“The conductor Tomáš Hanus shows us all the earthy, brutal lyricism of Janáček’s score, and the solo instruments, whether brittle xylophone, tangy oboe or poignant violin, express as much as the vocal lines.”
The Times
March 2022
“Conductor and WNO music director Tomáš Hanus brought it all to life in this performance, not only in etching those parts of the score where singers and orchestra echo one another but also in moving in and out of the emotional exchanges like a guide.”
Wales Art Review
March 2022
“Tomáš Hanus and the orchestra were golden on this second night in Cardiff. It was as if no calamity had befallen us and life was back to normal. Sheer joy.”
Buzz Magazine
September 2021
“Down in the pit Tomáš Hanus directed his WNO forces with flair, bringing out the score’s vivid detail and energy, allowing individual players their moments in the sun, yet keenly alert to balance.”
Opera Today
October 2019
“WNO’s musical director Tomáš Hanus ensures that the true passion flows from the pit, treating Bizet’s wonderful instrumental lines with as much respect as those of the singers and arguing a case for the score to be heard as a prototype for the realism of verismo.”
The Guardian
September 2019
“Tomáš Hanus delivers propulsive brilliance and plenty of delicately shaded woodwind.”
The Spectator
September 2019
“WNO’s masterful Music Director Tomáš Hanus does everything he can to keep this lumbering behemoth of a score on its toes, and the orchestra rewards him with playing of unfailing verve and edge.”
The Telegraph
September 2018
“Tomáš Hanus paces and integrates this whole sprawling canvas with precision, energy and commitment.”
The Arts Desk
September 2018
“…First General Tomáš Hanus ensuring a confident traversal of Prokofiev’s might score, baton-charging at the head of 90 blazing musicians and aw awesome chorus, the achievement is prodigious.”
WhatsOnStage
September 2018
“WNO’s music director Tomáš Hanus revelled in the opportunities this colourful score afforded him for mood and emphasis, and his orchestra responded with virtuosic assurance.”
WhatsOnStage
September 2017
“…the WNO orchestra under conductor Tomáš Hanus ensure that Shostakovich’s marvellous orchestration (with Stravinsky’s finale) is full of colour and strength, as well as agony. Unmissable.”
Independent
September 2017
“…in the hands of David Pountney and WNO’s new musical director Tomáš Hanus it’s a stark and spellbinding [night in the theatre]”
Bachtrack
September 2017
“WNO’s brilliant new Music Director Tomáš Hanus brings out all the brazen primitivism in the harmonies and the impassioned lyricism in the vocal writing, as well as revelling in the sumptuous romanticism of the Overture and Dance of the Persian Slave (the latter strikingly performed with no holds barred by Beate Vollack). The orchestral playing is thrillingly pungent.”
The Telegraph
September 2017
“Highly wrought and allusive, ostentatiously sophisticated and brilliant, the score presents a huge challenge that WNO’s new Music Director Tomáš Hanus meets with remarkable flair and confidence. He and his terrific orchestra don’t miss a trick in a reading that is sumptuous and expansive as well as vivacious and witty.”
The Telegraph
June 2017
“Richard Strauss’s Viennese excess sounded fabulous, and no one contributed more to its glory than Welsh National Opera’s new music director, Tomáš Hanus, in his first full outing for the company. The young Czech conductor wove a rich tapestry of confections from the extravagant score in a reading of delicate tenutos, sensitive tempo choices and impeccable orchestral playing.”
WhatsOnStage
June 2017
“In this performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony, there was indeed chemistry between Hanus and his forces, and it could hardly have augured better… Hanus used the acoustics of St David’s Hall to stunning effect throughout and, in the momentous orchestral coda, set the seal on a memorable night.”
The Guardian
October 2016
“The interpretations by the London Symphony Orchestra under Tomáš Hanus had all desirable power and precision.”
Basler Zeitung
November 2015
“…the conductor Tomáš Hanus understood very well how to sculpt the many elements and each characteristic of the programme with the aptly-present orchestra. The London Symphony Orchestra… clearly demonstrated: homogenous string sound to the finest piano nuances, precision in the registers, to respond rapidly to the intentions of the conductor”
Sudostschweiz
November 2015
“Enthusiastically directed by Tomáš Hanus, the London Symphony Orchestra unfolded the rhythmically complex structures and the melodic richness of two Martinu symphonies in outstanding form. It was met with rapturous applause!”
