“In recent years, the work of Louise Farrenc, born in 1804, has been rediscovered, thanks in particular to the work of Laurence Equilbey”

“Equilbey’s Lucio Silla is now the performance of our time. She makes early Mozart opera compelling listening and presents a triumph of a recording.”

“Laurence Equilbey always brings fresh insight to the music she conducts, and her period instrument orchestra, Insula, seems to understand her ethos completely, almost as if the players are an extension of her.”

“Equilbey is a compelling advocate, performing with passion and care.”

“Laurence Equilbey and her period orchestra give magnificent, muscular yet sensitive performances.”

“Equilbey’s naturally dashing temperament imbued Farrenc’s struggle with danger with an exquisite nobility. The careful attention that she gave to every note and nuance of Farrenc’s intricately composed score brought out the possibility that Farrenc self-consciously sought to add a distinctive French love of self-discipline as a new kind of intensity for German symphonies. Equilbey brought the same alert and penetrating intelligence to Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony.”

“Equilbey draws out the nuances of dynamics, balance, and character, while never losing sight of the score’s larger musical aims. (…) Equilbey’s fluent performance was highlighted by smart tempo choices, close attention to musical detail, and a strong understanding of musical character.”

“Rarely can Farrenc’s music have spoken with so much power and so much eloquence – rarely has her genius shone through more brightly than with Laurence Equilbey and her Insula orchestra.”

“Kleiber, Kubelík and Harnoncourt might well find themselves displaced, so firm of conviction is Equilbey’s vision, and so exquisitely realised…”

“Equilbey’s approach makes this colorful, atmospheric music come alive.”

“Equilbey drives a punchy reading of the score and does a fine job at drawing out the felicities and innovations in Weber’s orchestration, spooky woodwind and rasping natural horns being especially effective throughout. The disciplined yet flexible Insula orchestra is a real draw.”

“Conductor Laurence Equilbey, with flowing elegance, gives a very spiritual and solemn interpretation of the work [Brahms German Requiem], with no hint of pomposity.”

“[Laurence Equilbey] conducted the Gulbenkian Orchestra with energy, without being authoritarian, producing a very beautifully balanced sound.”

“This was exactly the inaugural kick the opening needed, and I doubt if anyone in the hall didn’t rejoice at the encore of this early (1808) Ode to Joy.”

“[About Gluck’s Orfeo Ed Euridice CD] Equilbey and the Insula orchestra are painstaking in their re-creation of Gluck’s original sound world: period strings and brass underscore the harshness of Orfeo’s isolation where the warmer sound of conventional instruments tends to console. Speeds are brisk, but in veering away from Muti-like solemnity.”

“The sound is full-bodied and warm in the new hall. The equilibrium between accentus chorus, founded by Laurence Equilbey, the three soloists and the orchestra is well-balanced. Instrumental and vocal sounds are well blended. Also the sharpness drawn by the conductor is well carried by the acoustics; nothing is forced.”

“The musicians of Insula orchestra, led by conductor Laurence Equilbey, bring out all the nuances in the score with a formal lightness of touch that only serves to magnify the work. Equilbey, in a state of grace, conducts weightlessly, discernibly illustrating the influence of Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach on Haydn’s writing.”

“Laurence Equilbey…has at her disposal a very high level ensemble, which shows in Der Freischütz powerful and theatrical sound effects.”

“The acoustics of the Seine Musicale are simply excellent […] Insula orchestra played with great vitality throughout. Rarely has Mozart been performed more accurately than by Laurence Equilbey and her splendid musicians.”

“Laurence Equilbey’s ensemble, hailing from Paris, showcases the best in period-instrument performance: lithe playing that forces us to sit up and pay attention to long-neglected……works.”

“Equilbey maintained light but effective control over all three pieces, encouraging her orchestra to display its range of colour with skill and confidence.”

“Insula Orchestra and Laurence Equilbey gave a very fine concert of music by Schubert, featuring a version of the Unfinished Symphony of a quality that one would like to hear more often.(…) Insula Orchestra, with its transparent timbres, the outstanding quality of its individual musicians, and myriad dynamic variations at its fingertips, literally enchanted the audience at the Metz Arsenal, accustomed to more heavyweight symphony orchestra formats. The size of the main auditorium at the Arsenal in no way impaired the legibility of the immensely subtle interpretation led by Laurence Equilbey, absolutely on top of her game. The quality of the treatment, creating the impression that one was hearing the premiere of a piece that one yet felt one knew by heart, seems to definitively inter the controversy about the need, or otherwise, to play the nineteenth century repertory on period instruments.”