24th October 2022

Juanjo Mena made his debut with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra last week, to great critical acclaim. The programme opened with Haydn’s Symphony No.44, delivered with “utmost elegance, the music ever buoyant, phrases exquisitely tapered. Mena’s conducting was a study in balanced precision and expression.” [Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News]

Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with Javier Perianes followed, along with Ginastera’s Variaciones Concertantes and Debussy’s Iberia, in which “Mena brilliantly balanced frenzy and atmosphere” [Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News]

J. Robin Coffelt from the Texas Classical Review wrote “Mena coaxed beautiful phrasing out of the orchestra …. the DSO delivered a performance that was brilliant, virtuosic and a lot of fun.”