Press Reviews

The Royal Ballet’s staging of Coppélia...is as near perfect as we can expect in this vale of tears, and in this current revival the miracle of Delibes’ score is admirably displayed by the orchestra under Benjamin Pope. The onward rhythmic momentum of a dance score, the vital illumination of the steps by the music's phrasing and sonorities, can be sustained only if the conductor understands the score and dance equally.

I grew up as a ballet-goer under Constant Lambert’s baton in the 1940’s, and Lambert taught audiences and dancers alike that the score must guide interpretation not least by its rigours .So, Benjamin Pope, whose grand account of “Sylvia” last season brought the staging vividly to life

The music of Purcell was played beautifully by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Benjamin Pope

Conducted by the excellent Benjamin Pope...under his baton The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House played beautifully and for that reason alone he made the cost of a ticket well worth the expense

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has seldom sounded so good, playing with particular virtuosity, inspired by Benjamin Pope, athletically and energetically conducting Mozart's Jupiter Symphony and Beethoven's Coriolan Overture

...a fine performance by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Benjamin Pope

The Delibes score, meanwhile, one of the most compelling in classical ballet (Tchaikovsky thought it better than Swan Lake) is delivered with all the sweep and colour of 19th-century Paris under the baton of Benjamin Pope

The score, under Benjamin Pope, was everything it should be, glowing with colour, charming us utterly

Beautifully, delightfully conducted by Benjamin Pope who interprets this classic piece with intelligence

Benjamin Pope’s conducting is characterised by clarity and unerring majesty. The somewhat sweet Romanticism of Mendelssohn’s music thus avoids any sense of superficiality, instead it gains an emotional depth whilst remaining lucid and crystalline

The Hong Kong Sinfonietta is superb under the baton of Benjamin Pope

The superb Benjamin Pope conducted Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony

The Orchestra under the attentive baton of Benjamin Pope, making his Vienna Staatsoper debut, played during the evening as a caring partner

Delibes' glorious score was stylishly played by the orchestra under Benjamin Pope. No wonder the audience seemed to come out of the Royal Opera House with one big, happy smile on its face

And laurels to Benjamin Pope, under whose baton the score shone, sang, was witty and was authentically Delibes

Benjamin Pope conducted the orchestra dazzlingly

The second half was devoted to Rachmaninov's massive 2nd Symphony. In fact it is so long and so full of lush, sweeping melodies that the effect can begin to cloy unless carefully handled. Conductor Benjamin Pope brought an epic and very Russian vision to the work, the strings in particular having to lose their inhibitions and play as if their lives depended on it. Overall it was a performance of huge energy and drive, exhilarating for both players and audience and culminating in suitably tumultuous applause

As soon as conductor Benjamin Pope gave the decisive downbeat for this perfect Delibes score, I found myself sitting next to an imaginary nine-year-old me...Under Pope, the Delibes music is a delight, recalling Tchaikovsky's comment that if he'd heard Delibes first, he'd never have composed Swan Lake

Leo Delibes’s gorgeous score with its folksy but sophisticated melodies and buoyant rhythms is as irresistible as a second meringue...movingly played by the orchestra under Benjamin Pope

The revelation of this performance, however, was how Benjamin Pope, conducting, revealed the glory of Delibes’ score which at earlier performances (and with a different conductor) had at times been reduced almost to humdrum

The music is inspirational...in Benjamin Pope’s good hands

Benjamin Pope and the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin entwined us in the music of the Delibes score, making a fine sound

Delibes' shimmering 1876 score sets the scene (credit here to the conductor Benjamin Pope)

Benjamin Pope obtained fine results from the Brussels Philharmonic

Beethoven's First Piano concerto, with the distinguished soloist, Piers Lane giving a sparkling account of the first movement, a beautifully poetic largo, and a fast, but never rushed, finale with sympathetic and taut accompaniment from conductor, Benjamin Pope...in the Tchaikovsky Pope conducted superbly, with perfectly judged tempo which brought out all the music's warmth and drama

The magisterial music of Henry Purcell is played exquisitely by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Benjamin Pope and movingly sung by Elin Manahan Thomas

There was atmosphere and energy of the final movement, with the patterns in Philip Glass' music exhilarating as well as stimulating under Benjamin Pope's conducting (of the Orchestra of the Vienna Staatsoper)

...a potent mix of extracts from Purcell played beautifully by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and conductor Benjamin Pope

The conductor, Benjamin Pope (simply brilliant), received the most thunderous ovation of all during the curtain calls

Throughout, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta soared in Respighi's music, imaginatively confected by conductor Benjamin Pope

Benjamin Pope and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra gave a vividly engrossing performance, which gave no hint at all that they had played these works many times before...The whole had a lovely crisp, new-minted feel...Pope made the dramatic opening build, giving a lovely sense of something about to happen. The main theme was impulsively exciting, and there was a lovely sprung feel to the rhythms as Pope encourage the orchestra to bring out the Czech quality to the music. Throughout the movement we had exciting crisp rhythms, well pointed and detailed textures with a nicely focussed slim string tone. In the second movement...Pope brought quiet control to the rich underlay. Here and in other places in the symphony, Dvorak's detailed mulitlayered orchestration requires careful care and control, and Pope clearly brought a fine ear to the music and the RPO responded well. This was true also of the lively Scherzo, which was vividly impulsive. For the Finale I was again impressed with the firm control and crisp rhythms of the orchestra's performance, this was a very Czech sounding account of the work and one which was vividly involving. There were also some lovely transparent textures, with Pope whipping the orchestra into a nice excitement at the end

Finally, some of the most perfect playing of Tchaikovsky’s score that I am ever likely to hear by the orchestra under Benjamin Pope, who accompanied his dancers with exemplary care

Tchaikovsky’s magical and melodic music  was performed at a tempo that worked superbly at every level by the New Adventures Orchestra, conducted admirably by Benjamin Pope

Conductor Benjamin Pope led spirited and expert performances

Porter’s ballet music, in a stunning orchestration from Benjamin Pope

Orchestra Victoria is marvellously led by celebrated Guest Conductor Benjamin Pope 

The music of Prokofiev is masterfully performed [by the Dresden Staatskapelle] under the direction of this experienced conductor, when the curtain opens after the Prelude, the sound has already created so many images and awakened associations that you can prepare yourself for the emotions to come.