Reviews

“These performances are two absolute treasures featuring the magnificent playing of Michael Roll. He has the required high level of virtuosity and wide range of tone colour at his disposal to pull it off.” Michael Roll Plays Beethoven and Liszt – new album release on Heritage Records – John Whitmore

“He is an outstanding interesting artist with a magisterial technique and with a happy combination of interpretative impulse and logic. Indeed I would have to delve as far back in the past as to the performance of the concerto by Schnabel with Furtwaängler to have felt so convinced by an artist’s conception of the work.”  Daily Telegraph, London
(Royal Festival Hall with Giulini) Beethoven Concerto No 1

“His interpretation offered a fine blend of dreamy introspection and lightweight fieriness, achieved by exquisite rhythmic and dynamic shaping, which nearly rivalled Dinu Lipatti’s recording. There are admittedly too many pianists but few of this artistic calibre.” The Listener, London
(Royal Albert Hall with Boulez) Schumann concerto

“The very spirit of Beethoven – the essential blazing Beethovian spirit was there in every bar – Beethoven himself might even have played the work in much the same way.” The Times, Edinburgh
Edinburgh Festival (Appassionata Sonata)

“The performances were keen, vibrant evocations of what it might have been like when the Schumann was new and an adventure. Roll is an exceptionally interesting pianist – he played impetuously with a nice feeling of both physical and mental quickness, with wit and some sense almost of caprice, and found a new excitement in its octaves and in the massive chord sequences of the cadenza.” Boston Globe, Boston
(with Sir Colin Davis) Schumann concerto

“Michael Roll played for the first time in Vienna – and played sensationally. I have to admit that I have not heard such a magnificent piano recital in Vienna for a long time. There was spiritual tension, musical buoyancy, youthful fire and above all an immensely powerful virtuosity which, however was always subordinate to musical expression. A most extraordinary evening.” Vienna Express, Vienna

“He is obviously musical from heart and mind to his fingertips.” Sir Neville Cardus – The Guardian

“No country can be expected to produce many talents of this order.” Sunday Times.

“The magnificent English pianist Michael Roll enraptured as soloist in Beethoven’s Second Concerto. To the delight of the Gewandhaus audience, he shaped the solo part with that Mozartian joyousness which is as characteristic of early Beethoven as his already acquired depth of expression… Everything sounded refined and rich in nuance, and at the same time elegant and effortless.” Leipzig Gewandhaus/Masur LVZ

Images

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