International Piano: Nicolas Namoradze Review
I’m not often lost for words, but Nicolas Namoradze’s recital almost defeated me. I wasn’t expecting anything amazing: he’s won the Honens Competition in 2018 and this gig was his reward, but winning a comp is no guarantee of greatness. Yet from the opening phrase of Scriabin’s Black Mass Sonata he had me hooked: the notes had a honeyed grace, and the rest of the work unfolded in an opalescent glow, every bar touched with beauty. I’ve never heard this puzzling work make such persuasive sense.
Gramophone: Marc-André Hamelin's Latest Album Selected as Editor's Choice for April
Marc-André Hamelin’s Feinberg Piano Sonatas Nos 1-6 album chosen as one of the best new classical albums, Editor's Choice for April 2020.
International Piano Magazine: Marc-André Hamelin's Feinberg Album Named Album of the Month
International Piano Magazine
Bryce Morrison
Marc-André Hamelin’s latest solo album, Samuil Feinberg’s Piano Sonatas, is featured in the March issue of International Piano Magazine as Album of the Month.
"It is difficult to imagine any living pianist other than Hamelin who could confront this music - music that is stranger than strange - with such compelling mastery, eloquence and lucidity."
The Times: Mahan Esfahani – Bach Toccatas Review – Bold, Dynamic, and Stupendous
Mahan Esfahani’s goal in life, his biographical note says, is to “bring the harpsichord to the concert mainstream”. To further this, the Iranian-American musician commissions new pieces, which is certainly one way of taking the keyboard instrument that plucks its strings out of history’s cocoon and welcoming it into the modern world. The other way is to give such thunderously exciting performances of old repertoire that anyone with ears to hear will sit there with mouth agape.
Gramophone: The Listening Room – Haochen Zhang
A terrific new recording of Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto comes from 2009 Van Cliburn Competition winner Haochen Zhang - quite a feather in BIS’s cap as they’ve also this year's Tchaikovsky Competition winner Alexandre Kantorow on their books.
Financial Times: Mahan Esfahani – Bach: Toccatas – free and spontaneous performances
As the outstanding harpsichordist of the younger generation, Esfahani naturally plays the toccatas on a harpsichord… Esfahani’s playing feels free and spontaneous without losing the underlying pulse of the music. The toccatas display their brilliance proudly. One can imagine the young Bach showing off his prowess just like this.
The Irish Times: What makes Marc-André Hamelin so special? Different class
There are any number of ways you could attempt to explain what makes Canada’s leading living pianist Marc-André Hamelin special.
The Strad: Juilliard String Quartet Review
This was the first evening concert in the UK of the Juilliard String Quartet with its new first violinist, Areta Zhulla (it had given a lunchtime concert at Wigmore the previous day). Zhulla has clearly settled in nicely, and played in absolute musical empathy with her colleagues.
Finnish Music Quarterly: Grappling with Sibelius in China
“Could a certain distance from Western symphonic thought have contributed to the surprising qualities of the performances I heard in China?” Andrew Mellor reviews performances of Sibelius’s Symphonies Nos 2 and 5 in Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Strings: Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers & Guitarist Jason Vieaux Play the Green Center
Meyers floated in, 1741 “Vieuxtemps” del Gesù in hand, wearing a voluminous gown in a soft black, its overlaid geometric pattern a seeming nod to the hall’s distinctive woodwork. Vieaux, also in black, took his seat and with a quick smile between them, they jumped into the music. An arrangement of Arcangelo Corelli’s Sonata in D minor, Op. 5, No. 12, “La Folia,” with variations headed the program. Fleet fingerwork in both instruments marked the players as virtuosos, but the variations that showcased the artists at their best allowed Vieaux to indulge in a little head bobbing, as he navigated his guitar with astonishing ease, and Meyers to pull a sultry voice from her del Gesù.