Braunschweiger Zeitung Newspaper, Braunschweig, Germany. 2008

The State Orchestra’s tenth symphony concert took us to Spain and Mexico… Under the Mexican conductor José Areán the curtain opens first, buoyantly, with Richard Strauss’ Don Juan…
The orchestra abandons itself, reveling… Areán steps up the melody to instinctive, drastic heights…

Falla’s Amor Brujo follows, awakening a glowing eroticism… Under Areán’s careful baton, the orchestra displayed joyfully the ardent and dark colours…

From Mexico Areán brought Sensemayá by Silvestre Revueltas, a miniature of powerful percussion rhythms and brass fanfares, to forceful effect…

On the Till Eulenspiegel… Areán conjured an emphatically soft orchestral sound, first, and then catered for energetic contrasts with fierce drum effects and forceful rhythms…

For all that, strong applause at the end…

Andreas Berger
June 17, 2008

El Economista Newspaper, Mexico. 2007
Allegro Molto – Triumph for José Areán

The fourth programme of the Minería Symphony Orchestra (OSM), which
took place last Saturday before an audience that filled the
Nezahualcóyotl Hall, was yet another triumph in the long concert
career of Jorge Federico Osorio.
(…) But a bigger triumph still was José Areán's, Associate Conductor
of the OSM (…)
In the first work of the programme, Stravinsky's Second Suite for
small orchestra, Areán exalted the playful character of this delicious
music, seemingly unimportant, but worthy of the immense genius of the
composer. Nevertheless, he gave the true proof of his mastery on the
podium with Beethoven's Third Symphony, the Eroica.

This work, so often performed in our concert halls to the degree of
running the danger of provoking boredom, was conducted with such
renewed dramatic character, that this critic felt momentarily to be
listening to it for the first time. The pianissimi were a whisper; the
forti, electrifying.

Were one to highlight a moment of exceptional excellence on the part
of the players, this critic would mention the imitative horn passage
of the third movement, Scherzo: allegro vivace.

The given encore set a contrast to the vibrating symphony: "Last
Spring" by Grieg, that Norwegian composer with a melodic vein
reminiscent of Tchaikovsky. Even in the selection of this piece was
José Areán fortunate (…) this conductor has still his hands full of
surprises.

José Alfredo Páramo
aparamo@gmail.com