Concert Reviews
Financial Times, London
"Radiance to every piece ... Silverman made an extraordinary impression. He created an idyll of exquisite sound and exact, unforced feeling. That is the feat of a mature artist and something of a revelation."
Music and Musicians, London
"A player of formidable strength and mastery. His tonal resources and freewheeling romanticism are wonderfully rich and full ... a powerful orator of the keyboard."
New York Times
"Pianism on a grand scale ... great force and impressive control. A pianist of importance and high-minded purpose."
New York Post
"Robert Silverman’s recital last night at Alice Tully Hall was one of the most remarkable piano events of the whole season."
Canadian Press
"Robert Silverman held his audience spellbound (in New York’s Tully Hall) with his interpretive skills."
The Toronto Star
"One could only marvel at a performance of such thorough conviction. Surely, he is one of the country’s finest pianists."
Montreal Gazette
"Robert Silverman reaffirmed his place in the front rank of Canadian pianists with a masterly recital at (McGill University’s) Pollack Hall. The recital was recorded by the CBC, and the broadcast should not be missed by anyone with more than a casual interest in the piano repertoire."
Calgary Herald
"For this reviewer, Silverman left no doubt; he is one of the finest pianists I have ever heard, live or on recordings. Always utterly committed to his vision, he has a big, warm sound, a technique equal to all difficulties, and an exemplary sense of tonal refinement. Even more compelling, however, is his extraordinary musical concentration and sense of interpretation."
Winnipeg Free Press
"Silverman scales Everest, leaves audience on a high... Beethoven’s emotional state springs to life... Though his opening concert Thursday night had the requisite feats of prodigious memory, unfaltering fingers and stamina to spare, it was Silverman’s ability to illuminate Beethoven’s vast array of emotional states and guide them from within which won the day. One never sensed effect as an end, but rather an instinctive regard for what was already there and how to make it live. In a major and magnificent way, Silverman’s clarity of thought had us looking past the messenger. In every phrase, one viewed the interpreter through the music rather than the music through the interpreter."
South China Morning Post, Hong Kong
"Robert Silverman is a master. Everything he plays appears to be completely natural. It is as though the composer speaks directly through the performer."
Post Intelligencer, Seattle
"Silverman is a pianist’s pianist, unquestionably in the league of today’s superstars.
Seattle Times
"Most rewarding of all was the Hammerklavier, Beethoven’s biggest and thorniest piano sonata, and always a monumental challenge to interpretation (as well as to technique). This sonata is a huge journey, sometimes unhurried and sometimes violently agitated. In Silverman’s hands, the journey had a clear and inexorable direction, building adroitly to climaxes and developing the phrases with a telling clarity. This sonata can be thrilling, especially in the bravura flourishes, which Silverman executed as a formidable wall of sound (in the second and fourth movements). The real thrills, however, came in the lengthy third movement, which sounded almost Chopinesque in parts, and which moved Saturday from moments of a velvety softness that was almost palpable to abruptly defused violence, with a drama that never flagged. You don’t hear playing of this caliber often. Then, Silverman launched into a performance of the Appassionata. It was a revelation. This was the kind of playing that sweeps you along, from the quietly menacing opening to tender phrasing and explosive cataclysms of sound. Silverman cuts no corners, takes no shortcuts; takes no prisoners; he doesn’t smear up the performance with pedal or shove one note into another in sloppy arpeggios. The final movement was hair-raising: rigorous, explosive, but played so evenly that you could hear every note. The audience discovered the presence of pianistic genius. No other word serves to describe Silverman’s vision, the power of his technique (and his) Horowitz-like sonority."
ROBERT SILVERMAN PLAYS MOZART (STEREOPHILE)
"Everything moves along more or less wonderfully. For instance, there’s a dramatic but not overcooked K311, a work that can easily be overdone. Then there’s K330, which I must say is truly top-notch, easily up to the level of any other version I’ve heard. K331 has some niftily delivered variations and a lovely Menuetto and an alla Turca movement that charms. There’s also a nicely stormy C minor sonata, prefaced by the C minor Fantasia, where one almost wishes the IsoMike array had been moved back from the piano a few more feet!
Even in the most intense music, Silverman keeps things classical, if you will; he doesn’t try to make the music sound like it’s from the 19th Century, as a few pianists have done, nor does he play it in precious or even fussy fashion, and he certainly doesn’t play it in the Dresden Doll fashion of Walter Gieseking. His tempi tend to be on the leisurely side, but things never drag. In fact, or rather, they move along most swimmingly.
That’s not all! The late sonatas are all superb, every last one. And such tasteful, beautiful embellishments in the slow movement of K570. The early sonatas can, at times, be troublesome, by which I mean boring and too long, but not here. Silverman obviously enjoys playing at least some of this music – and I wouldn’t doubt he likes playing it all – as his discreet vocalizing demonstrates (it happens throughout the set), and he delivers some wonderful playing. It’s hard for me to think of a more beautiful rendition of the adagio from K280 than this one, for instance. And few takes on the aforementioned K284 are more entertaining.
The sound is superb. The attack and decay of the notes, the tone, the dynamics: everything about the piano sounds just right, and exceedingly natural, by which I mean it sounds like a piano sitting in a nice sounding hall without a hint of obtrusive knob twiddling.All told, this fine set is well worth many listens. I’m still not at all happy about the price, but I’m happy to own the set. Good stuff, indeed."