Concert Reviews

  • "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.

    — Financial Times, 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."

    — Music and Musicians, London

  • "Pianism on a grand scale ... great force and impressive control. A pianist of importance and high-minded purpose."

    — New York Times

  • "Robert Silverman’s recital last night at Alice Tully Hall was one of the most remarkable piano events of the whole season."

    —New York Post

  • "Robert Silverman held his audience spellbound with his interpretive skills."

    —Canadian Press

  • "One could only marvel at a performance of such thorough conviction. Surely he is one of the country’s finest pianists."

    —The Toronto Star

  • "As soon as he ascended the stage of Kiev’s Philharmonia, an atmosphere of genuinely great art set in the hall. Robert Silverman, the Canadian pianist, won the hearts of Kyiv’s exacting audience.."

    —News from Ukraine, Kiev

  • "Silverman is a pianist’s pianist, unquestionably in the league of today’s superstars."

    —Post Intelligencer, Seattle

  • "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."

    —Montreal Gazette

  • "Robert Silverman is a master. Everything he plays appears to be completely natural. It is as though the composer speaks directly through the performer."

    —South China Morning Post, Hong Kong

  • "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."

    —Calgary Herald

  • 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."

    —Winnipeg Free Press

  • "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."

    —Seattle Times

  • "In matters of ultimate concern, his playing is on the deepest of levels." (Washington Post)

Recording Reviews

Robert Silverman Plays Mozart (Stereophile)

First things first: this set is outrageously priced. I mean, $180 for only seven discs is more than a bit steep. When I first saw the price on the IsoMike website I was dumbstruck. The only recordings I buy at (or above) that price point are obscure Beethoven sonata cycles from Japan or Ring cycles conducted by men with the last name Keilberth. (The latter was really something of a mandatory purchase for me.) Granted, IsoMike had an introductory price of around $120 or so, but even then I thought it a bit pricey, so I dilly-dallied, and when I went back to buy, the price was back up to its original list price. I figured I would be priced out the market until a used set showed up, but then Amazon dropped their price to $125 for the set and I bought it. After all, I did buy Eric Heidsieck’s Mozart sonata cycle for the same price from HMV Japan, so why not this one? (I was none too happy about paying $125 for Heidsieck’s cycle, either, as good as it is; the touted SHM CDs are nothing special – maybe SHM really means Super High Markup.) I know IsoMike is a micro-label, and I know they need to turn a profit, and I know the set is limited (to 2400 sets, based on a sticker on the box), but that doesn’t mean I have to like paying such a high price.

Second things second: the sound is quite good. Superb, actually. But not necessarily any better than a good number of other piano recordings I own. 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. But. But the sound is not perfect. There is noise throughout the set. It’s very low in level, and sounds rather like analog hiss from days of yore, but I don’t know if it’s hiss. It may simply be the sound of the empty hall, though it is higher up the frequency spectrum than such noise usually is. It could be something electronic in the hall. It could be hiss, indicating that something analog was used somewhere in the recording chain. I don’t know. What I do know is that it does not detract from the music in any way, and is only audible in the quietest – ie, silent – passages. Should it be there in such an expensive set? Well . . .

I should point out that I listened to one of the recordings in three different loudspeaker-based systems as well as through decent headphones. Ironically enough, my two pairs of Joseph Audio loudspeakers – the RM22, Mk II and RM25, Mk II, both with soft dome tweeters – more readily revealed this sound than either my cheapie, metal dome tweeter laden Monitor Audio RS6 bedroom speakers or my Beyerdynamic RT440 headphones, but in all cases the sound was easily audible at normal listening levels.

Anyway, now to the most important part of the set, the music. Truth to tell, the cycle didn’t start especially auspiciously for me. Mr Silverman’s take on K309 is good enough overall, but some of his phrasing just doesn’t sit well with me, especially in the last movement. Silverman obviously knows far more about the music than I ever will, but I know what I like, and this just doesn’t capture my fancy. Since I was able to only listen to this sonata in my first listening session, this made me worry. Any worries were unfounded. After this initial work, 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. (Please note that I’m not criticizing the great Gieseking in any way; I rather like his set.) His tempi tend to be on the leisurely side, but things never drag. In fact, or rather, in opinion, 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 (I’m talking to you, K284), 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.

All told, K309 excepted, 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.