HarryBicket

Press

• The English Concert: Clori, Tirsi e Fileno

  Wigmore Hall

  Oct 2023

  • Harry Bicket directed the English Concert from the harpsichord, and everything was superbly shaped and done with great finesse, with a sensuous brightness in the strings, a real richness in the woodwind and some truly spectacular theorbo playing from Sergio Bucheli.

    • The Guardian
    • 19 October 2023

• The English Concert: Barbican

  Barbican

  Mar 2023

  • Bicket is a wonderful Handelian and the performances were exemplary in their grace, enthusiasm and elan. Beautifully played, the Fireworks Music swung exuberantly between ceremonial grandeur and elegant refinement.

    • The Guardian
    • 01 March 2023

• The English Concert: Solomon

  Carnegie Hall

  Mar 2023

  • None is more sumptuous than “Solomon” — most of its choruses are scored for eight voice parts, versus the standard four — but on Sunday, Bicket emphasized intimacy, delicacy and restraint. It was clear from the overture that lyrical gracefulness was the aim here. With tempos moderate and textures silky throughout, there was no attempt to supercharge contrasts or inflate the drama, just a sense of letting the piece speak for itself. Led with subtlety and patience by Bicket, the performance, in the libretto’s words, let “sweetly flow the lulling sound.”

    • New York Times
    • 13 March 2023

• Royal Opera: Theodora

  Royal Opera House

  Feb 2022

  • There’s immaculate choral singing, superbly focused and balanced, along with fervour, grace and elegance in Harry Bicket’s conducting. You may be in two minds about Mitchell’s staging, but it’s one of the most beautiful things you will ever hear.

    • The Guardian
    • 01 February 2022

• BBC National Orchestra of Wales: St Matthew Passion

  St David's Hall

  Apr 2022

  • Bach’s St Matthew Passion, one of the great masterpieces of the baroque and indeed the whole choral repertoire, never fails to be a moving experience. This performance, with the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales under the direction of conductor Harry Bicket, was no exception, the extremes of cruelty and compassion at its heart all the more poignant in these troubled times. " "Many of the Passion’s movements are in triple time – Hamburg Ballet has recently collaborated with Los Angeles Opera in a production – and, in Bicket’s expert handling of his considerable forces, the lightly lilting dancing quality he achieved was also a memorable facet.

    • The Guardian
    • 11 April 2022

• Metropolitan Opera: Cosi Fan Tutte

  Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center

  Feb 2020

  • I can’t remember ever hearing this ensemble sound so light, almost insubstantial — and I mean that as a compliment. This music, which for all its sublimity can sometimes drag, didn’t rush — at least not after a bracingly brisk overture — but never lagged, the textures as airy as a June morning on Coney Island.

    • New York Times
    • 16 February 2020