Powerful and Agile
Frankfurter Allgemeine, 19.11.2003
The conductor was Lisa Xanthopoulou from Greece,
... and we were treated - in a transcription by Russian conductor Rudolf Barshai - to an elaborate rendition, in which each of the 15 miniatures was played in perfect character.
Following an expressive performance of Puccini's "Crisantemi", Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings in C major op.48 was the best part of the evening: powerful and agile, with expansive cantilenas and studies articulation, this was a performance which showed that Lisa Xanthopoulou and the Württemberger Philharmonic had mastered the composition. It was a very gracious gesture when, following the waltz they played so elegantly as an encore, she thanked each member of the orchestra in person.
JOACHIM WORMSBÄCHER
A concert that will go down in history: the inspired return of a gifted female conductor
Frankfurter Neue Presse/Taunuszeitung, 17.11.2003
Bad Homburg: The most recent Schlosskonzert was like a music-induced trance! After not quite a year, last season's winner of the conductors' prize, Lisa Xanthopoulou, returned to give a concert... and the audience, which usually tends to be on the reserved side, lavished frenetic applause and bravos on her for her magnificent performance at the rostrum.
The program was wide-ranging, including pieces by Prokofiev, Puccini, Tchaikovsky and Haydn. It was an intense experience to observe the conductor at work on this evening, to distinguish diverse possibilities of musical expression in different stylistic areas and to meet an artist capable of bringing forth as if by magic admirable renditions by virtue of her evocative powers. Lisa Xanthopoulou opened her concert with an extremely demanding work, Prokofiev's "Visions Fugitives". These charismatic character pieces call for an orchestra with an enormous range of expression, and the members of the Heilbronn Chamber Ensemble rose to the occasion. Watching their conductor carefully, they rendered the many changes in tempo and dynamic nuances with exceptional precision and discipline. Lisa Xanthopoulou left not a single nuance to chance, leading the orchestra through its exemplary performance.
But then she went on to do something entirely different with Puccini's "Chrysanthemums". The tension-laden melodic phrases were played dashingly, resulting in a powerful build-up and keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.
...and then came the furious finale, Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings. This remarkable piece is seldom performed as stringently as it was on this occasion by Lisa Xanthopoulou, making it enthralling and yet lyrical at once. Her conducting revitalized the music, rendering it chiseled and expressive. Emphasizing the soft undulations of a popular waltz made it a success, and the fresh energy injected into the stretti of the final movement were what made this compelling concert perfect, which naturally could only be followed by one thing: the encore was the waltz! Bravo to this brilliant orchestra and to a conductor who doubtless has an exceptional career to look forward to thanks to her unusual qualities.
MICHAEL JACOB
Performances with a positive perspective - Lisa Xanthopoulou conducts the Orchestra of the Municipality of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki Press, 13 October 2003
Lisa Xanthopoulou conducts the Orchestra of the Municipality of Thessaloniki
Review: ANTONIS I. KONSTANDINIDES
Beyond the lively and positive impressions that we were left with by the Symphony Orchestra of the Municipality of Thessaloniki at its concert of the 6th of October at the Concert Hall, the resounding feeling of the evening once again led to a by now self-evident observation. The Municipality's orchestra, despite the logistical and other problems that it faces, continues, in the hands of the right conductor, to deliver careful interpretations and to reveal the virtues of its members, regardless of those who harbor any doubts.
The program opened with Sibelius' Valse Triste. The clear timbre of the strings and the swaying dance rhythm emerged as a welcoming, sensual and colorful overture, a light prelude to the concert.
The gratifying evening closed with Mendelssohn's "Italian" Symphony. This work, which records some impressions from the composer's travels, despite its title, has little to do with the notion of so-called program music. The composer's use of clean melodic lines, clear sense of movement and the ambiance created by his orchestration result in a work of atmospheric presence and lively resonance.
The romantic subtext and virtues of the work were revealed with clarity and vision by the well-prepared orchestra, which made a very positive impression with its coherent performance.