Biel-Benkemer
November 2015
“The most important aspects of this opera are found in the music. It is in turn beautiful and dramatic, oppressive and poignant and unfolding into a utopia. It is rare to experience to this degree what Adorno once described as music’s right of protest. And this was handled wonderfully by the orchestra under Tomáš Hanus.”
Dagbladet, Ståle Wilkshåland (Katja Kabanova in Oslo)
September 2015
“But it is the music that depicts the characters and the challenges they fight with the greatest of ingenuity, and the Norwegian National Opera Orchestra communicates this under the baton of conductor Tomáš Hanus with impressive clarity and verve.”
Aftenposten, Astrid Kualbein (Katja Kabanova in Oslo)
September 2015
“Well, it holds – on a knife-edge. Because conductor Tomáš Hanus (as a well-known Janáček specialist) infuses all his accustomed warmth into the orchestra, which for the occasion becomes a single, large, pulsating organism. Two short hours in the grip of great existentialism. We feel very lucky to be part of it.”
Vårt Land, Olav Egil Aune (Katja Kabanova in Oslo)
September 2015
“Conductor Tomáš Hanus emphasised the lyricism of the score, letting the music unfurl in all its violent beauty, but never without losing the lyrical nerve.”
Bachtrack (Katja Kabanova in Oslo)
Sept 8, 2015
“…Hanus’ control was so accurate that it actually created a kind of spatial pattern”
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Rita Argauer (Hänsel und Gretel, Bayerische Staatsoper)
Apr 10th 2013
“Most of us have heard warhorses like Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Fingal’s Cave many times and familiarity can breed contempt; but it’s easy to forget how wonderful they can sound in top class performances, and that is certainly what we got tonight, mainly thanks to the conducting of Tomas Hanus, putting in a star turn with the RSNO.”
Seen and Heard, Simon Thompson (Royal Scottish National Orchestra)
Nov 12th 2011
“Hanus was on the same wavelength as his fellow countryman with an interpretation that mirrored Dvorak’s thought and design. The RSNO reciprocated with a performance that was typically excellent from start to finish.”
Perth Courier, Garry Fraser, (Royal Scottish National Orchestra)
Nov 12th 2011
“That the ensemble was able to draw the audience so compellingly and convincingly between the naturalness of the folk songs and heart-rendering soul haunting tones of this iridescent score was thanks to Tomas Hanus’ control over the orchestra. Hanus’ strong contrasts in the music were as successful as Kusej’s changing scenery, with only a little room for the lyricism to be developed. The two men’s mutual understanding of the work was confirmed in the final applauses when the two came forward together between the singers hand in hand. The whole ensemble was an outstanding success, such clarity and consistency is not often experienced on the Opera Stage. In conclusion, a production not to be missed!”
BR Klassik, Robert Jungwirth (Rusalka, Bayerische Staatsoper)
Nov 25th 2010
“Overwhelming! The Czech conductor Tomas Hanus and shining state orchestra bought to life the shades of colour, emotional glow and gripping drama of Dvorak’s score stunningly crafting the pretty natural fairy music into the spheres of a Czech dance.”
Landschuter Zeitung, Dr. Peter Wolf-Dieter (Rusalka, Bayerische Staatsoper)
Nov 25th 2010
“…the programme, which was conducted by the Czech conductor Tomas Hanus…were well crafted and the overall shape of the work was very well brought out in a well-judged and exciting performance. It was clear that the conductor was brought up on this music, which sounded well thought-out and precise under his direction. This is what Romantic music should sound like!”
Morgunbladid, Jónas Sen
“For his debut at the Opera de Paris, the Czech Tomas Hanus conducted the orchestra without the slightest failure in the twists and turns of an expressive score.”
AFP, Paris
“Under Tomas Hanus’s unbelievably intense, precise and lyrical conduction, the orchestra managed to give coherence to a fragmented score. […] The deep collusion between the orchestra and this sensational conductor will without a doubt be a marvel in the upcoming performances.”
Le Monde, Renaud Machart
“The hero of the evening, though, is Czech conductor Tomas Hanus. He has a wonderful feel for the idiom of Janacek and perfectly conveys the pent-up passion of a score which, in less talented hands, can easily sound boring.”
Bloomberg.com, Jorg von Uthmann
