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CHARLES ROSEN Pianist Critical Acclaim CONCERT REVIEWS CHARLES ROSEN Pianist Critical Acclaim CONCERT REVIEWS "Pianist Charles Rosen [is] the 20th century version of the so-called Renaissance man. He may well be the most versatile of living musicians...he plays like a tremendously gifted pianist of most discerning musicality with a technique that makes light of every obstacle." Los Angeles Times "Two exceptional hours of piano music [were] played by Charles Rosen at Carnegie Hall....It was a symmetrical kind of program, with Elliott Carter's "Night Fantasies" at its center and music by Chopin and Schumann placed around it....It was an impressive act of musicianship." The New York Times "His performances had the stamp of a supremely literate musician who could account for every structural twist and turn in these stony works, yet he still made expressive capital from the inspiration of the moment. The three contrasting sonatas...were especially effective, vividly personalized and bracingly articulated." New York Magazine “Rosen’s piano playing is riveting in the way it combines formal clarity and musical insight with an uncommon gestural and speech-like expressiveness.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung “The consummate writer, critic, musicologist and pianist Charles Rosen has been at the forefront of his many fields for most of his 80 years. To a packed hall, he gave a programme that would tax the great performers half his age, in Beethoven’s Appassionata sonata Op. 57 and the Diabelli Variations Op. 120. From the opening of Op. 57, Rosen cast a spell of mystery and tension, of a vision understood. This set the pattern for the evening.” The Independent “The mighty span of the Diabellis was beautifully apparent, sustained by playing of forceful briskness and unblurred by undue lingering over detail. Not that brusqueness precluded affecting moments: the florid, slow, minor-key 31 st variation had a meditative tenderness that I found heartstopping. I recalled Rosen’s lovely observation that though Beethoven is here imitating Bach, the result anticipates Chopin.” The Sunday Times “Even the most cursory listen to his [Charles Rosen] recordings of Beethoven’s ‘late’ sonatas confirms that his is playing for which the piano just happens to be the medium through which this music is presented. He focuses on the music as an unfolding process in sound, with no desire to make it seem difficult other than in terms of the form to be clarified and the expression to be conveyed. It is not hard (live or recorded) to locate more highly charged, emotive or, indeed, alluring Beethoven playing—but performances that communicate the music’s essence so intently yet undemonstratively will always be at a premium.” Classicalsource.com "...the explosively intelligent musician who can convey his highly original ideas with all the silkiness of sound and subtlety of rubato of the great romantic virtuosos." The Boston Globe "Mr. Rosen threw himself into the "Appassionata" with admirable gusto and a Romantic extravagance that we might not automatically associate with him. He built climaxes expertly and when the piece turned to sheer frenzy, the pianist let the submerged anger in the music show itself." The New York Times “First and foremost, he is a pianist of penetrating originality...Rosen thinks with his fingers.” The New Yorker “Perhaps no pianist brings such musicological authority to the concert stage, just as no scholar has made it into the ranks of world-class pianists and stayed there for as long....” Chicago Tribune “This was music-making fired by the passion of learning.” The Times (London) "Charles Rosen is noted as a pianist as well as a perceptive scholar and writer. The two functions really are united in him, as anyone attending his Beethoven recital...had to notice. His intellectual grasp and keen intuition guide each other, and work as one." San Francisco Chronicle "The pianist applies a formidable intellect to Chopin's music, yet never at the expense of its emotional content....His readings are filled with new, intriguing ideas....Rosen's Chopin combines the old and the new, the scholarly and the spontaneous, as no one else's does....Here was Chopin drawn in bold colors and sweeping gestures." Chicago Tribune "Charles Rosen is often accused of being an intellectual pianist....If being intellectual means possessing an ability to make beautiful music, may all pianists be so afflicted. Rosen's solo performance...was an irreplaceable gift to the nearly full house and a singularly moving tribute to Beethoven." San Francisco Examiner "...