“Guest maestro Juanjo Mena also demonstrated an uncanny ability to nudge the audience as well as the orchestra. He kicked off the evening in earnest with a spectacular take on Prokofiev’s “Classical Symphony.” […] Mena and the orchestra were marvelous. Unhurried, precise, explosively exciting — the orchestra brought its “A” game on Friday.”

“The National Symphony Orchestra was led by the Spanish conductor Juanjo Mena, who struck precisely the right balance of body and soul in a program bookended by Schumann and Brahms […] the former chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic made a memorable mark. He’s got a way with conjuring and releasing pressure, and can just as easily construct towering columns of sound as scatter them into clouds. […] Mena’s nimbleness was a large part of what gave the overture to Schumann’s 1848 “Manfred” the humanity required to hear the composer’s heart in the chest of the Byronic hero. It was one of the best openers I’ve heard all season. [In Brahms’ Third Symphony] Mena and the orchestra managed its triumphant tuttis as carefully as its many intimacies — the way the first movement quite literally peaces out; the design of the woodwinds that so beautifully illuminates the andante and accentuates the aching grace of the third movement.”

“Monumental and authoritative.”

“Everything was light on its feet, full of rhythmic energy. Conducting without a score, Mena seemed to dance his way through virtually the entire piece. He showed an ideal grasp of how to shape the music into large, overarching paragraphs, so Schubert’s repeated motives never worked against the musical flow. The finale was simply thrilling. The [Boston Symphony Orchestra] executed his vision brilliantly. This was the kind of orchestral playing that did all the little things right: clean articulation, ensemble unity, precise balances within and among sections… [a] strong indication of an orchestra operating at an elevated level.”

“Again, he had the BBC Phil playing at the top of their considerable powers.”

“Juanjo Mena conducted his first opera since joining the BBC Philharmonic with power and subtlety… He offered a high-voltage interpretation, though one in which the great moments of reflection […] had space and time to register.”

“Mena directed a performance which had every necessary attribute. Firstly, the playing [by the London Philharmonic Orchestra] seemed absolutely flawless. The balance was perfect, choice of tempi was absolutely spot on at every point, there was a heavy sense of menace in the quieter passages and the savagery of the score was brilliantly evoked. It was all just about as good as could be.”

“Haydn’s music can look undemanding on paper, but it needs super-careful balancing and articulation to make it sing in performance. Mena brought those skills in spades to an interpretation that combined a feline elegance of phrasing with probing insight into the shadowy emotional regions the so-called “Mourning” Symphony inhabits. […] The featherlight violin figurations in the slow movement had exquisite delicacy, and the finale zipped crisply forward without succumbing to a pumped-up overemphasis.”

“Juanjo Mena had ample opportunity to go bombastic during Saturday night’s Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert. For both Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” and James Lee III’s “Sukkot Through Orion’s Nebula” are boldly extroverted works calling for grand gestures and massive sonorities. But Mena resisted obvious temptations, proving that an honest, humanly scaled performance always is preferable to a merely grandiose one. […] Mena offered a robust performance that did not sacrifice details of orchestration that distinguish this score. Even at the end, with the ensemble at full cry, Mena chose clarity over volume, lustrous color over harsh attacks.”