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| Schumann Concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra Washington under C.v. Dohnányi |
"That there is wonderful music throughout the score [of Schumann's CelloConcerto] was triumphantly reaffirmed last night by Dohnanyi, the NSO and soloist Gerhardt, who played with sumptuous tone and keen musicianship. Indeed, [Alban Gerhardt] is an artist after Dohnanyi's heart - tapered and immaculate, yet always songful."
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| Tim Page, February 10, 2006 |
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| Solo recital at Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center in Washington, DC |
| “ Alban Gerhardt's Singular Performance |
| ...He is a remarkable musician and thinker, absolutely at home in the most strenuous modern scores. It would be hard to imagine a more mysterious and dramatic rendition of the Crumb sonata, with its mixture of agitated strumming and sudden legato outbursts...May Gerhardt's impassioned advocacy win it many new champions...Kodaly's sonata dominated the program, as it inevitably does. In its grandeur and vehemence, this vast, bardic work always seems to have been ripped from the socket of some larger folk epic...Dark and light, silence and sound stand out in starkest relief, as the cello snarls, snaps and swoons for a concentrated half-hour of some of the most primal and difficult music ever written for the instrument. It is an exhilarating ordeal for cellist and listener: I cannot imagine playing a recording of the Kodaly sonata at home but take pains never to miss a live performance, particularly one that combines the sonata's assertive, all-but-unhinged intensity of expression with the immaculate formal clarity that Gerhardt brought to his rendition Tuesday night... It was all very well done of its sort -- Gerhardt favored brisk, even tempos throughout; his tone was sure and centered and his phrasing invariably fastidious...” |
| Tim Page, November 21, 2002 |
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| Brahms Double Concerto with Baltimore Symphony, Sir Neville Mariner and E. Batiashvili |
| “...In the Brahms, violinist Elisabeth Batiashvili and cellist Alban Gerhardt formed a highly compatible partnership, playing with solid technique and impressive unanimity. At times, their interpretation seemed slightly understated, with their sound submerged in that of the orchestra. This phenomenon can be credited to Brahms more than to the players. He probably wanted the music to sound like this, though several generations of stereophonic recording have created a different impression....” |
| Joseph McLellan, May 20, 2002 |
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| Recital with Rina Dokshitsky at Dumbarton Oaks |
| “...Gerhardt...showed a chameleon-like mastery of diverse compositional styles, a thoroughgoing command of his instrument, and directly communicative musicianship. The Bach Suite No. 6...is loaded with so many technical demands that it is not often heard. Gerhardt attacked it with a bone-clean tone that never wandered but grew expressively rich in lyrical passages; he feathered it down for a Courante taken at a breakneck tempo that might have sounded too fast had he not maintained such exquisite control. The Gigue was witty and deliciously pointed. Beethoven's Sonata No. 5 for Cello and Piano received a charged, fiery interpretation from Gerhardt and pianist Rina Dokshinsky, whose forceful playing matched Gerhardt's. Beethoven's dark, personal intimations--the shudder of his late writing--were fully explored, but the craggy detailing was left unsmoothed and the closing fugato was slammed home with ardent conviction. Barber's Sonata for Cello and Piano was all eiderdown plush and yearning beauty of line. Transcriptions of Manuel de Falla's music closed a splendid recital.” |
| Ronald Broun, April 12, 1999 |
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| Recital with Rina Dokshitsky at the Leonard Rose Competition: |
| “Gerhardt: Cello with Passion ...He was able to bring out contrasting lines and musical ideas with a fervent passion.... He highlighted the arc of various melodies in sensitive ways as he crafted soaring lines and plummeting sections with equal intelligence and abandon... It was an evening with high quality...in which a poised, well-balanced and ephemeral rendition <of Brahms F Major Sonata> illustrated Gerhardt's formidable strengths.” |
| Bob Waters, July 24, 1997 |
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| Recital with Rina Dokshitsky at the Terrace Theater in Kennedy-Center, Washington |
| “A Sonata And A Smile„A Sonata And A Smile |
| Monday night in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, I heard something I do not recall hearing before in more than 40 years of concertgoing: an audience laughing in the middle of a piece of chamber music...the Scherzo-Pizzicato second movement of Benjamin Britten's Sonata in C, Op. 65, for cello and piano...The five-movement Op. 65 calls on all the skills of a world-class pair of performers; it demands not only great technique but also a wide range of emotional expression as the witty second movement gives way to the deep pathos of the third, titled "Elegia." This music was uniquely the property of Britten and Rostropovich, but in this performance cellist Alban Gerhardt and pianist Rina made it their own. Gerhardt is no stranger to Washington, having won the 1993 Leonard Rose Cello Competition at the University of Maryland...He seems well on the way to a major career. The program opened with the Sonata for Cello and Piano of Alfred Schnittke, a rather disputatious dialogue between two instruments that seem determined to go their separate ways and generate intense, sharply contrasting emotions as they work out their differences. Between the two 20th-century pieces that rather daringly opened and closed the program, Gerhardt demonstrated his proficiency in traditional music with Brahms's Sonata in E Minor, Op. 38, and Beethoven's Sonata in C, Op. 102, No. 1. Rich, singing tone, finely controlled legato lines and a compelling sense of traditional structures made this part of the program as absorbing as the more extreme forms of expression in the modern works.” |
| Joseph McLellan, May 16, 1996 |
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| Solo recital in Washington's Phillips Collection |
| “Cellist Alban Gerhardt brought emotional maturity, prodigious strength and an astonishing technique that allows him a near-perfect mastery of his instrument…a highly polished yet decidedly passionate performance, well suited to Hindemith's demanding musical dictums and to Kodaly's virtuoso treatment of the cello. His interpretation...was impressive, and at times completely breathtaking...” |
| Judy Gruber, January 31, 1995 |
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| Finals of the Leonard Rose Competition with the National Symphony Orchestra and Y. P. Tortelier |
| “...Gerhardt was the best rounded of the finalists...His performance of the Dvorak Concerto never wavered in terms of stylistic polish and poise...” |
| Mark Carrington, July 26, 1993 |
