteps of late Janáček or early Martinů, for example.“

Die Deutsche Bühne, Andreas Falentin

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“Yet this Bonn production, created in cooperation with the Beethovenfest, has its musical merits. Conducted by Hermes Helfricht, the Beethoven Orchestra in chamber instrumentation hits Ullmann’s shifting tones very well, behind which the period opera of the 1920s flashes in the number scheme with blues and chorale.“

Online Music Magazine, Stefan Schmöe

"Inside, one may listen to the wonderfully lyrically intoned phrases, cantilenas and turns, which sound with beguiling effect under Hermes Helfricht’s guiding hands, creating a delightful atmosphere and mystically rapturous mood. The presence of the young conductor is just as fascinating (he breathes with the singers – and speaks the text silently) as the playing of the eight instrumentalists of the Vorarlberger Landeskonservatorium, who interpret this moving cosmos of Martin’s sound as if this music were part of their standard repertoire."

oper aktuell, Kaspar Sannemann

“The musical direction lay in the hands of an equally very young conductor. Hermes Helfricht, Kapellmeister of the house, breathed unmistakably with the singers, paid attention to string brilliance and allowed the orchestral arches to swing out without relinquishing control of the dynamic.“

Opernglas, T. Baltensweiler

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“Conversely, the St Gallen Symphony Orchestra transforms this production into a richly faceted soundscape. A mere 25 years old is Hermes Helfricht. Fabulous, how this young conductor succeeds in dovetailing action and sound. He, too, is inspired by the floating nature of this production.“

Südkurier, Martin Preisser

“St. Gallen’s Kapellmeister Hermes Helfricht shows already in the prelude how carefully he has studied the score. He demands a great deal from the orchestra – and gets almost everything: finely sounded-out solos, sonorous, never plaintive tutti and, above all, a refreshing, always highly sophisticated trait. He also lets the prisoners’ chorus move forward in the brisk andante without false sentimentality.“

NZZ, Christian Berzins

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“…how at all this whole opera is musically shaped, is hard to imagine better. On the podium is the German Hermes Helfricht, who at only 25 years old has led the orchestra to an incredible sharpness and precision, who knows how to awaken the fantastic energy inherent in the work and who knows how to convey furore as well as tenderness in a captivating way.“

Kronen Zeitung, Anna Mika

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“Conducting in the orchestra pit is Kapellmeister Hermes Helfricht, 25 years young and bright as a flash – which is noticeable in his conducting in a brisk, propulsive but never hectic two hours. From the beginning, he understands Verdi’s force not as noise and rage, but as verve. The symphony orchestra, very familiar with Verdi’s theatricality, is quick as a flash to draw the changes between flashy effects and beautiful, sultry cantilenas, ennobling some of the score’s trivialities with loving accuracy. Helfricht brings a jewel to sparkle.“

St. Galler Tagblatt, Bettina Kugler

“Superbly elegant sound paintings: not only rhythmically precise, from the beginning with full commitment and with careful gestures, Hermes Helfricht conducted the score, full of subtleties, of a further exemplary Carmen production. This was particularly evident in the ever-familiar ‘crowd-pleasers’, which were not trumpeted, but in which due attention was paid to every detail in the orchestration. Yesterday evening, the Philharmonic Orchestra [Erfurt] of the state capital again provided particularly elegant and timbre-radiant sound paintings with a silky sheen, in which even the smallest soloistic nuances – such as those of the bassoon, the trumpet or the harp – were clearly brought out.“

Amusio Musik Magazin, Dr. Hanns-Peter Mederer