Spectaculairder is kandidaat nummer drie, de Amerikaan Gavriel Heine. [...] Borende ogen, een stokloos handenballet met vingers die de klank uit de lucht plukken – hij is een dirigent met uitgesproken charisma, die veel wil, en het krijgt ook.

                                      Frits van der Waa • De Volkskrant • 08-09-07 

 Mariinsky Theatre – "Le nozze di Figaro", July, 2007

“Some days prior to the closing of the season, the name of a new conductor appeared on the poster of the Mariinsky Theatre:  the young American musician Gavriel Heine debuted with Mozart’s opera “The Marriage of Figaro.” 

“Even before the start of the performance, there was an assumption that a person with the surname of a poet and the first name of an archangel, meaning no more and no less than “the strength of God”, should be fortunate.  To gather such a strong cast for a debutant at such a time of year doesn’t always work out.  The presentiments of success were justified from the first measures of the opera.  The light overture dashed along in one breath, after which in a similarly easy and spontaneous manner began the duet of the enamored Figaro and Susanna. 

It was pleasantly striking that Gavriel Heine did not at all gather to show what a debutant of genius he was.  In every way he desired one thing – to show what a composer of genius Mozart was, and what tremendous music he wrote.  The conductor was – and the conductor was not:  he was like an invisible man, but in point of fact he was perfectly on top of the issues.   

Already during the overture the conductor elicited admiration for how correctly and dynamically he set up the blocks of the score, aspiring to execute Mozart's masterpiece delicately and as close to the original as possible. It is possible to say that he selected the path of authentism - "historically authentic performance". And so it continued - throughout the length of the entire opera not once arose a glitch in tempo. It seemed that the conductor played his chess game as if Mozart was playing it himself.  Therefore everything converged in the dramaturgy of the performance as well. The main sense of the opera was revealed to the listener with maximum transparency – the narrative of a sweet and lingering (truth be told, not without a slightly bitter aftertaste) search of one’s second half… 

…Such performances, when every word is understandable without translation even in Italian, when slaps in the face turn out to be real and synchronized to music, happen infrequently. The very biased art of opera quite depends, probably, on the movement of heavenly bodies. And, apparently, on the conductor.” 

              Vladimir Dudin,  Saint-Petersburg Vedomosti, 24 July 2007

Sinfonieorchester Basel,  Switzerland
Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances, May 2007:

 “RUCKSHAU AUFS LEBEN”

“…spielte das Sinfonieorchester Basel die Ouverture “The School for Scandal”… das Heine elegant und fein ausgearbeitet dirigierte.

In Rachmaninows letzter Komposition herrscht eine gedämpfte, fahle Stimmung vor… Gerade für diese spezifische Klanglichkeit zeigte Heine viel Sinn.  Er verstieg sich nie in bravouröse Prahlerei mit oberflächlichen Effekten, sondern leistete vor allem im unteren Bereich der Dynamik konzentrierte Detailarbeit mit Elastizität im Tempo.  Selbst die virtuosen Fortissimo-Ausbrüche kamen immer intensiv und bedacht daher und trugen wohl massgeblich dazu bei, dass das Publikum nach dem unerbittlichen, lange ausgehaltenen Tamtam-Schlag beeindruckt applaudierte.” 

…The symphony orchestra Basel the Ouverture "The School for Scandal" played prepared… elegantly and finely directed by Heine. 

 In Rachmaninov’s last composition, a softened, pallid disposition prevailed… Heine showed much sense of the direct line to this specific sonority.  He never went so far as bravouröse bragging with superficial effects, but rather worked in concentrated detail with elasticity of tempo, performed above all in the lower area of the dynamics.  Even the masterly fortissimo-outbreaks always arrived intensively, considered beforehand, and carried probably authoritatively in addition by that the public applauded after the inexorable, long endured Tamtam-blow impressed.

FABIAN KRISTMANN, BASELLANDSCHAFTLICHE ZEITUNG, 25 Mai 2007
 

 “Sinfonische Tänze bildeten den effektvollen Schlusspunkt… Gavriel Heine sparte nicht Effekten, sei es das kompakte, duftige und atmosphärisch dichte lyrische Streicherthema im kopfsatz, seien es etliche knallige Blechbläserstellen oder der lange ausklingende Schlussschlag.  Das Gefühlspedal wurde eifrig bedient, sicherlich kein Fehler bei derart pathosfüllter Musik.”

Symphonic Dances served as an effective closing point… Gavriel Heine spared no effects, whether it was the compact, heady and atmospheric lyrical string theme in the opening movement, were it the sharp brass outbursts, or the long-ringing sound of the final blow.  The “pedal point of feeling” was well served, surely not a mistake in this pathos-rich music.

