This is a review of Wagner's "The Mastersingers of Nuremberg" at the Staatstheater Kassel, February 2010:

The easy tone
The fine colloquial tone that music director Patrik Ringborg casually and trenchantly creates for long periods of this "Meistersinger" is as consistent as the staging. No heaviness, no tough stream prevents the music making that dynamically does everything for the singers and reacts promptly. That Ringborg in skilled in creating an elegiac sound and - when required - producing a lot of noise is apparent in the prelude to the third act and in Sachs' Schusterlied.
(Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine, 15.02.2010)
(Hersfelder Zeitung, 15.02.2010)

When the audience at the end erupts in applause does the enthusiasm also goes to the Staatsorchester Kassel, that under the sublime direction of GMD Patrik Ringborg realises the chamber music like beauty of the score in a delighting way.
(Festspielnachrichten, Bayreuth, 07.2010)

It is a magnificent victory for the audacious Patrik Ringborg and his glorious State Orchestra as well. They succeed in creating chamber music-like transparency and pensive melancholy, exciting force and brisk vehemence.
(Fuldaer Zeitung, 16.02.2010)

This "Meistersinger", having its premiere in Kassel exactly on Wagner's day of death, is simply a hit! And that musically as well as in the staging. Patrik Ringborg holds the Kassel State Orchestra in a firm grip and supplies transparency and cross references to Wagner's remaining œuvre. When he comes up trumps he's not showing off, but at all times keeping an eye on the stage and supporting his singers.
(Gießener Allgemeine, 16.02.2010)
(Wetterauer Zeitung, 16.02.2010)
(Alsfelder Allgemeine, 16.02.2010)
(kultiversum, 15.02.2010)

... Patrik Ringborg and a devotedly playing Staatsorchester as well successfully works against every touch of Germaneness surging forward in a fervidly, almost southern way. And throughout all of the six hours long operatic evening he stresses the light colloquial tone and the chamber music like transparency, not least furthering the immensely important comprehensibility, making the surtitles virtually unneeded.
(Oberhessische Presse, 23.03.2010)
(Orpheus, 05./06.2010)

Patrik Ringborg has fine-tuned the orchestra of the Staatstheater Kassel with remarkable precision throughout the score. He begins the overture pretty mundane, but in the following animates his musicians not just to confident, but well balanced playing.
(Opernwelt, 04.2010)

Light, agile, bright, at times tessellational sounds the orchestra under music director Patrik Ringborg.
(Frankfurter Rundschau, 16.02.2010)

Conductor Patrik Ringborg had prescribed a slenderness in sound to his orchestra:... which during the performance's over six hours (with two intermissions) got clearer and clearer, most beautiful maybe in the prelude to the third act, showing perfectly chamber music-like qualities.
(Göttinger Tageblatt, 19.02.2010)

... He avoids festal pathos and stresses the lyrical, gentle, introspective tone. Quite light, almost like a dance sounds the chorale at the beginning of the third act. Here and in several further passages he allows the score to gleam with unusually silky lustre. Fascininating. The Kassel State Orchestra follows its music director readily and precise, the united choruses of Kassel join a harmonius entirety.
(Online Musik Magazin, 2.2010)

The orchestra under Patrik Ringborg played exceedingly well, always balanced with the singers and entirely coherent with the staging. In all a terrific evening at the opera, challenging you to come back repeatedly.
(Festspiele.de, 22.02.2010)

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