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.

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 (no helpful hanging about, no cosy rallentandos when the ballerina wants to show off). So, Benjamin Pope, whose grand account of “Sylvia” 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

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

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 theTchaikovsky 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

...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