There was an empathy in the support provided by conductor, JONAS ALBER.  He imbued the playing with a memorable cadence, which kept everything intelligently flowing and palpable. The shifting scenes were closely connected to each other; even when the narrative in the third act meandered slightly.  One was always carried along by the music.

With the able Braunschweig State Orchestra and its particularly fine woodwinds, ALBER creates rapidly changing (musical) attractions in smoothly, providing a new atmosphere without destroying the musical connection. One hears the almost cinematic mastery of Atterberg in the overlapping tonalities.  In the strings and in the chorus, lie the great melodic lines, which one cannot easily forget.  The soloists spin the prose above while the winds provide the oriental decor.

ALBER succeeded even more, without impairing the diversity of color of the orchestra.  He maintained rigorous dynamic control permitting tenor Michael Ha as Aladin and soprano Solen Mainguene as Princess Laila to sing their love duet at the beginning of the second act softly. They overwhelm without having to roar. Both have small, lyrical voices, which are not equal to the opulence of the orchestra, but ALBER gave them the opportunity to lose themselves in the dream-like intimacy of this scene at their best.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Atterberg Aladin, Staatstheater Braunschweig

ALBER is a supremely intelligent musician. One was constantly aware that he was thinking of Wagner’s score from many angles, and he was able to interweave these complex elements into a coherent, musically flowing whole, while he elicited the very best from the Staatskapelle. The chamber music-like cohesion of their playing, which musically transcends mere accuracy in ensemble, is like no other orchestra. His sensitive and imaginative treatment of details was a constant delight, while he never let them distract us from the action on the stage and the shape of the individual acts and the whole. JONAS ALBER showed himself to be a truly great Wagnerian conductor, one might say, a Goodall for the coming generation. I recently received the jaw-dropping news that Mr. ALBER conducted Götterdämmerung without rehearsal, filling in a date. He was offered the slot, because, after the first performance of Das Rheingold (for which he was hired only two weeks before), the Dresdener Staatskapelle themselves approached their Intendant, asking him to give ALBER the second Götterdämmerung, the thrilling quality of which gives us the measure of what both the conductor and the orchestra can do. I regretted that ALBER was not in charge of all four evenings.
berkshirereview.net, Wagner Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung, Dresden, Semperoper
 
German maestro JONAS ALBER provided a lively reading of the score – the whole resulting in an engaging and enjoyable production of a work last put on by the Colón 11 years ago.
musicweb-international.com, Mozart Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
 
Carefully formulated vocal lines and exemplary orchestral sounds of delicate transparency were coaxed from the orchestra by JONAS ALBER.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Mernier Frühlings Erwachen (world premiere), La Monnaie, Bruxelles
 
Descriptif dans les atmosphères, allusif dans les èvocations sensorielles, actif dans les impulsions, l'orchestre cumule avec malice les divers niveaux de sens, sous la direction attentive et révélatrice de JONAS ALBER, la découverte musicale de la soirée.
Le Soir, Mernier Frühlings Erwachen (world premiere), La Monnaie, Bruxelles

Exuberant orchestral interludes, finely articulated under JONAS ALBER.
The Independent, Mernier Frühlings Erwachen (world premiere), La Monnaie, Bruxelles

A la tête de l'orchestre de la maison, le chef allemand JONAS ALBER se révèle souverain, valorisant l'orchestre, très sollicité, tout en offrant aux jeunes chanteurs une totale sécurite.
La Libre, Mernier Frühlings Erwachen (world premiere), La Monnaie, Bruxelles

The house orchestra's virtuoso reading of the score under JONAS ALBER must have delighted the composer.
The Bulletin, Mernier Frühlings Erwachen (world premiere), La Monnaie, Bruxelles

This is how it should be and this is how it should sound. To get this kind of feelings at a world premiere is very rare.
National Swedish Radio, Gothe Poet & Prophetess (world premiere), Norrlands Operan

JONAS ALBER conducted with an efficient economy of gesture, achieving generally taut ensemble and good balances.
The Cape Times, Gothe Poet & Prophetess, Cape Town Opera

