Benjamin Grosvenor
“The youngest British pianist (by far) in this review, Benjamin Grosvenor, is also the most fearless. His new release, a complete delight, wipes the field with three Kapustin etudes. After some tender Scarlatti, Grosvenor heads straight into three pieces from Albéniz’s Iberia and he easily handles the finger-breaking Cziffra transcriptions.”
Pianist Magazine August - September 2010 [full review]
“When an 11-year-old Benjamin Grosvenor climbed up onto the piano stool at the final of the 2004 BBC Young Musician of the Year, no one was quite prepared for his remarkably mature performance of Ravel's G major Piano Concerto. Only two years later, Benjamin made his debuts at Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. A stint with EMI Classics followed, his recordings received with universal acclaim. Still now only 17, Benjamin has carved out an impressive international performing career – this technically demanding programme [...] promises to showcase the extraordinary talent of one of the UK's brightest young stars.”
Oliver Condy (Editor, BBC Music Magazine) July 2010
“The mighty Liszt B Minor Sonata unleashed a young lion’s appetite for blood, revelling in arch virtuosity...”
Straits Times, Singapore July 2010
“...these performances by 17-year-old Benjamin Grosvenor exhibit a skill and talent not heard since Kissin’s teenage Russian debut. Even the most outlandish difficulties are tossed aside not just as child’s play but with a seemingly endless poetic finesse and resource.”
Bryce Morrison (Gramophone Magazine) April 2010 [full review]
“Not for one moment, however, was it Grosvenor’s intention to emphasize his technical skills. On the contrary, he withdraws himself in the most demanding passages, so that the listener can concentrate on the musical substance beneath the dazzling side-effects. Especially in this trait, Grosvenor’s unlimited abilities and his extraordinary range of musical expression are evident. His playing made the deepest impression in passages of calm, which demand of the pianist the ability to sustain the tension between notes and during pauses. Indeed, the young pianist seemed so immersed in the melancholy of this stillness and absorbed in his own thoughts that such passages flowed seemingly without effort.”
Sueddeutsche Zeitung, March 2010
“...the set’s other secret weapon is teenage British wunderkind Benjamin Grosvenor, whose ‘Rarities’ disc was recorded just last year and reveals a sensitivity of touch, general musicality and affection for the music that is staggeringly absent from some of his older colleagues.”
BBC Music Magazine February 2010 [full review]
“His was a performance of tumult and beauty, in which he displayed tremendous technical skill and interpretive depth...”
St. Paul Pioneer Press February 2010
"Repeated notes can shimmer or fire like a machine gun; sonorities range from the caressingly impressionistic to full-throated quasi-orchestral; and he knows when to take his time and when to push the music at full throttle. Indeed, it is hard to know which is the more startling in a pianist still in his mid-teens: the all-encompassing mastery of technique, or the flair and maturity of imagination. He really is a rare talent."
International Piano, January 2010 [full review]
"Not only are his technical abilities mature and amazing, but he is returning to the kind of repertoire that made the ‘Golden Age of Piano Playing’ golden; and he plays it with the electrifying abandon the pieces need."
American Record Guide, January 2010
"Just as you think you have heard the most delicately glittering note, the pianist plays some more: even clearer, more delicate. Never before has the meaning of the Largo been more obvious. The cadenzas in the Allegro con brio and Rondo sparkled with animated brilliance."
Helsingin Sanomat, November 2009
"...his response to the music seemed so natural, so free, so unencumbered ... He brought real freshness to the Grieg, from the impetuous opening to the soulfulness of the slow movement to the sparky finale."
Irish Times, May 2009
"The dash and vim of the finale capped a performance that took its expressive and dramatic cues from the very heart of the music, and in so doing crafted an interpretation of palpable character and astute panache."
Daily Telegraph, January 2009
"...a beguiling, stylish and richly rewarding performance... his was an interpretation with a personality and impulse of its own, while remaining true to Chopin's spirit."
Daily Telegraph, June 2008 [full review]
"Grosvenor's playing was fresh and energetic, guided by a natural musicality ... In spite of his great technical talent and soaring long runs, Grosvenor did not want to show off with sheer virtuosity. A good outlining and characterization of themes proved that he has a clear idea of the form and character of the concerto. It was a sign of his intelligence."
Helsingin Sanomat, May 2008 (trans. Hannu-Ilari Lampila)
"...[Grosvenor's] opening theme was springy and tender, and his sequel sighed expansively as it should ... his touch had the requisite authority."
Independent, February 2007
"Grosvenor is already a formidable musician."
Evening Standard, November 2006
"...a pianist of exceptional gifts, as this recital of Mozart, Ravel, Moszkowski and Chopin clearly demonstrated... [Grosvenor's] playing here revealed an imagination of touch, tonal shading, phrasing and dynamics that went far beyond aping what a teacher might have told him to do."
Daily Telegraph, November 2006
"...a fine threadlike yet fully audible pianissimo ... electrifying entrances of solo playing."
chebskydenik.cz, August 2006 (47th International Chopin Festival)
"Benjamin's Mozart ... was shapely without being prettified, the passagework almost flawness. Clearly this is a pianist who thinks of a work's structure, its long line. He gave the slow movement just the right vocal quality, as if it were an aria, and the finale rippled along effortlessly."
Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 2006
"...a young performer whose innate musicianship matches or even outstrips a formidable technique... [a] genuine phenomenon."
icBirmingham.co.uk, November 2005
"...a natural performer from whom music flows graciously... [Benjamin's] performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto K. 415 was a colourist's dream, with rich dark hues and sparkling fanciful figurations... so alluring, so alive to the music's poetry and so colourfully detailed."
Daily Telegraph, February 2005