[his] performances of the last three Beethoven piano sonatas were lucid, focused and literal. They were also searching and powerful and spoke convincingly of the freedom to be found in discipline." The Washington Post “This was one of the most astonishing, original, and moving interpretations of this work [Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 110] that I have heard.” Chicago Sun-Times 2 “At the keyboard, Rosen is an intellectual in the best sense. He has a clear understanding of how the various components of a sonata work together to convey Beethoven’s prickly, rapturous rhetoric, and he lets a listener hear it.” San Francisco Chronicle RECORDING REVIEWS Beethoven's Piano Sonatas Nos. 27-32: "Charles Rosen is one of the greatest pianists this country has produced...Rosen's profound intellect, combined with an impeccable virtuoso technique and fiery temperament, makes him the ideal interpreter of the late Beethoven sonatas. His intensive study has here produced readings that penetrate to the very core of these transcendent works. Nobody before or since Beethoven has written such complex music for the piano, and only a select few have been able to solve its difficult problems so clearly and coherently. With Rosen we are almost witnessing the act of creation." American Record Guide “Certainly, this is playing of high intelligence, sensitivity and great physical vigour.” Gramophone “Charles Rosen is one of the most commanding interpreters of Beethoven’s longest and most taxing sonatas. His streak of toughness, his analytical powers...and his concentration make for an unforgettable experience.” Penguin Guide to Compact Disks Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas Op. 106 and 110 “...Rosen is very much the complete musician and pianist and this superbly conceived interpretation deserves a place in the pantheon.” American Record Guide “Author of the most revelatory scholarly analyses of Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann, Rosen is also a pianist, possibly one of the most intelligent to sit at a keyboard...every phrase in these somewhat private works lives and breathes with life, comprehension and purpose.” USA Today “Awesome! Simply awesome, is my response to hearing Rosen’s new recording of the Hammerklavier ....Rarely are artistic vision and expressive insight so profoundly revealed as in these performances. This CD is definitely in line to be one of the most memorable of the year.” Classical Music “...the pianist’s formidable insights into the music’s structure are matched by playing that is appropriately light-fingered and ferocious...Rosen imbues the slow movements with a newfound sense of freedom and more color than before.” Time Out New York 3 “...a disc from a probing and hugely intelligent musician, Charles Rosen’s Hammerklavier is a remarkable one.” Gramophone The Romantic Generation "Rosen's playing is sober and classicizing in its lucidity of texture, its crystalline tone, and its reluctance to overdo rubatos. His awareness of large-scale architecture lends coherence even to Liszt's sprawling paraphrase [ Reminiscences of Don Juan ]..." Classic CD Chopin Mazurkas : "Here is a pianist...who employs fluctuations of tempo, who actually observes some of the accent marks that Chopin so carefully wrote into the music, who understands the syncopations, and who plays with a beautifully modulated sonority....To this taste, he has given us the finest modern recording of these elusive pieces." The New York Times Beethoven's Diabelli Variations : "The Diabelli Variations are particularly a marvel--analytical but never clinical, intelligently characterized, rhythmically vital, alive to detail and forged into a single powerful unit." The New York Times "Rosen's performance is a truly extraordinary achievement. There is all the virtuosity needed for the "brilliant" variations, and there are the grittiness, fierceness, and humour that these pieces need as well." Stereo Review “The best recording ever of what may be Beethoven’s greatest piano work...Mr. Rosen reveals its greatness with blasts of lighting and manic energy.” The Dallas Morning News Bach’s The Art of Fugue “Rosen’s powerful intelligence allows the work’s ingenuity to shine through with marvellous clarity.” BBC Music Magazine Elliott Carter’s Piano Sonata, 90+, Night Fantasies “Charles Rosen plays this music with a depth of understanding and empathy that comes from both great musicality and a penetrating intellect.” Fanfare “In Night Fantasies , too, Rosen is absolutely superb–acute, poetic, and always alive to the quicksilver, improvisatory element in the music.” American Record Guide 4 Schumann's "Revolutionary Masterpieces": "Schumann's piano music has certainly been well served on records, but a collection by Charles Rosen is exceptional enough to justify any duplication of titles you may already have...the present set is something that ought to be acquired and enjoyed by everyone with working ears." Stereo Review Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze “There is something essentially pure about the playing of Charles Rosen: no nonsense but a great
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