JONAS ALBER conducted the Auckland Philharmonia in a performance that drew every nuance from the score, from naïve domesticity in the first act, to the depths of despair in the middle of the opera, to the rousing chorale at the end.
The Opera Critic Auckland, Beethoven Fidelio, Auckland Philharmonia

For the most part in this opera it is the music which carries the drama and the Auckland Philharmonia under the control JONAS ALBER provided that drama as he coaxed a superb richness of sound out of it. ALBER became one of the major performers on the stage as he conducted. At times he was like a frenetic piston engine forcing out the dramatic passages while at others he lightly danced on the podium serenading the players.
National Business Review Auckland, Beethoven Fidelio, Auckland Philharmonia

JONAS ALBER more than made up for it with a Staatsorchester in fine form indeed. Alber’s Verdi is on the one hand a sonic feast, and on the other remains sensitive enough to afford pastel tones in the love duets or the bucolic songs. Alber has both orchestra and chorus on a tight rein.
Das Opernglas, Verdi Otello, Staatstheater Braunschweig

...whilst JONAS ALBER with the Staatsorchester achieves great expressivity in Janáček’s score, which is by turn exhilarating and chilly; importantly, the dramatic music is allowed time to unfold. Fantastic.
Braunschweiger Zeitung, Janáček Káťa Kabanová, Staatstheater Braunschweig

That this entanglement of two musical worlds is achieved as a matter of course – as if it could hardly be any other way – is due to JONAS ALBER, to whom Braunschweig must be grateful. His Mozart tempi are tightened to high degree, and he manages in the Trojahn to elaborate out of the dense score some attractive filigree.
nmz (Neue Musik Zeitung), Mozart/Trojahn La Clemenza di Tito (German premiere), Staatstheater Braunschweig

With this special version of Titus by Mozart and Trojahan the Staatsheater Braunschweig has achieved something of great exception, musically especially. The conductor JONAS ALBER coaxed a warm and homogenous sound from his orchestra, one that was well balanced in dynamic terms, and well fathomed in terms of tempo. One became enveloped in Mozart’s multi-faceted sound world. Trojahn, for his part, offered a contrast of style that was full of filigree, and rhythmically complex. The orchestra and the singers became one.
Deutschlandfunk, Musikjournal, Mozart/Trojahn La Clemenza di Tito (German premiere), Staatstheater Braunschweig

JONAS ALBER and the Braunschweiger Staatsorchester produced a finely calculated sound.
Deutschlandfunk Köln, Boesmans Julie (German premiere), Staatstheater Braunschweig

The playing of the Staatsorchester Braunschweig under JONAS ALBER was virtuosic and resembled chamber music. Boesman’s decision to entrust the Braunschweig house with his new work was a wise one indeed.
Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, Boesmans Julie (German premiere), Staatstheater Braunschweig

The conductor JONAS ALBER called his players onto the stage with good reason. Their solo abilities should be recognised in full.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Boesmans Julie (German premiere), Staatstheater Braunschweig

JONAS ALBER, the current GMD in Braunschweig, has gained something of a reputation for fin de siècle works and late romanticism (from Schillings' Mona Lisa and Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg to Korngold’s Die tote Stadt). He approaches the qork in question with complete engagement and a manifest sense of joy in this surging score, right up until the spectacular close, where the chorus and orchestra of the Volksoper are supported to the hilt.
Opernwelt, Schmidt Notre Dame, Wiener Volksoper

The Braunschweiger GMD JONAS ALBER, who trained in Vienna, tackles this score – and it is a weighty tome - with fervour.
Deutschlandfunk Köln, Schmidt Notre Dame, Wiener Volksoper

JONAS ALBER, General Music Director in Braunschweig, has succeeded in creating a musical interpretation of impressive consequence. He interprets the score in highly symphonic terms with the singers tightly integrated into the palette of orchestral sounds. A symphonic effect of intensification is achieved by savouring both the moods and dramatic situations as well as through the richly melodious and highly-polished strings and expressive orchestral colouring. He handles the entire spectrum from triumphant jubilation to ‘epic’ restraint, as memories are pervaded with leitmotivs, developing to a sophisticated whole. Alber conducts the singers with spot-on precision throughout this ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’. Jonas Alber is a ‘story-teller’, who uses the musical flow to draw in and captivate the audience.
Die Deutsche Bühne, Wagner Der Ring des Nibelungen, Staatstheater Braunschweig