The conductor Lisa Xanthopoulou
Of the conductor, Lisa Xanthopoulou, it is safe to say that she represents the great musical tradition of the German-speaking world. However, she does much more than merely imitate her role models. Under her clear and all-encompassing guidance, the Orchestra revealed a well-structured reading of the works which could not easily be called into question. Plastic and masterly in her movements, without excessive dramatics, but with strength, quality and sensitivity, she reminded us of something which can, on occasion, be easily forgotten: that knowledge and dignity, accompanied by a refusal to accept easy compromise and an absolutely natural feel for music force many of our younger compatriots onto the road of a lonely and difficult struggle, a road entailing the proud rejection of a confining and often abject Greek reality. Through this prism, Ms. Xanthopoulou's success would seem to be her inevitable destiny. Or perhaps that's just the way it is, as feminist as this may sound, since, in Greek, the nouns music, experience, effort, and knowledge are all ...feminine.
Lisa Xanthopoulou Live and on a New CD
Taunus Zeitung, October 6th, 2003
Bad Homburg. ... It is with elegant ease that this Greek conductor renders the Concerto Grosso in d minor by George Friedrich Händel.
... The final tracks of the CD are devoted to the Chamber Symphony op. 110a by Dmitri Shostakovich. With its dramatic and boyish folklore elements, this work by the famous Russian composer provides an explosive example of how enormous his creative powers were. Lisa Xanthopoulou emphasized the lyrical aspects with just as much care as those passages that pulse with energy in this remarkable work.
Michael Jacob
Musical presentations with meaning and style
Thessaloniki Press, 9 June 2003
Two interesting concerts by Thessaloniki State Orchestra.
Review: ANTONIS I. KONSTANTINIDIS
Two concerts of special interest stood out amongst the others presented as part of the program of the State Orchestra during May. One was the "Humor Gala" on Friday, 16 May, the other, the performance of the Requiem of Berlioz, the last concert of the same month.
These two concerts, despite their intense and antithetical nature, which distinguished them from a musical point of view, certainly support the view that they easily emanated the same general impression left by the entire current artistic season. Quality performances by the State Orchestra is no longer a merely a wish, but rather a fact, the result of persistent work, well-planned direction, and excellently thought-out programming, supported by the stimulating dynamism of the orchestra as a whole. A development which most definitely should not be interrupted.
The "Humor Gala"
Conductor Lisa Xanthopoulou is a prime example of an artist who, with a solid and sound educational foundation (State Conservatory, Department of Musical Studies, Berlin University of Arts), seeks persistently and successfully to prove herself in a predominately the male-dominated endeavor which is orchestral conducting. At the same time, she is one of many young Greek artists who follow the lonely but dignified path of a European career, far from the traditional local intrigues typical of our country, be they fair or unfair, but always relatively damaging psychologically, as well as humiliating. We had occasion to meet at the "Humor Gala", at which she had been invited to conduct, impressing everyone with her special, distinctive, personal, and expressive style of conducting.
By definition, a celebration of a whimsical nature, playful and perhaps purposely insincere, the "Humor Gala" predisposed the audience for an experience quite different from the more or less solemn or trivial sounds of a conventional concert. Apart from the excellent performers, the responsive orchestra, the convincing conductor, the choice of the repertoire was balanced, of quality and variety, with a careful blending of orchestral and vocal works, arias and overtures, by no means light or easily digestible.
The coloratura soprano Gina Poulou (whom we heard recently in the children's opera Momo under Alkis Baltas) contributed greatly to the success of the evening. She reached the heights of the vocal stratosphere with ease and, marshalling her acting skills, won over the audience with a generous display of her talent. The "Aria of the Dolls" from Tales of Hoffmann was certainly one of the most pleasant and certainly unforgettable highlights of the evening. Her baritone co-star, Australian David Wakeham, held his own, successfully performing the classical parts of the repertoire; though appearing to be a little overly pedantic, he did manage to reward the audience with a fine performance, underscored by his rich vocal palette.
....Just before the end of this year's artistic season and in light of the positive reckoning of our State Orchestra, we can now regard this year's accomplishments as a quality guarantee for next season.
Great powers of suggestion - Prizewinner concert in Bad Homburg
Frankfurter Allgemeine, 21 March 2003
.
... After the introductory Milan Quartet in E-flat Major KV 160, Xanthopoulou's style of conducting impressed with great powers of suggestion; supported by her precision and observant sensibility, she offered the soloist in Joseph Haydn's C-major Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra great scope for inspired interpretation.
