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| The Daily Telegraph |
| “Panache and Authority |
| ...the Edinburgh Festival certainly saved some very good things for last. Friday began with the young piano trio of Steven Osborne, Elisabeth Batiashvili and Alban Gerhardt in Brahms and Ravel, delivering as much panache and authority as any of their senior colleagues in recent Queen’s Hall memory. And the day ended with the same artists in a raptly intense account of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time...” |
| David Fanning, September 2, 2002 |
| Dvorak Concerto at the Proms with Sakari Oramo and the CBSO |
| “…Yet, stepping in at short notice for an indisposed Heinrich Schiff, the up-and-coming German cellist Alban Gerhardt was given every chance to shine in the concerto, and shine he did in a performance full of warm-blooded music-making. Understandably in the circumstances, there were a few tentative moments, but these never deflected from the mastery and maturity of his playing…” |
| Matthew Rye, 21 August 2001 |
| Beethoven Tripleconcerto at Proms w.Scottish BBC, O.Vänskä, S.Osborne, L.Batiasvhili |
| “...The greatest compliment that can be paid Elisabeth Batiashvili, Alban Gerhardt and Steven Osborne is that they played the Triple Concerto as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Each was perfectly at ease when the solo spotlight fell on them, and when the time came to share things out in chamber music fashion, their phrasing was beautifully dovetailed. It was a little curious to see the piano placed right of centre, so that Osborne had his back to the other two soloists. But every platform arrangement has its drawbacks, and given that Osborne clearly had eyes in the back of his head, this one was as good as any. The BBC Scottish and Osmo Vänskä were attentive and deferential...” |
| September 11, 2001 |
| BBC Lunchtime recital at Wigmore Hall with Steven Osborne |
| “Sinew and Sensitivity |
| There was a tantalising coda to this recital. After a program of Bach, Martinu and Beethoven, the audience was pressing for an encore, so alban Gerhardt and Steven Osborne sat down and played the slow movement from Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata. In some ways, this was a heartless thing to do, because the playing was so exquisite that it made you to want to hear them in the other three movements as well. However, even on his own the Andante confirmed what the main body of the program in this BBC lunchtime recital had already shown: that the Gerhardt and Osborne duo has a compelling way of getting inside a composer’s skin and conveying the distinctive character of music through playing that is at once mature and fresh...As a duo, Gerhardt and Osborne have forged a particularly happy artistic union, pooling their interpretative resources, responding to music with like minds, and illuminating its stylistic traits with a rich and well-applied fund of expression. Following Gerhardt’s poised account of Bach’s C minor Suite for solo cello...their rapport was absolutely spot-on in the final fugue of Beethoven’s D major Cello Sonata. Accents darted from one instrument to the other, the lines were lucid and vital, the music sprang from the page with zest and rhythmic cunning. Indeed, the whole performance of this sonata was one that drew the ear powerfully into the music’s arguments, finding a depth of feeling in the central Adagio and articulating the outer movements with impressive sinew and sensitivity.” |
| Geoffrey Norris, May 9, 2001 |
| First Shostakovich Cello Concerto at the Proms in London with RSNO and Alexander Lazarew: |
| “...Under Alexander Lazarev, the orchestra (Royal Scottish National Orchestra) was alert to Shostakovich's pungent scoring, while the soloist Alban Gerhardt played with virile intensity...” |
| Geoffrey Norris, August 14, 2000 |