The State Orchestra Braunschweig mastered completely everything demanded of it, and JONAS ALBER saw that the music was always transparent and full of sonority.
Orpheus, Wagner The Rhinegold, Staatstheater Braunschweig

The State Orchestra [Braunschweig] under the dynamic leadership of its young General Music Director JONAS ALBER rose to the occasion, producing thunder and lightning, a tempestuous storm and the triumph of battle. Of especial note were, however, the non-arioso passages, such as the silent exchange of glances between the Wälsungen, lent such intensity in a series of wonderful piani. As for hits like the “Winterstürme” and Wotan’s Farewell, they revelled in triumphant gestures from the wind sections: a differentiated, intoxicating interpretation.
Opernwelt, Wagner The Valkyrie, Staatstheater Braunschweig

General Music Director JONAS ALBER and a State Orchestra [Braunschweig] in top form ensured that this long evening was a real musical event. Not only the mumbling from the depths of the cave and the threatening appearance of its dragon motif but also the soft and warm warp and weft of the woods achieves excitement. ALBER builds up the glowing wall of fire into a vibrating sheet of sound. Marvellous how he produces in the final Idyll such a rounded sound from the strings, and the various wind groups at the end of the “woods act” are as full of chirp and chatter as expected, supported by resonant brass. ALBER knows, too, how to lend this sonorous mass enough air, ensuring that this “Siegfried” was no dry thing but a dramatic entity. The calls of bravo at the close were wholly justified. 
Braunschweiger Zeitung, Wagner Siegfried, Staatstheater Braunschweig

In contrast, General Music Director, JONAS ALBER, develops a compelling musical flow that gradually builds up to the final climax. The mood is prepared from the first bold chords of the introduction, with its melodious unfolding in the strings, who give of their very best, and culminating in the exciting crescendi of the Rhine Journey and Funeral March.
Opernwelt, Wagner Twilight of the Gods, Staatstheater Braunschweig

... and it has been a long time since we last heard the Museum Orchestra play with such transparency and expression as when conducted by JONAS ALBER.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Schreker Der Schatzgräber, Oper Frankfurt

The Museum Orchestra excels with its impressive sound; however, it is JONAS ALBER, Braunschweig’s General Music Director, who, at the age of 33, shows his skill in allowing Schreker’s orchestral opulence to sound transparent and elastic, without sacrificing its musical colouring. The many parts of the movement never overpower the singers. A great triumph for the Frankfurt Opera. 
Berliner Tagesspiegel, Schreker Der Schatzgräber, Oper Frankfurt

JONAS ALBER, Braunschweig’s General Music Director, would appear to have an affinity to Schreker’s music. His handling of the Frankfurt Museum Orchestra throughout the score was characterised by authority and command. He displayed great skill so that the powerful sound of the orchestra was only overwhelming now and again. The musicians caught the fine nuances of musical colouring with dream-like precision, typifying Schreker’s music far more than any heavy rendition. There were never any obvious signs of uncertainty between the stage and orchestra pit. Alber thus managed to offer a powerful orchestral accompaniment to a powerful scene, fulfilling Alden’s concept with verve. A thoroughly successful revival of Schreker’s opera, which should pave the way for more in the future. One could feel how Schreker’s work still has a significance for today. Bravo!
Online Musik Magazin, Schreker Der Schatzgräber, Oper Frankfurt

The Braunschweig State Orchestra proved a reliable partner under JONAS ALBER by not only skilfully holding the intensity of the line but, moreover, by capturing the specks of colouring in Zemlinsky’s sparkling score.
Das Orchester, Zemlinsky Der Zwerg, Staatstheater Braunschweig

With an orchestra whose sound evinces a veritable sheen, JONAS ALBER is obviously in his element here, extracting from the score everything that it contains. And in a production of what is an unknown opera there emerges many things we do know well from the past. 
Göttinger Tageblatt, von Schillings Mona Lisa, Staatstheater Braunschweig