A brilliant performance by the prizewinner
Frankfurter Neue Presse/Taunnuszeitung, 17 March 2003
Bad Homburg. The Bad Homburg Schlosskirche concert season came to a brilliant end last Friday. The prizewinner of the third conducting competition, Lisa Xanthopoulou, underlined her superlative musical qualities in the Milan Quartet Symphony by Mozart and the Chamber Symphony by Shostakovich. Using elegant gestures, she shaped the charming first movement of the Mozart symphony, spun out a gentle cantabile in the inner movement, and presented the finale as an energetic contrast. The Chamber Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich is a posthumous arrangement for string orchestra by Rudolf Barshai of the Russian master's eighth string quartet, who wrote his enthralling work as a memorial to the bomb victims of the Second World War in Dresden. Using effective and extremely precise gestures, Lisa Xanthopoulou conjured an energy-charged intensity from the Cologne Sinfonietta in the introductory largo, and then released the utmost power and vehemence in manifesting the destruction of the baroque city in the allegro. She unfolded the macabre elements of the grotesque three-four time in the allegretto with gentle insistence and sensitively modelled the oppressive, fearful atmosphere of the largo. The gloomy main tenor of the final movement mingled with the optimistic major harmonies, heralding hope for better times. Lisa Xanthopoulou gave masterly performances in Bad Homburg, and proved in the final concert, too, that she was more than worthy of winning the conducting competition.
MICHAEL JAKOB
A feeling for the extraordinary
Frankfurter Allgemeine, 19 February 2003
A Divertimento in D-major by Joseph Haydn played at the start was already characterised as entertainment music through its title, without screening its more substantial, denser structure, in comparison to Dittersdorf. The Cologne Sinfonietta could have rendered this contrast more vividly by greater energy in their playing; however, in the second half of the concert, they accentuated their performance with interpretations of more striking dynamism...... Lisa Xanthopoulou, last year's winner of the Bad Homburg Conducting Competition, was able to consolidate her excellent reputation in situ even more, and was no doubt exhilarated at the sustained final applause for her and the orchestra, irrespective of the sophisticated programme concept.
BENEDIKT STEGEMANN
Three women made the concert a unique experience
Hochtaunus Verlag, 13 February 2003
Bad Homburg (hw). The third prizewinner concert of this season in the Schlosskirche turned out to be a most remarkable demonstration of the status of women on the music scene. Conductor, orchestra leader and soloist provided a dynamically charged and musically most impressive evening.
Lisa Xanthopoulou, last year's winner in the third Bad Homburg Conducting Competition performed with consummate mastery on the rostrum. Whilst she showed discreet reserve in the classical works by Haydn and Dittersdorf, only investing austere and Spartan gestures to tauten up the Cologne Sinfonietta and lead the way to kaleidoscopic interpretations, she demonstrated her powerfully expressive and stringent mode of conducting in the Late Romantic compositions by Franz Schreker (Intermezzo op. 8) and Hugo Wolf (Italian Serenade). Imparting great energy and suggestive power, she led a body of supremely capable instrumentalists, themselves applauded loudly by the public at first hearing of the unfamiliar works. Lisa Xanthopoulou succeeded in presenting superlative performances of both works, and the public rewarded her with sustained applause. Lisa Xanthopoulou thanked them with the work that helped her win the competition last year against the other contestants: the second Elegiac Melody by Edvard Grieg.
Small gestures, great results
Frankfurter Neue Presse/Taunuszeitung, regional, 10 February 2003
Bad Homburg. The third prizewinner concert of this season in the Schlosskirche turned out to be a splendid evening, where everything really worked to perfection: an out-of-the-ordinary and very admirable programme concept, the first-class soloist, an extremely interesting conductor, and a very reliable chamber ensemble were the guarantees for a musical experience that one only rarely encounters...... Lisa Xanthopoulou, the prizewinner of the Bad Homburg Conduction Competition last year remained true to her objective manifested in the last concert of conducting classical works only with the utmost discreetness of gesture. Small orchestras in the eighteenth century did not need - and in fact would not have needed - the sweeping gestures of its own conductor positioned in front. Concise and utterly precise, Lisa Xanthopoulou sculpted out the dance elements of the two minuets in the Divertimento in D-major by Joseph Haydn, and modulated the figural variations of the first movement without using the baton, merely gentle suggestions of her hands.
Conducting the Cologne Sinfonietta, the Greek artist worked far more intuitively in the Intermezzo by Franz Schreker. Her skill of suggestion was such that her interpretation of the Romantic composition likened a dense and ecstatic sound painting.
