Following his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2011, Juanjo Mena returned this year to lead the season’s closing concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on the 30th of May. Mena conducted works by Mozart and Brahms, which were enthusiastically received by the audience and the press.

A rave review in the Los Angeles Times, for example, noted:

“Juanjo Mena made his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut at the Hollywood Bowl in 2011. Clearly he was good enough to get a return engagement, so Mena, now 47, went indoors Thursday night and led some very impressive Mozart and Brahms in Walt Disney Concert Hall to close the 2012-13 season. (…) For Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, Mena – again working without a score – produced a markedly different texture, velvety yet clear, with the right voices brought forth at the right times, the emotion in the music pouring out without exaggeration. No matter how many times one has heard the symphony’s opening melody, Mena’s shaping made it sound fresh and moving again – and that’s a real achievement”.

The full review is available at the Los Angeles Times.

Original photo: Ricardo DeAratanha, Los Angeles Times.