“Benjamin Bayl, who has operatic experience and is comfortable with voices, was attuned to the score’s essential starkness and gravity. In music that’s all about texture, he unleashed sounds from these perio instruments that showed how radical Rossini was, and how indebted to this work Verdi’s Requiem is. All the colours of Rossini's Alpine tone poem - the Overture to William Tell - registered vividly on the Hanover Band's period instruments, and Bayl steered this familiar music with fresh imagination.”

(John Allison, The Telegraph)

“It was Wagner who theorised that the dramatic C Minor opening depicts Coriolanus’s warlike determination while the yearning secondary melody represents his mother’s appeal for mercy. Principal Guest Conductor Benjamin Bayl delivered just such a dramatic trajectory.There was a tangible solidity to the ARCO sound, from the resolute opening through the bosom-heaving dramatics, and all done with impeccable intonation. Bayl offered a controlled performance, yet one that pulsed with energy, ensuring the development section always had a sense of purpose. A real buzz in the lower strings mingled with sonorous brass (in particular the superb natural horns), while the woodwind featured mellow flutes and a bassoon sound so entirely different from that of the modern instrument.”

(Clive Paget, Limelight Magazine)

“Benjamin Bayl is a familiar figure at the OSPA. He is one of the few guest conductors invited to work with the orchestra, who manage to give it its own personality and a better sound. On Thursday in Gijon and yesterday in Oviedo, he conducted an excellent concert with Schubert and Mozart in the programme. Bayl's way of understanding and conveying Schubert's music is, in fact, Schubertian. That is to say, direct and moving, infused with emotional variability based on melodic tenderness and fluctuating changes of tempi, modulations and expression. These features were apparent in the Symphony No. 9 which tied the monumental and energetic with the subtle and poetic. A picturesque performance, very full of color, well played and expressive.”

(El Comercio)

“The return of much loved Benjamin Bayl to OSPA sealed the success of the evening at the Auditorium. His conducting is well known here, both in symphonic and also operatic repertoire. Bayl never leaves any note sounding indifferent, always looking for the balance of orchestral sonority in his dynamic interpretations.”

(La Nueva España)

“Benjamin Bayl displayed a mature understanding of Mozartian musical line and elicited some fine playing from the Polish National Opera Orchestra, especially the strings and woodwinds, who were both virtuosic and subtle.”

(Jonathan Sutherland, Bachtrack.com)

“Bayl led the orchestra of the Polish National Opera gracefully. They sounded soft, agile and elegant - the qualities necessary to perform Mozart’s music.”

(Wyborcza.pl)

“A golden apple and a few flirtatious glances aside, this was a concert performance but a pleasingly sung one, neatly directed from the harpsichord by Benjamin Bayl, which revelled in Arne’s dapper tunes, busy violin descants and sizzling coloratura.”

Richard Morrison, The Times

"An intimate setting of this early opera classic seduces with live theatre and an effortless management of performance practice, with assured direction from Benjamin Bayl and his band of seven musicians who play lightly and precisely. A top hit."

Thomas Michelsen - Politiken

“Ariodante, conducted by Benjamin Bayl, held us in thrall… Try not to miss this touring delight.”

John Slavin, The Age, Melbourne

“This is a thrilling evening in which vocal glories are matched by outstanding playing from ETO’s baroque orchestra. Or, more accurately, that’s the excellent Benjamin Bayl, whose conducting is marked by flawless tempo choices and a precise ear for stage-pit balance… The three short hours of ETO’s Ariodante are sheer bliss.”

www.whatsonstage.com

“The baroque orchestra, beautifully controlled by conductor Benjamin Bayl, played with verve and precision… [There was] A great sense of empathy with the conductor, and tremendous rapport between pit and stage.“

www.musicalcriticism.com

“Orchestra Victoria, under Benjamin Bayl… creates a stream of lyrical music-making.”

John Slavin, The Age, Melbourne

“The superb look, the taut orchestra conducted by Benjamin Bayl and the beauty of Handel’s score make this an intriguing production.”

Melbourne City Voice

“Musically it is utterly gorgeous… that orchestra just knocked me out.”

www.onstagemelbourne.com.au