KristianBezuidenhout

Press

• Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 'Emperor' with Australian Chamber Orchestra

  Australian Tour

  Mar 2024 - Mar 2024

  • Bezuidenhout makes the instrument sing. In the concerto’s magisterial opening, he answered the orchestra’s heroic chords with arpeggios that glistened at the top, creating vivid excitement when this passage tumultuously returns at the climax. At the appearance of the hushed second theme in Bminor, Bezuidenhout created a pearly tone that glistened delicately against the plucked ACO strings. ...Bezuidenhout articulated phrases of poetic lyricism. In the finale, Bezuidenhout and the ACO maintained excitement through their focus, rhythmic tautness and musical intensity.

    • Peter McCallum, Sydney Morning Herald
    • 17 March 2024

  • On Tuesday it was the turn of one of the world’s leading fortepiano virtuosos, Kristian Bezuidenhout, to dazzle concertgoers with an exhilarating performance of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

    • Steve Moffatt, Daily Telegraph
    • 20 March 2024

  • Asuperbly curated programme culminating in one of the most sublime achievements of the human imagination – Beethoven’s fifth and final piano concerto – brought the composer’s sound world to glorious life at the Melbourne Recital Centre on Saturday.

    • Barney Zwartz, The Age, Melbourne
    • 16 March 2024

  • Bold chords triggered a flurry across the keyboard as the Emperor Piano Concerto rang out on Wednesday at Perth Concert Hall, where Kristian Bezuidenhout and Australian Chamber Orchestra evoked the sound and soul of Beethoven. Bezuidenhout seemed more immersed than any podium conductor, leaning into sustained passages at the keyboard but always on the qui vive for interaction with the orchestra

    • David Cusworth, The West Australian
    • 14 March 2024

• Schubert: Wintereise - Anne Sofie von Otter

  Theater Basel

  Jan 2022

  • Mindestens so sehr aber lebt der Abend auch von Kristian Bezuidenhouts Spiel am Fortepiano: Meisterhaft, wie er mit wenigen Tönen die Atmosphäre vorgibt, zauberhaft, wie er Solostücken mit subtilen Nuancen Leben einhaucht. However, the evening also lives at least as much from Kristian Bezuidenhout's playing on the fortepiano: masterful, how he sets the atmosphere with just a few notes, magical, how he breathes life into solo pieces with subtle nuances.

    • Basler Zeitung
    • 24 January 2022

• Beethoven Concerto no. 4 - Freiburger Barokorchester

  Album Review

  • Repeated listening has convinced me this is one of the finest, most deeply perceptive and thrilling performances of Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto on record.

    • Gramophone Magazine
    • 01 October 2020

• Haydn: Sonatas

  Album Review

  Mar 2019

  • ...the listener is drawn in by the myriad subtleties of Bezuidenhout’s playing and by the glorious sounds he draws from his instrument...Most important, though, is Bezuidenhout’s playing itself. Technique is obviously not an issue: arpeggios spray notes like Eszterháza fountains; Haydn’s triplet accompaniments are never simply ‘typed’ but come alive with gradations of pressure that always seem instinctive rather than simply applied. Decoration, too, is sparing rather than trowelled on. This is the very opposite of ‘look-at me’ pianism.

    • Gramophone Magazine
    • 01 March 2019

• Haydn: Sonatas

  Album Review

  Mar 2023

  • Here, extra elaboration seems a little intrusive, so perfect is Haydn's writing, but Bezuidenhout's building of the powerfully dissonant climax is masterly.

    • Nicholas Kenyon, The Guardian
    • 10 March 2019