                               Siegfried Schibli, Basler Zeitung, 25 Mai 2007

Sinfonieorchester Basel, May 2006:

 “Facettenreiches Musikpaket”

(...) Das Sinfonieorchester Basel bot ein bunt gemischtes Programm an mit vielfältig unterschiedlichen Stimmungen und Klangfarben.

 Der junge amerikanische Dirigent Gavriel Heine, seit drei Jahren Chefdirigent des Kharkov Symphony Orchestra (Ukraine), dirigierte, angereichert mit einer optisch wirkungsvollen Prise Theatralik der dezenten Art. Damit kam er bei den Musikern und beim Publikum gut an.

Eröffnet wurde das Muttertagskonzert mit Maurice Ravels "Le Tombeau de Couperin" in vier Sätzen (...). Dem Orchester oblag die dankbare Aufgabe, differenzierend äusserst nuancenreiche Klangbilder in reicher instrumentaler Besetzung "malen" zu dürfen, ein Anspruch, der mit disponierendem Blick auf das Ganze sorgfältig modelliert wurde.
(…)
Zum Abschluss Gershwins "An American in Paris". Da war der in New Jersey geborene Dirigent in seinem Element. Beflügelnd sein Dirigat, dem das Orchester mit pulsierendem musikantischen Gestus folgte und dieses unterhaltsame Opus mit konzertantem Drive einem begeisterten Publikum präsentierte.

PAUL SCHORNO · Basellandschaftliche Zeitung, Dienstag 16. Mai 2006

Enriched with a visually effective, yet discreet, touch of dramatic gesture much liked by the musicians and the public, the young American conductor, Gavriel Heine, who has been the Principal Conductor of the Kharkov Symphony Orchestra (Ukraine) for three years, conducted the concert.

 The Mother’s Day Concert was opened with Maurice Ravel’s “Le Tombeau De Couperin” in four movements (…).  The orchestra was given the gratifying task to be allowed to “paint” in a discerning way images of utmost tone richness in a richly instrumented arrangement. This demand was fulfilled as the music was modeled with care under the delegating eye (of the conductor) overseeing the whole.... 

…Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” concluded the concert.  That’s when the New Jersey-born conductor was right in his element.  His inspiring way of conducting gave wings to the orchestra, which followed in a pulsating and musically intense manner, presenting this entertaining work with aliveness and drive to an enthusiastic audience.  

PAUL SCHORNO · Basellandschaftliche Zeitung, 16 May 2006

With the Kharkov Symphony Orchestra on tour in Montenegro:

 "The Romanian Folk Dances of Bela Bartok … passed by in an exchange of vibrant rhythmicity, enticing graciousness, memorable sensuality, singing melodicism and lively temperament, which the energetic conductor Heine channeled both suggestively and creatively, in both the fast and tonally flowing slower movements.
(…)
The Kharkov Symphonists expressed affinity for their Russian heritage by turning to Arensky’s Variations on a theme of Tchaikovsky…  The combined leading of broadly shaped and juicily singing lines, thanks to disciplined and inspired musicianship, gave the possibility for the oblique shaped legato in the main theme, saturated sonority and melancholically painful, darkly coloured shades, but also for sharper, more dramatic, even scherzotic accents of the faster, rhythmically pregnant variations shaped by the beautiful motions and clear gestures of the conductor."

                   Marija Adamov, Pobjeda (Montenegro) • 15 July 2005 

With the Kharkov Symphony Orchestra, Ukraine:

“…The 10^th anniversary concert, on January 29, was a meeting with the American Gavriel Heine.  Kharkovites remember him from his performance at the International Festival “Kharkov Assemblies”, when he literally astounded the audience with the newness and naturalness of his interpretations.  This time G. Heine again enraptured his audience.  Young, energetic, unbelievably charming and emotional, he fired up the musicians with his temperament and subordinated them to his own personal vision of the works.  The musicians played “in one breath”, keenly following the clear direction of the conductor.  The amazing combination of the emotional grasp of the music, the control of all articulations and phrases, and the relationship of the various groups of the orchestra, allowed G. Heine to anew “open up” the “worn down” works of the world classics. 

     Under his direction orchestral colors came alive: noble and clean (!) chords of the brass, characteristic timbres of the woodwinds, and unforced, coloristic sounds of the strings.  The musical “events” never let the listener go for even a minute…

                           The Kharkovite , Kharkov, Ukraine Feb. 2, 2003

With the Calcutta Foundation Orchestra, India:

“…surprisingly sensitive and wise for his twenty five years…he conducted with quiet aplomb and confidence… To a packed audience, Gavriel Heine displayed his virtuosity, leading his musicians with complete control through the works of Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Mozart. “

                           The Telegraph, Calcutta, India  August 1, 2000