“Although Nelsons’ gestures and directions don’t look like too much excitement or acute need for correction (a strength he shares with legendary baton stoic Strauss), he is definitely a maestro of pleasure, willing and able to convey how intensely this music goes past the brain and straight into the autonomic nervous system.”

“Nelsons presents this collection of beautiful passages as if one were falling headfirst into a pot of Viennese pastries, a single sugar shock, but of the finest. For “Macbeth” the Leipzigers had switched to stark and dramatically darkened. The conclusion and showdown is “Heldenleben,” in which Nelsons is smart enough to build up the suspense arcs cleverly and not overdo it with Strauss’s self-praise.”