With impulsive temperament, Xanthopoulou and her instrumentalists from Cologne presented their interpretation of the "Italian Serenade" by Hugo Wolf, and, finally, she thanked her wildly applauding public in the Schlosskirche by playing as an encore the work that helped her convince the jury at the conducting competition last year: the second Elegiac Melody by Edvard Grieg.
MICHAEL JACOB
Woman as Lord of the Revels - Greek conductor Lisa Xanthopoulou conducts New Year's Concert
Freie Presse, Zwickauer Zeitung, 6 January 2003
The sensational thing about the New Year's Concert in the "New World": yesterday, for the first time in its history, the Philharmonic Orchestra played under the baton of a woman - the young Greek conductor Lisa Xanthopoulou.
"Right from the start of the six rehearsals we had with her I found her inspiring," enthused the first solo bass-player Walter Emmerich. "I have been playing in this orchestra since 1967 - but for the first time with a woman conductor. She doesn't act at all feminine, in fact rather tomboyish. It's a sheer pleasure for her and for us to make music together."..... The programme offered the very best from the music sheets of a Johann Strauss, Josef Strauss, Franz von Suppé........conductor and orchestra at first impressed with a performance between the festive and the elegant. During the Galathea overture, percussionists Peter Weller and Mirela-Florina Walla unexpectedly swapped roles to become a dancing couple on the top orchestra step. And after the interval, the conductor whipped the orchestra up to unbridled energy and temperament.
GMD Professor Dieter-Gerhard Worm engaged the Greek conductor for two reasons: Lisa Xanthopoulou won the Bad Homburg conducting competition in 2002 against overwhelming male predominance...Since the Plauen-Zwickow Philharmonic quite rightly wished to be a major orchestra, it was high time for a guest appearance of Lisa Xanthopoulou. Besides which, Worm is passionately interested in integrating her permanently into the musical life of West Saxony at least for a few years.
As the orchestra's mood and temperament came to the boil, so did the audience's applause. At the end there were rousing calls for encores. At first came the "Women" March from "The Merry Widow", in which the conductor made the men in the audience shout in chorus "Oh, these women!", and, as the grand finale, the Radetzky March. A regular visitor to the concerts, Hans-Joachim Brattke, retired forester, went home with these words: "The year 2003 is getting off to a good start. Lisa Xanthopoulou is adding charm and energy to everything. And our orchestra is a prize win for the region!"
KLAUS TIPPMANN
Conductor Lisa Xanthopoulou in a successful debut
Bad Homburger Woche, 28 November 2002
Bad Homburg (hw). The prizewinner of the 2002 Bad Homburg Conducting Award, Lisa Xanthopoulou, made her debut at the weekend in the full house of the Schlosskirche. The 34-year-old conductor, the winner last summer against 50 rival competitors, was hailed with great applause..... The young prizewinner presented grandiose interpretations of the Brandenburg Concerto no.3 by Johann Sebastian Bach and the Concerto Grosso in D-minor by George Frideric Handel. With a conducting style of discreet gestures, she accentuated the triple groupings inherent in Bach's concerto, left the musician groups free to unfold in the solo passages, and packed the polyphonically structured work into a rendering densely charged with an enthralling, breathtaking dynamism. No less intense was her interpretation of the Handel, where she sensitively sounded out the dynamics in the Air, and then let her fiery temperament loose in the final movement.
A full and rounded evening of chamber music with a very remarkable conductor, arousing great expectations for her concert on 7 February with works by Haydn, Dittersdorf, Schreker, Debussy and Wolf.
Sensation
Frankfurter Neue Presse/ Taunuszeitung, 26 November 2002
It was certainly a minor sensation that the Greek conductor Lisa Xanthopoulou won the third Bad Homburg Conducting Competition in summer, especially as the profession of a conductor is still a man's domain. And her success is even more remarkable based on the high standard of this competition and the fact that the young musician from Berlin managed to win over 50 rivals..... However, the charismatic artist was scarcely granted the time to prove her communicative, artistic powers in all their intensity, after all, such baroque works are now frequently performed in the authentic fashion without a conductor. The formative and modulating element of gesture only reached its full flowering in the late Classical era. Yet Lisa Xanthopoulou managed to bring out the musical features, for instance the groupings of three in the Third Brandenburg Concerto, which is shaped throughout by the holy number of three. Hers was a transparent interpretation, with great nuance in dynamics, manifesting with power and rhetorical intensity the enthralling quality of this work by the Cantor of the Thomaskirche.
