Axel Kober let a fresh sea breeze blow in the orchestra pit and, as Thielemann’s successor, skilfully mastered the acoustically nasty conducting of the opera in the Festspielhaus.

Bettina Boyens
Frankfurter Neue Presse

​The most applause, however, went to conductor Axel Kober, who took over the “Holländer” from Christian Thielemann in 2016.

dpa

​[…] it became an evening that doesn’t sound at all like what one imagines Wagner to be, if one only knows him as a cliché. On the contrary: with a delight in contrasts and colours and an even greater delight in tempo, music like a painting to listen to […]

Florian Zinnecker
Nordbayerischer Kurier

​Kober knows how to conduct this complicated piece, especially in this house. Agogically and with courage to the tempo he provides a pleasant freshness.

Maximilian Maier
BR Klassik

​Musically, this revival is in very good hands with Axel Kober. He does not deny the forerunners of the German play opera (Flotow, Nicolai, Lortzing), from which Wagner starts and forms with master hand new, different and finally the great, serious opera. The festival orchestra follows him smoothly and eloquently[…]

Christian Konz
onlinemerker.com