Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 with the Boston Symphony, July 2016

"If a conductor doesn’t share Tchaikovsky’s penchant for the shamelessly bombastic, then a “classier” or more reserved composer might be a better choice. But Masur is fearless of Tchaikovsky’s over-the-top grandiloquence, and he knows how to pull out the stops and damn the torpedoes at appropriate times.

Don’t all conductors do this when the score calls for it?

It may appear that they do. But under Masur’s direction on Saturday, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 crackled with such vitality and force that past performances of the work now seem pale and tentative by comparison. The crowd was ready to explode long before the piece ended. And when it did, they stood and roared." - The Berkshire Edge

"Heroics abounded in the "Eroica" — in Beethoven's Bonaparte-inspired symphony, of course, but also in the performance under Masur... ...He had a sure sense of tension and release, of making each note and phrase tell a story." - The Berkshire Edge