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A spirited musician and prudent craftsman – Praise from the press for Cologne début
Andrés Orozco-Estrada made a most successful Cologne début in the Philharmonie, the famous Cologne concert hall, on 8 January with the Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra. The programme featured works by Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Ravel and Dvořák. “Rapt from the very first moment” reads the headline of the Kölner Stadtanzeiger's review from 10 January. The concert furnished, it continues, “an absolutely irresistible programme in its virtuosity and appeal, on which two excellent musicians of the younger generation stamped their own style. The cellist, Johannes Moser, crafted the conversational tone of the Tchaikovsky Variations with captivating agility and eloquence, whilst the Gürzenich musicians parried superbly every rhetorical thrust blow for blow. The watchful support of the Columbian conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada lent itself to their music-making. He is a bubbly and spirited musician (as one might expect in view of his origins), yet at the same time a prudent craftsman, adept at graduating and intensifying the mood.
The Kölnische Rundschau's critic likewise voiced an extremely positive review of the concert (9 January). “With youthful vigour the Gürzenich débutant Andrés Orozco-Estrada gave a convincing performance. Under his direction the Dances were performed powerfully and the cantilenas sang out with warmth. (…) The concert opened with the lively overture to Glinka's magical opera Ruslan and Ludmila. Ravel's Alborada was also a rewarding musical experience.”