In the press

“Jonathan Stockhammer directs the orchestra of the Komische Oper with irresistible rigour across the planes of this cosmic expanse. The effect lingers long afterwards in the ear, mind and body. Seldom is such concentration to be felt amongst performers and listeners alike.”

Der Tagesspiegel Berlin about “Akhnaten” by Philip Glass

“Glass composed a hard-hitting, percussive score for the humiliation scene, which the (violinless) orchestra of the Komische Oper ‘executes’ with fury under the precise and trenchant direction of Jonathan Stockhammer, while the staging is realised with brutal accuracy by director Barrie Kosky – in keeping with the motto, ‘Down with the King!’.”

Opernwelt about “Akhnaten” by Philip Glass

“The LSO was on electrifying form for Stockhammer in Adams, Debussy, and Ravel. The playing had an extraordinarily clean, gleaming, pristine quality, so that every fleck of sound told. It yielded nothing to Adams’s own performance with the LSO 20 years ago, in its brilliance, its emotional clout and its sense of epiphany.”

Seen and Heard International about “Harmonielehre” by John Adams

“Jonathan Stockhammer stood in for an ailing Rattle with thrilling results. An evening of Adams, Debussy and Ravel allowed all sections of the London Symphony Orchestra to shine in a rich and varied programme of musical blockbusters. Working with an impressionistic musical canvas revealed Stockhammer’s adaptability as a conductor, as he revelled in Debussy’s masterly use of instrumental textures. There was a real sense of nature awakening.”

Opera and Classical Music Reviews

“Huge ovations at the Zurich Opera House, not least for the tremendous performances of the choir and the Philharmonia Zurich. With Jonathan Stockhammer on the podium, one of the great conductors of modern music leads Schnittke’s dense layering of his polystylistics with its allusions across music history with enormous aplomb.”

SWR Kultur about “Life With An Idiot” by Alfred Schnittke

“Never before had the composer Georg Friedrich Haas experienced such devotion at a dress rehearsal. In the concert, under the marvellous baton of Jonathan Stockhammer, the Staatskapelle Dresden played ‘in vain’ with incredible focus, without prejudice, as if specializing in new music.”

Sächsische Zeitung

“Jonathan Stockhammer supervised a vibrant, exacting account of this complex, haunting work. At the end the ovations were long and loud.”

New York Times about “Powder Her Face” by Thomas Adès

“Jonathan Stockhammer conducting the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin is a passionate musician who knows something about control as a path to ecstasy.”

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about “glut” and other orchestral works by Dieter Ammann

“Stockhammer inspired the orchestra in Mahler’s Seventh Symphony to extraordinary virtuosity. The precision and expression that he demanded of the musicians and which they delivered was incredible. The result: music with a presence in the here and now that made any thoughts of the future seem irrelevant.”

Berliner Zeitung

“Stockhammer is a transformative artist who always finds the best articulation for the most diverse modern music languages. He gives ‘Satyagraha’ by Philip Glass a great deal of care: even in the hundredth repetition, the phrases are exactly right, and there is never the slightest carelessness in the playing.”

Stuttgarter Zeitung

“Inspired by the enthusiasm of Jonathan Stockhammer, the perfectly voiced Deutsche Radiophilharmonie followed its energetic conductor and virtuously wove large-scale tapestries of sound in Debussy’s ‘Images’. ”

Saarbrücker Zeitung

“Each note, phrase, and beat was carefully thought through, the pauses employed as they should be, true to form and making music in such a way that even those who look down on Elgar’s Second Symphony were moved. When it comes to inspiring and rousing orchestral effects, the graceful, younger-than-his-fifty-years conductor Jonathan Stockhammer is surpassed by none.”

Die Rheinpfalz

“A universal musician who conducts Haydn as convincingly as he does the intricate scores of modern music. He is an advocate for the new and extraordinary, as charming as he is captivating – and a charismatic orchestra leader whom his musicians are happy to follow on adventurous paths from Stuttgart to Tokyo, from Baden-Baden to New York.”

Südwestrundfunk

“Jonathan Stockhammer, who led the Dresden Philharmonic with an almost crystalline view, had the same intellectual sensibility for these tones of sharply inexorable, icy illusion-free clarity as for Schmidt’s dark red-black or devouringly over-bright tongues of sound.”

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about world premiere of “Symphony No. 2” by Christfried Schmidt

“In conducting the Sinfonieorchester Basel, Jonathan Stockhammer accomplishes the remarkable feat of bringing forth a broad range of tones from a large apparatus.”

Neue Zürcher Zeitung about Luigi Nono’s “Al gran sole carico d’amore”

“The Sinfonieorchester Basel plays with utmost focus and reveals the full range of musical extremes. The end result, as conjured by conductor Jonathan Stockhammer, are sonic clouds that rise again and again to the threshold of pain and then blaze gently into the ether.”

Deutschlandfunk about Luigi Nono’s “Al gran sole carico d’amore”

“While the first violins of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen shone in Haydn’s 20th Symphony under Jonathan Stockhammer as if with a single bow, it was primarily the wind instruments that excelled in Brahms’ ‘Variations on a Theme by Haydn’. The two Vivace Variations with their Scherzo and Jagdstuck character were particularly brilliant.”

Kölner Stadtanzeiger

“The Konzerthausorchester Berlin under Jonathan Stockhammer performed ‘limited approximations’ by Georg Friedrich Haas, in a wonderfully well-rehearsed and dramaturgically coherent interpretation. With the six pianos all relatively detuned by a sixth tone, Haas discovered colours that are literally unheard of – ‘limited approximations’ from 2010 is one of the enduring pieces of the millennium.”

Berliner Zeitung

“Hopefully this conductor will come back soon.”

Hamburger Abendblatt on Copland, Sibelius and Beethoven