MICHAEL JACOB
Prize Award
Frankfurter Rundschau, 25 November 2002
Lisa Xanthopoulou conducts in Full Church
Bad Homburg. On Friday evening, in the sold-out Schlosskirche, Lisa Xanthopoulou was awarded the Bad Homburg Conducting Competition prize endowed with 10,000 euros.... Her outstanding conducting skills so convinced the jury and the BHF Bank Foundation that they chose her out of 50 contestants.
Conductor's Baton for Bach's Music - Appearance of Prizewinner Lisa Xanthopoulou
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 24 November 2002
Bad Homburg. Lisa Xanthopoulou conducts with very frugal gestures, guiding the orchestra sometimes only with finger signs, yet paradoxically inspiring it through her spirited temperament to impulsive and passionate music-making. The prizewinner of the Bad Homburg Conducting Competition demonstrated this ably in the Schlosskapelle, and exclusively with baroque works - not in fact her domain, so her stylistic security and flexibility provided even more of a surprise. The 34-year-old Greek conductor had won against the other 50 contestants in June and, before the concert commenced, received the award of 10,000 euros from the BHF Bank Foundation.
The orchestra was the Cologne Sinfonietta, this year's "orchestra in residence" of the Schloss concerts, and she took them along various interpretative paths, always in accord with the works and soloists...... Lisa Xanthopoulou showed great refinement in the first movements of the concerti, never rushing at them, her particularly dynamic and striking interpretation of the final movements thus culminating in a rousing finale. This was the case in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto in G Major no. 3 BWV 1048, where the tonal tautness of delivery and strong ground bass optimally approximated the "authentic sound" in interpretation.......It was only here, by the way, that Lisa Xanthopoulou picked up the conductor's baton for the finer nuances. Handel's Conerto Grosso in D Minor op. 6,10 likewise sounded refreshingly unacademic, striking in its spirited tempo relations, its polyphony well transported to the listener.
GUIDO HOLZE
Learning Tricks from Expert Maestros
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 22 November 2002
Today, Lisa Xanthopoulou is awarded the Bad Homburg Conducting Competition prize/evening concert
Winning the Bad Homburg Conducting Competition came just at the right time for Lisa Xanthopoulou. The career of this young musician had just started to show an upwards trend, with concert appearances and contracts in Cottbus, Nuremberg, Baden-Baden, Vienna, and guest performances in the opera houses in Würzburg and her home town of Thessaloniki "the heavens opened and a bravo came down". In her talk to this newspaper, the spirited but also reflective artist described her feelings about the prize thus: as an affirmation and encouragement along her path, as an energy reserve before the next defeat, "which will surely come. But my fears are no longer those of youth, now I just let everything happen."
It all started for the six-year-old with piano lessons. She was soon fingering out Greek songs by ear, found the instrument was "fun", was picked out throughout her schooldays as an accompanist and choir leader, discovered that she could express herself and her love of music best in ensemble work......
The musician sees differences, too, between rehearsing and conducting a performance. Rehearsals demand a clear, didactic, psychological and utterly convincing communication of the musical concept, borne on perfect pitch and musical ear, a feeling for rhythm, melody, balance of sound, and the style of the work itself "Meticulous work, with aura, eyes, hands, fingers. I speak with gesture, less and less with words, only the bare essentials, short and concise." And, during the performance as well, conducting has a great deal to do with aura. "But the gestures now only remind the orchestra of what we have learned together. The rest is inspiration, the reciprocal give and take between the orchestra and the audience.".........
She will conduct the Bad Homburg programme without a baton, "because I wish to delegate the synchronisation of sound movement to the orchestra." This is a man's domain and a woman conductor is still an unusual sight for orchestra and public. "Although I do not feel exotic myself as a person, the orchestra puts a sharper focus on a woman on the rostrum that on a man: a woman has to prove that she is at all capable of conducting, a man that he can conduct well."
