Conductor Jakub Hrůša has earned outstanding praise from the classical press for his performances at Glyndebourne’s revival of Melly Still’s 2012 production of Leoš Janáček’s operatic fable The Cunning Little Vixen.
Neil Fisher in The Times writes of Hrůša:
“A Brno native whose family live on the edge of the forest that inspired Janáček, he brings an irresistible life force to the London Philharmonic’s playing. The pace is mostly fast, but Hrůša finds countless absorbing details and treats the whole score — even interrupted by two hours’ noshing — as one luscious tone poem.”
Rupert Christiansen in his four-star Telegraph review is effusive in his praise of maestro and star writing:
“The performance’s hero is the young Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša, who clearly has this music in his bones and blood. Persuading the London Philharmonic Orchestra to forget their usual quest for honed perfection, he asks for (and gets) an urgent, raw and abrasive quality, expressive of nothing less than the life force itself.
“Under his baton, the wildness and cacophony of a score represents nature red in tooth and claw, as the instruments squawk, buzz, growl, yap, honk and caw in exuberant mockery of the townie idea of the serene pastoral landscape and the cuddly domestic pet.
“Guiltlessly and guilelessly predatory, the spritely and sparkling Russian soprano Elena Tsallagova is the very incarnation of nimble Puckish mischief in the title-role.”
Graham Rodgers five-star review in The Stage notes that Hrůša, “attuned to the score’s every nuance, draws magnificent playing from the London Philharmonic.”
The Cunning Little Vixen runs at Glyndebourne through 31st July. For more information and tickets. please visit www.glyndebourne.com.