JohnWarner

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Askonas Holt Fellow & Conductor
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Press

  • La Traviata

    Oxford Opera
    Sep 2023

    • The orchestra, conducted by John Warner, brought style, pace and professionalism to Verdi’s exquisite score. As soon as we heard the first bars of the overture we knew that we were in excellent musical hands.

  • Moyzes and Dvorak

    Slovak State Philharmonic
    Apr 2023

    • John Warner was unique. He had the orchestra under absolute control from the first bars. Despite his young age, he exuded authority and the players felt respect for this personality. Under his baton, the beginnings of the symphony were absolutely precise, worked out, the musicians focussed, the brass instruments sounding with unusual clarity. The composition of motifs, the use of parallel musical layers, with which the musicians worked masterfully in unison under the baton of John Warner, brought an unexpected experience during this concert: musical, but especially emotional. We saw a brilliant structure to the performance: from a slow tempo in pianissimo the orchestra built to a fast Allegro fortissimo over the course of a few measures. However, it was not Karajan's construction, but John Warner's new, progressive method, which already in the beginning of the introduction brought a fresh, new life to this work.

  • Beach: Cabildo

    Grimeborne Opera
    Aug 2019

    • Musical director John Warner revelled in the drama of the ferociously difficult piano part, wrestling huge, Tristan-esque climaxes from the Arcola’s upright.

  • Mahler Symphony No. 9

    Orchestra for the Earth
    Jul 2017

    • The orchestra played with passion, verve, and musicality conducted by exacting and mesmerising conductor John Warner. It remained in my mind as one of the high points in the festival but also as a conductor and orchestra to follow.

      • Marina Mahler
      • 01 July 2017

  • Smyth: The Boatswain's Mate

    Grimeborne Opera
    Jul 2018

    • John Warner, leading the accompaniment from the piano, delivers Smyth’s score (in a piano trio) with exceptional care and skill [...] Disarming, surprising and brilliant.

  • Mahler Symphony No. 6

    St. Peter's Chamber Orchestra
    Mar 2017

    • What was abundantly clear, even from the balcony, however, was how well Warner knew and loved the score, and how firmly the orchestra trusted in his interpretation and authority in this performance. This magnificent pacing of the Andante was no doubt achieved because of the musical sensitivity and vision of conductor John Warner, who gracefully guided the ensemble through this luscious movement.

  • Shostakovich, Elgar, Strauss

    St. Peter's Chamber Orchestra
    Nov 2016

    • Conductor John Warner demonstrated impressive control of tempi and dynamics in Richard Strauss's Metamorphosen, imbuing this slowly developing work with a clear sense of shape and direction.