ELLEN KOHLHAAS
The Baden-Baden Philharmonic showed a wonderful rapport with guest conductor Lisa Xanthopoulou and soloist Tomo Keller - The light hand of complete command even in the inferno
Badisches Tagblatt, 18 November 2002
The third symphony concert of the Baden-Baden Philharmonic, sponsored by the Conductors Forum of the Deutscher Musikrat (German Music Council), gave two young, talented musicians the opportunity of distinguishing themselves before a large audience. Conducting the concert was the Greek conductor Lisa Xanthopoulou, a musician who has been accepted by the German Music Council into the "Maestros von Morgen" (Maestros of Tomorrow) list of artists....... The concert opened with five Greek Dances for String Orchestra by Nikos Skalkottas. Anyone expecting only twelve-tone music from this composer and pupil of Arnold Schönberg experienced a surprise: folk dances, full of contrast, presented in harmonic colours of the greatest subtlety and variety - and who could do justice to the dances more than the Greek conductor Lisa Xanthopoulou? With her controlled body language, she seemed to join in the dance herself, conjuring a minstrel-like presentation from the Philharmonic.....The main work of the concert was the formidable Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A Minor op. 53 by Antonin Dvorak.....the Rondo Finale then provided another opportunity for temperament and "Bohemian" verve. But even when things took off, as here, the conductor did not desert her very frugal but focussed conducting method.....
The finale of the BBPh concert conducted by the guest Xanthopoulou was the Symphony no. 5, D Minor, the "Reformation Symphony" by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. .....
Lisa Xanthopoulou: Like a Rock in the Surge
....A bombastic symphony, slightly old-fashioned in effect, whose characteristic motifs were well delineated by the conductor. In the most stirring moments she was like a rock in the surge in front of the orchestra, mastering the inferno with small, exact movements and an eloquent left hand...... And who had earned the rousing applause and bravos of the large public by the end: composer, conductor, orchestra? Probably it was meant for all three, as thanks for a rounded, commanding, indeed enthralling presentation.
By BT critic KAREN STREICH
And the winner is ...Lisa Xanthopoulou
Blitz Tip 29 June 2002
Conducting Competition 2002
Bad Homburg. The Bad Homburg Conducting Competition once more offered a very high standard this year. 50 qualified candidates, of whom 95 per cent were men, were the competitors of the 34-year-old young Greek woman who led the field. For the first time in its history, the Bad Homburg Conducting Competition, sponsored by the BHF Bank Foundation, was won by a woman. Lisa Xanthopoulou, born in Thessalonica, Greece, withstood the phalanx of her male rivals, thus winning the prize of 10,000.- euros. Lisa Xanthopoulou carried all before her with a blend of concentrated work, precise manual technique and great conviction.
For the first time a woman wins the Conducting Competition
Bad Homburger Wochen 27 June 2002
Bad Homburg (hw). A woman breaks through the male-dominated domain of conducting! Lisa Xanthopoulou was chosen as the first women ever to win the Bad Homburg Conducting Competition, now in its third year.
.... Lisa Xanthopoulou combined the two essential features on the conducting rostrum in a gratifying fashion: good work with the orchestra and expressive manual and physical technique. The verbal interpretation of her ideas was concise and to the point, she rehearsed difficult passages with exact targeting of her objectives, and moulded the orchestra in every way into an cogent entity. We can now look forward to the three concerts with the prize winner....
A pedagogical velvet touch and an air of luxury in the Schlosskirche
Frankfurter Rundschau, 25 June 2002
Where do the new Karajans come from? Amongst other places from Bad Homburg. The seven-hour competition marathon of the third Bad Homburg Conducting Competition was held in the Schlosskirche on Saturday. As we reported yesterday, the winner was Lisa Xanthopoulou. It was half past eleven when the name of the winner, Lisa Xanthopoulou, was finally decided. The 34-year-old young woman, radiating resolution, tackled both Haydn and Grieg with perfect rehearsal timing, precise instructions, decisive will-power in interpretation and a communicative skill placed pointedly between the strictness of a maestro and flashes of private emotion. A loud cry of jubilation from the young Greek woman greeted the event spokesman Karl-Werner Joerg and his announcement of what was very likely a close decision by the adjudicators.
KATHRIN SCHWEDLER
A woman conducts her way to the top
Frankfurter Neue Presse/ Taunuszeitung, 24 June 2002
Bad Homburg. Lisa Xanthopoulou is the name of the new prize winner of the Bad Homburg Conducting Competition....Lisa Xanthopoulou came through against her rivals as the first woman ever in a discipline still dominated by men..... Lisa Xanthopoulou was able to realise her interpretation by making similar demands in her conducting. Sure of her objectives, with concentrated verve in method, she communicated her ideas to the orchestra and presented the works with great sensitivity and powers of expression in the short time that was allowed to her.
MICHAEL JACOB