With Winter's Tale the Braunschweig State Theatre had not only programmed a thrilling and moving work of contemporary music theatre, but also produced it in a telling setting. This finds its perfection in a musical realisation in which the Braunschweig State Orchestra, under the arguably sovereign JONAS ALBER, surpasses itself.
Klassik heute, Boesmans Wintermärchen (German premiere), Staatstheater Braunschweig

Full of temperament, and fully in charge of things, Braunschweig’s General Music Director Jonas Alber plunges into the bel canto flood. He carries everyone along: the young soloists of the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg; these, the chorus members; these, the musicians of the State Orchestra. And together they come up with a “Norma” that is a joy to listen to. The chorus and orchestra are fleet of foot and fiery, the final scenes of note here. And Alber is clever enough not to allow the sound of the Rheinsberger singers to be covered. 
Braunschweiger Zeitung, Bellini Norma, Kammeroper Schloß Rheinsberg

Of the 74 opera houses in German, the festival venues and not counting the chamber opera ones, the State Theatre Braunschweig lies somewhere in the middle, with its 903 seats, 86 orchestra members, and 40 chorus members. That this house does not suffer from any mediocrity, was proved recently with a fine production of the Ring des Nibelungen, one which was in musical terms top notch.
And in Verdi’s Macbeth we were provided a fascinating glimpse of the score, one in which the composer’s own intentions in this murderous game were followed exactly. The drama, the theatrical content, the criminal nature of the plot and the mythological associations were sharply focused against the background of rich sonority and musical colour. Experience dictates that is the smaller ensembles with which a conductor works that ensure such precision and clarity. This is no more true than here in Braunschweig, where General Music Director JONAS ALBER and his orchestra allow the music to rumble and to sigh, to threaten and attenuate. This is his main priority it seems. The witches are chilling, and the sheer nastiness of the Banco murder is captured vividly. And as for the march music, it was as aggressive as one could wish. ALBER allowed the orchestra lots of rein, capturing nonetheless a vital strength when necessary. No place here then for thunder and lightning or cheap effects entirely out of place. All was just as it should be, without any hint of tastelessness. This is no provincial theatre, the production is worthy of Vienna!
Der Neue Merker Vienna, Verdi Macbeth, Staatstheater Braunschweig

Verdi’s early work Macbeth is not really a very important opus by the composer. But under General Music Director JONAS ALBER the State Orchestra Braunschweig achieved a fine sound underlined by notable discipline. This was a musical event of enormous merit. Never was the music simply loud or wild, but was rendered in subtle gradations of sound, the dramatic pomp of Verdi’s score taking on an increasing significance. The audience response was deafening applause. 
Cellesche Zeitung, Verdi Macbeth, Staatstheater Braunschweig

In the end, JONAS ALBER and the Braunschweig State Orchestra offer the best proof for the outstanding qualities of this work. They performed the tight phrasing leading to the climax with bravura, producing intense rhythms and multi-faceted orchestral colouring of an unusual kind.
Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, Janáček The Makropulos Case, Staatstheater Braunschweig 

With JONAS ALBER and the Braunschweig State Orchestra, the raging passions as well as the gentle lyrical elements of the music unfold, develop and float into rapture. Thus, one can almost physically feel this music – not always harmonious but not really dissonant either – with its capriciously intricate rhythms and fascinating sounds. A superb production, sheer good music. Bravissimo! 
Göttinger Tageblatt, Janáček The Makropulos Case, Staatstheater Braunschweig 

Never let it be said that Janácek’s music is dry. JONAS ALBER and the Braunschweig State Orchestra’s interpretation of The Makropulos Case – so dramatic and fluid – should now render these preconceptions as unacceptable. Braunschweig’s General Music Director showed, right from the overture, just how passionate he can be in linking the various dimensions of this expressive work. Alber, with his orchestra in top form, knew how to maintain the suspense right through to the exciting finale. His musical originality is highly commendable. Enthusiastic applause and bravos for a great evening of opera.
Braunschweiger Zeitung, Janáček The Makropulos Case, Staatstheater Braunschweig

JONAS ALBER conducts with great exuberance and, with an orchestra in top form, interprets the art of instrumentation typical for Dvorak to the full. An altogether very good production - beautiful as though a fairy tale had come true.
Göttinger Tageblatt, Dvorak Rusalka, Staatstheater Braunschweig