Craig Smith and Emmanuel Music

The conductor, Craig Smith, drew playing of disarming tenderness from Boston 's Orchestra of Emmanuel Music in its New York debut.

By Anthony Tommasini / New York Times / March 8, 2001

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson prefers to work with directors and musicians with whom she is familiar and who share her spirit of adventure—small repertory groups like the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music, in Boston , which is conducted by Craig Smith. Their recording of two sacred Bach cantatas for solo voice and chamber orchestra—“Ich habe genug” (“I have enough”) and “Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut” (“My heart swims in blood”)—was released by Nonesuch this fall, and it has been widely acclaimed.

By CHARLES MICHENER / New Yorker Magazine / January 1, 2005

Boston Phoenix Top Events of 2006 / BEST REVIVAL

In 1979, Emmanuel Music under Craig Smith gave the first uncut American performance of Handel's Orlando . This fall, Smith and Emmanuel Music began a three-part exploration of Handel's three great operas based on stories from Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando furioso. Smith's conducting demonstrated not only expertise but wisdom, and both the singing and the playing (by some of the same musicians) were sublime. Countertenor Jeffrey Gall, sopranos Kendra Colton and Dominique Labelle, and mezzo-soprano Krista River were the outstanding singers.

By Lloyd Schwartz, Boston Phoenix / December 20, 2006

Craig Smith

No conductor alive today leads Handel with more gravity, rhythmic punch, and sense of melodic contour than Smith

By Lloyd Schwartz, Boston Phoenix , Nov. 1, 2006

Alcina: April 21, 2007

Handel fashions each heightened situation into vocal displays of technical and expressive virtuosity, which Emmanuel's singers furthered with ornamentation of transporting extravagance.

Conductor Craig Smith shaped the time well, allowing the players to interact with each other, producing comfortable phrases. The orchestra was in fine form.

By Matthew Guerrieri, Boston Globe Correspondent |April 24, 2007

The instant the overture began, one could feel the underlying pulse of the music, which Craig Smith maintained through countless arias, a couple of choruses, and one extraordinary trio nearly four hours later.

By Lloyd Schwartz / Boston Phoenix / April 24, 2007

Ariodante: January 27, 2007

"Ariodante" is the second in a trilogy of Handel settings of stories from Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso " that Emmanuel is presenting in concert versions. Though lengthy, it was an evening of much exquisite singing at Emmanuel Church, and the instrumental playing was almost as good. Michael Beattie, Emmanuel's longtime continuo player, was conducting in Emmanuel's opera series for the first time. He held things together perfectly well.

By David Perkins, Boston Globe Correspondent | January 30, 2007

Handel's Orlando : October 28, 2007

For his part, Smith drew a refined, delicately inflected performance from the Emmanuel musicians; the sublime Act I vocal trio and the beautiful, plaintive viola solo in Act III were both highlights.

By Jeremy Eichler, Boston Globe Staff | October 30, 2006

Schumann Series

That projects like these are now an integral part of Boston 's musical life shouldn't obscure just how unusual they are. The opportunity to explore a single composer's output in its totality -- and to do so with Emmanuel's marvelous singers and instrumentalists as one's guide -- is both rare and valuable.

By David Weininger, Boston Globe Correspondent | March 2, 2007

Emmanuel Music and Russell Sherman

Emmanuel Music, the organization responsible — under the more-than-three-decade directorship of pianist and conductor Craig Smith — for some of Boston 's greatest Mozart performances, began its Mozart celebration on the birthdate itself. Pianist Russell Sherman is perhaps Emmanuel's most frequent guest in its long history of Mozart-birthday tributes. His recording of Mozart's C-minor and D-minor Piano Concertos , with Smith and the Emmanuel Orchestra, is a magnificent testament to their collaboration.

By Lloyd Schwartz / Boston Phoenix / 2/1/2006

Mozart's Magic Flute: April

Most staged productions emphasize Mozart's humor, especially as embodied by the earthy bird catcher Papageno. Smith's expansive reading of the most serious moments of the score gave more emphasis to Mozart's profundity.

By Lloyd Schwartz / Boston Phoenix / May 2, 2006

Robert Schumann's opera Genoveva

Emmanuel Music's Craig Smith organized what was probably the American premiere of the opera Saturday night. A full house showed up to hear and cheer a concert performance that made a strong case for the piece. Smith presided over a performance that was well played and well sung.

By Richard Dyer / Boston Globe Staff / April 4, 2005