New York Philharmonic with David Robertson / Bartok Concerto No.2
“Kavakos conveyed the rhapsodic flights, endless variety and subtle blend of folkloric tunes with modernistic wildness … He dispatched the virtuosic challenges with a cool command and paradoxically enhanced the bravura excitement … this performance roused the audience to a long ovation.”
New York Times, October 2008
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra with Vasily Petrenko / Beethoven Concerto
“The Largehetto was breathtaking, everything seemed to be perfect; sound, timing and expression”
NCR Handelsblad, October 2008
“With an almost spartacan method, Kavakos reshaped Beethoven’s [Violin Concerto] into great chamber music.”
Telegraaf, October 2008
London Symphony Orchestra with Valery Gergiev / Prokofiev Concerto No.1
“Kavakos wove a silver thread of sound around the woodwind voices, the very stuff of fairy tales. There were malevolent contrasts, too, with beasts for every beauty, and Kavakos unlocked those with a fantastic range of gruesome colours and wicked articulation. With the closing trills, fairy dust settled over us.”
The Independent, October 2008
London Symphony Orchestra with Valery Gergiev / Prokofiev Concerti Nos. 1 & 2
At the Edinburgh International Festival
“…the most gripping musical experiences of this cycle weren’t in the symphonies at all … Kavakos’s fiercly tender performance of the First Violin Concerto… for me outshone all the symphonies put together.”
The Telegraph, August 2008
“Leonidas Kavakos’s puckish and lyrical eloquence in the concerto gave us a breather: manna from heaven.”
The Times, August 2008
“…when the Violin Concerto No 2 is played with the artlessness that Leonidas Kavakos brought to it on Sunday, Prokofiev sounds as natural as Mozart.”
The Financial Times, August 2008
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra with Riccardo Chailly / Brahms Violin Concerto
At the Barbican, London
“Leonidas Kavakos produced a remarkable performance of Brahms’s Violin Concerto, partnered by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly, on tour and on tip-top form. Playing with near-perfect intonation (and three cheers for that too rare occurrence), Kavakos gave an account that balanced sureness of shape and structure with an easy lyricism and the relaxed rubato of a player who knows how to shape a phrase without distorting it. Within the massive structure of the first movement, the cadenza seemed to serve as its emotional heart, an eloquent and intimate rhapsody at the end of which Kavakos almost invited the orchestra back in.
In the slow movement, Kavakos bordered on the self-indulgent without ever crossing the line, and he found time to exult in the sheer richness of it all. The orchestra matched Kavakos in the rambunctiousness of the finale, with the brass and timpani to the fore, while in places the violinist was physically dancing, hopping from one foot to the other. He also managed the considerable feat of playing with aggressive pesante vitality right up at the heel of the bow while still retaining the focused beauty of tone which was such a feature of his playing throughout the concerto.”
The Strad, September 2008
At the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
“…the highlight of the night was undoubtably Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos’ compelling performance of the Brahms concerto. This was all about the assertive and penetrating qualities of Brahms’ warhorse, Kavakos steering well clear of willowy sentiment. Yet beneath the cool exterior, a delicious lyricism surfaced, allowing the music’s poetic heart to beat strongly. How often to you hear such a perfect equilibrium of technique and musicianship? And when will one of our own orchestras invite Kavakos back? Not soon enough.”
The Scotsman, June 2008
Cleveland Orchestra with Pierre Boulez / Berg Violin Concerto
“Leonidas Kavakos played the solo part with luminous control, limning the concerto's compassionate flights and vehement outbursts as a series of crucial incidents. He produced silken sounds that emboldened the music's conflicted emotions.”
Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 2008
London Symphony Orchestra with Valery Gergiev / Sibelius Violin Concerto
"Mahler's thunder was almost stolen by an exceptional performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto from Leonidas Kavakos. The Greek violinist knows this work inside out, and it is the perfect vehicle for his deceptively laid-back performance style, underpinned by a flawlessly even technique and with a sound that ranges from the palest, etiolated grey to something truly epic."
The Sunday Telegraph, January 2008
"Leonidas Kavakos gave a five-star performance of Sibelius's Violin Concerto … Sober of cast, yet scintillating in its near-perfection of technique, deeply pondered yet spontaneously imaginative, the sheer integrity and visionary quality of this performance reached the heart of the concerto more than any live performance I have heard in at least two decades."
The Times, January 2008
London Philharmonic Orchestra with OsmoVänskä / Nielsen Violin Concerto
"The concert's highlight was Nielsen's Violin Concerto, featuring Leonidas Kavakos. Playing the long and demanding work from memory, Kavakos delivered virtuosity and dream-like serenity in equal measure. He spun lines of shining tone, and, in partnership with Vänskä, showed what is special about this concerto: hard to pin down as specifically Nordic music, its very elusiveness makes it a wonderful example of Nielsen's style."
The Sunday Telegraph, December 2007
"Leonidas Kavakos has no need for hype or an adoring audience; we just know he is one of the finest violinists around, blessed with an impeccable technique and a platform-manner devoid of showiness. Only the music matters. He gave a fabulous account of Nielsen's Violin Concerto (1911) - the solo part being fiendishly difficult and here made into music - demonstrative, tender, heroic, pastoral and capricious…
It is difficult to think of a finer living violinist than Kavakos, so comprehensive and intertwined is his technique and musicianship."
classicalsource.com, December 2007
NDR Hamburg with Christoph von Dohnanyi / Bartók Violin Concerto No.2
"Leonidas Kavakos … performed with fantastically focussed energy, an inimitably rich tone and a sparingly applied vibrato; the bow-strokes up and down were lost in a continuous flow of sound. Bartok's rhythms danced. The encore - "Recuerdos de la Alhambra" - was magnificent, with stunning bowing technique that accoustically transformed the violin into a guitar."
