Peter Donohoe‘s latest release of Chopin, Ravel and Schumann waltzes on Somm Recordings has received 5*s from Musical Opinion and a 5* review for performance from BBC Music Magazine. International Piano has given a great review, as has Gramophone:
Musical Opinion
“This distinguished record”
“…it is with deep musical pleasure that Peter Donohoe’s profoundly insightful performances, so well recorded, embrace all four composers with understanding and interpretative excellence.”
BBC Music Magazine – 5* for performance
“Peter Donohoe’s reputation for such pianistic heavyweights as Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Prokofiev can obscure a brand of musical honesty that lends him authority across a much wider repertoire. This release is a reminder of this, focused on the outwardly lighter genre of the waltz but brimming with intelligent depth.”
“Donohoe’s perfectly flowing performance”
International Piano
“Letting music speak unhindered in the language, grammar and spirit of its day, freed of cosmetic overlay, is Peter Donohoe’s strength. Opening up and clarifying textures has always mattered to him. In Chopin’s Waltzes his bass lines and inner voicings, the artistry his left hand brings oo off-beat chords, make for a compelling mosaic of harmonies and subtexts, familiar notes and patterns glowing anew. He takes time to breathe, encouraging events to bloom, climax and cadence naturally, each swell, urgency and sigh subtly lit. His economic pedalling and ringingly projected fingering, the architectural shaping and cultured phrasing, are a joy…
Schumann’s Abegg Variations…flicker and flame, no fence insurmountable… The Ravel voyages from assertion… to midnight fade-out…, each exacting page a cause for care and suppleness. Languidly bringing the curtain down, Debussy’s La plus que lent floats out of nowhere, its closing G flat staccato cushioned in softest velvet. All told, a delectable, gracious album, unobtrusively engineered. ”
Gramophone
“Peter Donohoe takes his time over the course of Schumann’s Abegg Variations, shaping the long phrases with expansive yet elegantly proportioned rubato, allowing the bass lines to sing out”
“What richness and meaning Donohoe uncovers”
Read the full review here: www.gramophone.co.uk/review/peter-donohoe-waltzes