WANDERER
FR: “Fabien Gabel parvient à insuffler à l’Orchestre National de France une fluidité, une direction qui nourrissent la phrase et la dessinent, en assumant son caractère très intérieur et méditatif.”
EN: “Fabien Gabel succeeds in infusing the Orchestre National de France with a fluidity, a direction that nourishes and shapes the phrase, assuming a very interior and meditative character.”
RESMUSICA
FR: “La sonorité est magnifique, la virtuosité sans faille, parfaitement en phase avec l’accompagnement orchestral conduit avec autorité et rigueur par Fabien Gabel."
EN: “The sonority is magnificent, the virtuosity flawless, perfectly in sync with the orchestral accompaniment conducted with authority and rigor by Fabien Gabel.”
CRESCENDO MAGAZINE
EN: “As he prepares to lead the summer session which has been maintained and which will offer a concert at the Nouveau Siècle in Lille (September 3), he answers questions from Crescendo Magazine.”
UTAH ARTS REVIEW
“Gabel brought a deft balance between the soloist and the orchestra, which responded to his direction with finely crafted articulation and delivery.”
NEW YORK ARTS
“Gabel, currently Music Director in Quebec, proved to be a galvanic conductor with a fine sense of musical choreography and a sweeping notion of excitement.”
SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL
“Gabel shaped an artfully balanced traversal, finding precise balances in the organ’s nudge of an entrance, and just the right sense of nervousness in the first-movement theme. He fashioned a lithe and supple movement, stepping up in the finale to a sonorous finish.”
SF CLASSICAL REVIEW
"Gabel led an attractively tinted performance, evoking moonlight and sexy hip swivels, a big band blare, and foot-stamping ardor. The dancing was all there in the music, a tango made manifest and writ large."
SF CHRONICLE DATEBOOK
“A bodacious affair led by debuting guest conductor Fabien Gabel… with every sinuous melodic curve and opulent harmony forcefully rendered.”
"The two ensembles, accompanied by additional musicians, offered a memorable and felt interpretation under the direction of an intense Fabien Gabel, who was directing this work for the first time."
"Gabel seemed to bring out every bit of color and energy in this work; you hardly missed the singers."
In January 2020 , Fabien Gabel visited the WXXI studios in Rochester, NY, to speak about his performances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, performing works of Beethoven, Poulenc, and Prokofiev.
“Pure orchestral bliss.”
"Refreshingly different and a musical exposition in every way.... With so much excitement built, the finale could not but be fast and furious, verging on the hysterical. Gabel pressed the tempo still more in the coda and even the final bar – and that kind of finish always goes down well."
"The MSO under Gabel’s expert leadership magnificently brought out all its subtleness and grandeur; I especially appreciated the somewhat slower tempos Gabel took throughout the piece, thereby allowing the listener to hear the work’s textures all the more."
"This conductor has a real talent for keeping the sound growing with the right intensity...Maestro Gabel proved to be in full control of his interpretation, with a particular interest in nuance and detail. His gestures drew the music beautifully and his sound was attractive."
"Conductor Gabel and the OSQ musicians did true justice to Schmitt’s score, one of the most notable of the large-scale creations of this master orchestrator. Stentorian brass and resplendent colors from the woodwinds combined with ever-busy strings and a whole raft of percussion arrayed across the right side of the stage, coming together in an über-impressive phalanx of sound that underscored yet again how unique and noteworthy this 1904 score was at the time of its creation – and remains today."
Acclaimed French conductor Fabien Gabel shares his expectations of his Chicago debut.
Fabien Gabel and the Bordeaux Aquitaine National Orchestra amaze by the accuracy of the articulation, the generosity of the expression and the quality of the desks (wood, middle and bass strings).
“Starting with an ambitious tempo, that the strings took up with gusto, conductor Fabien Gabel explored the limits of how the music could surprise the audience, with the unexpected accents and remarkably precise attacks standing as a testament to the grand concentration of the instrumentalists.”
"The interpretation of Mahler's Chant de la Terre , performed by the OSQ, Fabien Gabel, Michael Schade and Marie-Nicole Lemieux, created seismic tremors."