Hamburger Abendblatt, November 2007
Beethovenfest Bonn
Philharmonia Orchestra with Sir Andrew Davis / Beethoven Violin Concerto
"The opening of the Bonn Beethoven Festival 2007, with the LPO, conductor Sir Andrew Davis and violinist Leonidas Kavakos, was pure musical bliss.
The heart of the programme, Beethovens violin concerto, bordered on a revelation. For here, music was made with spirit and feeling; with pulse and impulse …
… as if by magic, all the melodic beauty, spirited dialogue, magic moments and technical showpieces took centre stage in the music … and it left the listener enough opportunity to marvel at the silvery, shimmery tone of Kavakos' Falmouth Stradivarius, the modest vibrato, the intensity of his piano and the rhapsodic element. It was truly wonderful."
Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, August 2007
European Union Youth Orchestra with Herbert Blomstedt / Berg Violin Concerto
"Leonidas Kavakos performed Alban Berg's violin concerto with great sensitivity. Every note was precisely weighted. Kavakos understood the music perfectly as the intervals became increasingly dissonant and expressive after the bare fifth at the beginning, and played with carefully measured vibrato and sparing dynamic changes. Kavakos was equally sensitive to his role in the piece; blending into the orchestra, and discreetly stepping into the foreground when required. This could not have been done in a more selfless manner."
Berliner Zeitung, August 2007
Salzburg Festival Chamber Concert / Schnittke String Trio , Tchaikovsky Piano Trio
"Kavakos with his passionate, singing tone, was joined by Gautier [Capuçon] and viola-player Kim Kashkashian for a string trio by Alfred Schnittke. This elegy in memory of Alban Berg and of Vienna was performed with dreaminess, beauty and the finest blending. Schnittke sounded almost like Schubert … it was chamber music for the connoisseur."
Salzburger Nachrichten, August 2007
Boston Symphony Orchestra with Ingo Metzmacher / Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2
"The highlight of the afternoon was Bartók's Second Violin Concerto, which got a masterful performance from the Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos. His technique is immaculate: he navigated all of the concerto's virtuoso hurdles without too much apparent effort. Even more impressive were the lucid, singing tone of his playing and his elegant phrasing. In the rare moments when he wasn't playing, he turned to watch the orchestra, seemingly enjoying what his musical partners were up to. They worked wonders in the slow movement, a series of variations in which the violin is shaded with exquisite instrumental colors. Here and elsewhere, soloist, conductor and orchestra worked as one."
Boston Globe Review, March 2007
Royal Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra with Iván Fischer / Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2
"Waves of enthusiastic applause rang through the Amsterdam Concertgebouw after the performance of Bartók's Second Violin Concerto. No better ambassador could be imagined than the Greek master-violinist Leonidas Kavakos. Last week the Amsterdam Concertgebouw gave him his own 3-day mini festival, giving us the chance to revel in the beauty of his playing. Supreme and sensuous, his clear compact sound rode above the orchestra. Kavakos does not hug music to him, he delicately touches it. His utterly natural playing exudes an atmosphere of wonder ... In the finale Kavakos even danced like a folk musician."
Telegraaf, October 2006
"In a lively dialogue with the Royal Concergebouw Orchestra, the Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos performed Bartók's Second Violin Concerto like chamber music, brilliant yet self-effacing, with beautiful tone, energetic and subtly nuanced, and with a disarming naturalness that one seldom encounters on the concert platform. Bartók was a feast for head, heart and senses."
NRC Handelsblad, October 2006
A weekend with Leonidas Kavakos at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam
"Anyone who attended this weekend will not forget this remarkable bel-canto violinist in a hurry. Together with five fellow string players, he opened the festivities modestly, as primus inter pares, in sextexts by Dvorak, Schulhoff and Brahms. [...] Kavakos personal stamp was unmistakeable, not in terms of violin pyrotechnics but through a spirituality that penetrated to the core of the composition."
Volkskrant, October 2006
London Philharmonic Orchestra with Vladimir Jurowski / Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
"Leonidas Kavakos is one of the most self-effacing of performers, as well as one of the greatest. Technically, he was staggering, surmounting every challenge with a weighty brilliance. As always with Kavakos, however, showmanship is subordinate to expression. All the double and triple stopping in the finale had shape and meaning as well as virtuosic fire, while the long cantilenas of the opening movement and the central andante were operatic in their intensity... It was hard to imagine the work being better performed."
The Guardian, September 2006
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra with Donald Runnicles / Brahms Violin Concerto
"It is a wonderful experience to hear the Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos play the Brahms violin concerto. The Berlin Philharmonic clearly enjoy working with this soloist, as he approaches the concerto more as a symphony with violin … Kavakos unfolds an introspective interpretation of pure intonation and brilliance. As he plays, he reveals himself as a magician of the violin, who infuses even the slightest breath of a tone with expression."
Der Tagesspiegel, February 2006
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