Yefim BronfmanPianist

Press

Critical Acclaim

“Mr. Salonen conducted the premiere of his piano concerto, dedicated to the evening’s soloist, Yefim Bronfman. … Mr. Bronfman played it with such stunning command, myriad colorings, incisive articulation and subtlety, a performance all the more impressive because Mr. Salonen did not hand over the completed score until early last month. … I cannot remember the last time a premiere at the New York Philharmonic won such an enthusiastic ovation.” – New York Times , 2.3.07 [Anthony Tommasini]

“It was impossible to ignore the singular achievement involved in [Bronfman’s] executing [Berg’s] thorny complexities as if they were mere child’s play [in the Chamber Concerto for Piano, Violin and 13 Winds]. The pianist’s uncanny ability to make the musical texture unfailingly clear throughout, his range of sonority – from lyrical to pungent, to explosive, with earthy rumbles in the bass and light, tip-toeing passages in the treble – and the rhythmic precision of the pianist (and of violinist Gil Shaham, and the entire ensemble) apparently astounded even the conductor. When the piece ended, Mr. Levine could be seen mouthing the words ‘wow, wow, wow’ as the audience jumped to its feet.” – Wall Street Journal, 2.26.08 [Stuart Isacoff]

“It’s rare to hear the [Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto] delivered with the kind of fervor and fluidity that Bronfman brought to it. His huge keyboard attack and athletic rhythmic palette have softened over the years, so that he produces explosive playing without bombast and fortissimo passages that register with elocutionary clarity.

“Those virtues turned the two outer movements of the concerto into displays of extraordinary vigor and assurance, as Bronfman tore through the passagework with demonic precision and leavened the music with little pockets of translucent calm. The tart inventiveness of the slow movement … was just as striking, and Bronfman also rewarded the audience with an electrifying encore of Chopin’s “Revolutionary” Etude, Op. 10, No. 12.”– San Francisco Chronicle, 6.18.07 [Joshua Kosman]

“Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 is a showpiece for a virtuoso of the keyboard, one with enough guts to tackle its challenges, and enough confidence to laugh at its difficult twists. Yefim Bronfman displayed more than guts and confidence, he showed some serious chutzpah. He … renewed our awe Thursday night at Davies Symphony Hall with as solid a performance. He even got an extra brownie point for tongue-in-cheek creativity … by missing the last note of the first movement, a fortissimo ending which he landed slightly off, only to rebound one octave lower on an improvised, yet perfectly fitting ending. The whole thing happened so smoothly, so naturally, and Bronfman was so impassive, that we even doubt it ever happened. So pleased was the audience, it broke convention to applaud in-between movements. Yet MTT could not stop chuckling at his virtuoso for such clever resourcefulness and had to extend the break a little bit so he could regain his composure.

“But you need resourcefulness to play such concerto, and you have to give Bronfman credit for invention. ... Inspired by Bronfman’s showmanship, the orchestra clearly reveled in the brash interpretive tack. Still, undercurrents of delicate grace would appear here and there.” – sFist, 6.16.07 [Cedric]