Messager: Fortunio / Grange Park Opera & Buxton Festival

“But the best characterisations by far lay in in the orchestral pit, where Toby Purser’s baton slashed through the air, keeping Messager’s elegant score rippling along.”
Geoff Brown, The Times

"The conductor Toby Purser, who worked with Grange Park Opera's Rising Stars with memorable results in their Yevgeny Onegin, really had the measure of the music. He kept a precise hold on its sentimentality and comedy, generally flattered the direction and designs, and drew a Gallic sheen from the 'Orchestre de Maître André."
Peter Reed, Opera

“Conductor Toby Purser highlights the score’s entrancing subtleties while keeping the pacing brisk.”
George Hall, The Guardian

Puccini: Madama Butterfly / Grange Park Opera at Nevill Holt

“The richness of the fabrics on view has its parallel in he glorious sound encouraged from players and singers by conductor Toby Purser.”
Christopher Gray, The Oxford Times

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin / Grange Park Opera

“Toby Purser’s excellent conducting and the overall balance he achieved made you realize how much of the detail of Pushkin’s atmosphere, character and story is conveyed by Tchaikovsky’s music.”
Peter Reed, Classical Source

“The conductor Toby Purser, on the far left of his forces, kept them in firm control while affectionately unfolding Tchaikovsky’s score…”
Margaret Davies, Opera

Verdi: Rigoletto / Grange Park Opera

“Such is the musical energy under the baton of young Toby Purser, that this Rigoletto makes its own distinctive mark.”
Hilary Finch, The Times

“Most impressive of all was the vivid conducting of another rising young talent, Toby Purser.”
David Mellor, Mail on Sunday

“The ensembles are well-balanced, the English Chamber Orchestra's performance under Toby Purser as vivid and precise as its Wagner was not. Purser can colour a moment without losing propulsion or line.”
Anna Picard, The Independent

“Purser kept tempi brisk and flowing, got the rhythms and accents into the music in all the right places, and kept the balance between stage and pit well-judged at all times: he was considerate to his singers, and they followed his beat well.”
Mike Reynolds, Musical Criticism

“...excellent chorus and English Chamber Orchestra were incisively conducted by Toby Purser.”
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer

“...the clear beat of conductor Toby Purser, whose keen understanding of Verdi’s score is demonstrated in every single bar.”
George Hall, Opera

“…excellent conductor Toby Purser keeps the score neat, clean, and transparent: there’s none of the lush, self-indulgent wallowing that sometimes overcooks Verdi performances. I’ve never heard the English Chamber Orchestra play better — the poignant woodwind writing, in particular, shines through.”
Giles Woodforde, The Oxford Times

Verdi: Rigoletto / Grange Park Opera at Nevill Holt

“Conductor Toby Purser and the Orchestra of Nevill Holt provided well-disciplined accompaniment. Purser allowed the music to flow and breathe, displaying a real feel for the ebb and flow of Verdi’s lines. He gave the singers time to breathe and shape their lines.”
Robert Hugill, Music & Vision

Orion Orchestra / Elgar In the South, Vaughan Williams, Elkington, Howell

“The real star of the evening was Toby Purser, who directed the whole show with a mastery and understanding of the music. His careful preparation of the orchestra, and his interpretations, were eagerly welcomed by a very enthusiastic audience.”
Bob Briggs, Seen and Heard International

Orion Orchestra / Shostakovich Symphony No.9, Britten, Tippett, Vaughan Williams

“If you want to learn the secret of classical music’s perennial good health, look no further. The programme was stunning...the sound had at times a burnished perfection.... The way Purser and his players negotiated the sinister muted waltz in the second movement [of Shostakovich Symphony No.9], and the grotesquerie of the last, was masterly.”
Michael Church, The Independent

“[Orion]...played with enormous ebullience and abandon...This intense and energetic performance [of Shostakovich Symphony No. 9] was a welcome outing for this under-rated and seldom-performed work, ending a hugely enjoyable evening of contrasting moods.”
Simon Thomas, Music OMH

Orion Orchestra / Brahms Symphony No.2, Wagner, Strauss, Reger

“Toby Purser led his equally young musicians assuredly through the potential minefield of this mainly Romantic music. The Tristan Prelude had an apposite yearning quality to it but there was also a youthful eagerness to press on with the chromatic melodies.”
Jim Prichard, MusicWeb International

Orion Orchestra / Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Smith, Purcelll

“The concert included Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, in which Purser coaxed a most touching pianissimo from the orchestra, and Vaughan Williams’ great Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, in which Purser aimed, and succeeded, in giving us ‘a glimpse of something of eternal beauty’.”
Penelope Cave, British Harpsichord Society

“[Purser] ...raised the performance to the level of the truly ethereal…an incredible performance.”
Sam Smith, Music OMH