short break | AntonKuerti.com

Nine Win

Why a Short City‑Break Beats a Long Holiday

United Kingdom: When you’ve spent a week glued to a screen, a two‑day retreat is often the most effective antidote. The trick is to pick a town where a historic centre, a riverside walk or a spa can be explored in under twelve hours a day, leaving evenings for a good drink and a proper night’s…

By wp.admin, 19 hours15 hours ago

"Suddenly we were in the unmistakable presence of greatness. He was no longer playing the piano; the music was playing him, and we rode the wave too."

The Globe & Mail, Toronto

"True to the Kuerti norm, the calibre of thought was high. Ornaments seemed spontaneous and musical, not mechanical and showy. The middle movement, paced quickly, was noble." [Beethoven 5th Piano Concerto “Emperor’, Montréal Symphony]

Montréal Gazette

"In the second-movement aria, Kuerti shaped the melody with a manifold palette of articulation, innumerable precisely-cut facets, but also deployed an uncanny consistency of tone to give Beethoven’s more obsessive, repeated patterns a slow-burning intensity…After orchestra and soloist brought the music to a near-inaudible stillness, the piano positively detonated the blazing coda." [Beethoven 5^th Piano Concerto 'Emperor', Boston Symphony]

The Boston Globe

"Kuerti was meticulous in laying out a distinctive, tonally gleaming interpretation...His playing had a remarkable consistency. Runs, trills, chords -- all had impeccable weight, color, balance, etc....His work was thus constantly fascinating, including even the unexpected notes and motifs he chose to accentuate."

Houston Chronicle

"His aura of intensity, a probing musical intelligence, and utter disdain for theatrics makes him among the most enjoyable of serious musicians before today’s public."

Boston Musical Intelligencer

“Beethoven’s enormous range of emotions sounded fresh in Kuerti’s rhythmically alert, transparent playing: from mock-heroic marches and comical Mozart quotes to serious Bachian fugues and forward-looking music foreshadowing Brahms and Chopin. The diaphanous curtain of chords Kuerti pulled back to reveal the final variation [Diabelli] was one of many magical moments."

The Washington Post

“In pianist Anton Kuerti, the…legend from Canada, this performance had great authority. It is the mark of musicianship of the highest order to make something so well-known so fresh and startling. Overall, this was an Emperor for posterity, refined and resplendent…” [Beethoven 5th Piano Concerto, Queensland Symphony]

The Australian

“There was not a shred of complacency here; Kuerti has too much coiled energy, too much punch, pounce and snap. He hammers the upper register with ferocity but still keeps the wood in the sound; his trills are so close they actually ring, rather than wobble; he jumps into phrases, peremptory in all the right spots; and he can make a detached line sing, so it literally cuts through the orchestra. It was enough to make one think we don't hear enough Beethoven these days.”

The Globe and Mail, Toronto

"Anton Kuerti is one of the greatest pianists of our time. Not only his Czerny and Beethoven, but also his Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Glasunoiw and Scriabin are proof of this."

Review of Czerny Sonata CD in Fono Forum, Germany

"He conducted with his head and whichever hand was available. Kuerti's elegant way with the beginnings and ends of phrases, exquisite control of dynamics and fleet but unflashy virtuosity communicated itself to the orchestra."

Evening Post, Wellington, New Zealand

"...an ideal chamber music musician; his playing was supple, genial and graceful...Mr. Kuerti's incisiveness gave just the right degree of tension to the music." (performances of the Schumann Piano Quartet, Quintet and Songs at the Metropolitan Museum)

The New York Times

“This was pianism in the grand romantic tradition, and an unforgettable performance made every note sound considered and relevant, while at the same time emerging as if spontaneously. The superficial characteristics of his interpretations are dramatic contrasts in tone, colour, rhythm and dynamics. All four were amply displayed in an awe-inspiring performance of Beethoven's Bagatelles Op. 126. The most magical, thrilling 'Moonlight' Sonata I've heard."

Courier-Mail, Brisbane, Australia

"Beethoven [Concerto No. 3, with Pinchas Zukerman] by Anton Kuerti is always a remarkable thing. I find it downright inspiring, in an era of insipid and automatic performances, to discover evidence of ingenuity and daring hovering above the keyboard."

Ottawa Citizen

"Anton Kuerti, who joined the St. Lawrence Quartet in quintets by Brahms and Schumann, likewise delivered some of the finest playing this reviewer has heard from the distinguished pianist...”

National Post, Toronto

"His passion left a lasting impression and his tone production brought out many colors and nuances. It seemed as though we were hearing a new score.....The great imagination Kuerti brought to the works elevated the performance to an absolutely top level. What perfection!"

Noord-Hollands Dagblad

"In fact, everything Kuerti does is interpretively expansive in some way. Before intermission, he played two Beethoven sonatas. In the F minor (Op. 2, No. 1) he used articulation (connecting some notes, detaching others) to make statements as clear as speech. And by taking the opening moments of the G major (Op. 31, No. 1) with a great gust, he argued elegantly that some complex sentences really can be uttered in a single breath."

Philadelphia Inquirer

“Kuerti was in top form, exhibiting the flawless technique and interpretive depth that have made him an icon for piano connoisseurs”

South Florida Classical Review