Valeriy Sokolov

Press

• BARTOK Violin Concerto

  Elbphilharmonie

  Feb 2024

  • It is spectacular how well and how casually the Ukrainian violinist Valeriy Sokolov and the Russian conductor Kochanovsky harmonise here. The violinist from Kharkiv shows all his technical perfection and his unusually broad sound palette, by seeming to surrender completely to the music: his playing does not seem not calculated, but like an adventurous shot from the icy peaks of the wild score.

    • Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung Stadtausgabe
    • 10 February 2024

• SIBELIUS Violin Concerto

  Auditorium Rainier III, Monte Carlo

  Jan 2024

  • Valeriy Sokolov attracts more attention with a game that is more sanguine than cerebral. Compact and stocky on his instrument, the concert performer, from the first movement, assaults a flawless technicality but without exaggerated exhibitionism – a challenge in this concerto! – and never forget to make your instrument sing poetically, especially in this 1er movement, with successive flashes of brilliance. If the true song that the second movement is for the concert performer is imbued with both lyricism and restraint, it is in the pugnacity of the final allegro ma non tanto that we appreciate Sokolov's playing the most. A veritable firework display for the concert-goer who, despite a hellish tempo, never hides the shimmering sounds, we find in this white-hot finale the beautiful intensity – almost more Slavic than Nordic! – the Monegasque phalanx.

    • Resonances Lyriques
    • 21 January 2024

  • Once Nielsen's sun had set, we were treated to venture into the dark forests of Sibelius' Violin Concerto. A masterful, bewitching work that is! And to think that half a century ago, serious critics such as Antoine Goléa called it "tragically conventional" or even a "musical vacuum". Perhaps he would not have had the same opinion if he had heard the lively, vibrant, intense, passionate and exciting interpretation we heard from Ukrainian violinist Valery Sokolov. Here is one who does not hesitate to go to the bottom of the strings, as if he wanted to crush his violin with the bow! The result is impressive.

    • ConcertoNet
    • 21 January 2024

  • Sokolov carries us along with violence and passion for an explosive and impressive fifteen minutes, where he overcomes all technical difficulties with a natural ease, which gives the impression of causing no effort. He throws his bow in the air at the end of the movement, which provokes a storm of applause, the audience believing that the concerto is finished.

    • Cresendo Magazine
    • 21 January 2024

• STANKOVYCH Violin Concerto

  The Barbican

  Sep 2023

  • Sokolov caressed and declaimed the violin’s role, often more like an obbligato than a vehicle for display, and his presentation of the soloist as victim rather than victor was eloquent and strongly felt. Sokolov was equally affecting in the short Melody by Miroslav Skoryk, which has become an unofficial Ukrainian national song.

    • Classical Source
    • 03 September 2023

• KHACHATURIAN Violin Concerto

  Auditorium Rainier III, Monte-Carlo

  Oct 2022

  • In view of the current circumstances, it is particularly moving to have a Ukrainian violinist and a Russian conductor playing together the masterpiece of an Armenian composer. It is a beautiful message of peace through music. In Khachaturian's concerto, the violinist is amazing: breath-taking technique and authentic musicality. The artist is energetic, passionate, gentle and elegiac at the same time. Sokolov deploys all his technique and expressiveness in the first movement and he moves in the slow waltz of the second movement. The finale evokes an unbridled popular celebration, inspired by Armenian folk music; Sokolov is prodigious there, he finishes the concerto with brilliance. He is perfectly supported by an attentive and involved OPMC. Sokolov returns after several encores and gives an “bis”: a sonata by Ysaÿe.

    • Crescendo Magazine
    • 22 October 2022

  • The violinist had just given us one of the most beautiful interpretations we have ever heard of this concerto. To believe that this work had been composed for him! We do not see what we could have done better in terms of virtuosity, lyricism, intensity of play. In addition to his talent, Sokolov physically reminded us of the true dedicatee of the work, David Oïstrakh, with the curves of his physique and his chubby chin leaning on the edge of the violin.

    • ConcertoNet
    • 26 October 2022

• SIBELIUS Violin Concerto

  Poole Lighthouse (30/10) & The Anvil Basingstoke (31/10)

  Oct 2019

  • Sibelius's Violin Concerto [was] played with soul, finesse, and technical wizardry by Valeriy Sokolov

    • The Guardian
    • 09 September 2023

• TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto

  Royal Festival Hall, London

  Jun 2022

  • ...Even more remarkably, Sokolov tapped into a deep well of loneliness. ...There were princely qualities on display, not least a technical immaculacy and a vast range of colour, from a bleached, ethereal quality to a deeply burnished amplitude in the lower register.

    • bachtrack
    • 25 June 2022

• TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto

  Victoria Hall Geneva (18/05) & Salle du Metropole Lausanne (19/05)

  May 2022

  • Ce violon au port noble, au son dense et subtil, s’attachant à faire ressortir la finesse des traits, aigus planants, médiums veloutés, graves comparables à ceux d’un alto, est d’une éloquence rare. This violin with its noble bearing, its dense and subtle sound, which strives to bring out the finesse of its features, its soaring high notes, its velvety mid-range and its viola-like low notes, is of a rare eloquence. … le violoniste ukrainien développe un jeu d’une délicatesse arachnéenne et d’une intériorité toute particulière. … the Ukrainian violinist develops a play of spider-like delicacy and a very particular interiority. Valeriy Sokolov livre une version magnifique du Récitatif et Scherzo-Caprice opus 6 de Fritz Kreisler en bis: à nouveau la conduite de la phrase et le legato sont prodigieux. Feu d’artifice dans les traits violonistiques. Valeriy Sokolov delivers a magnificent version of Fritz Kreisler's Recitative and Scherzo-Caprice opus 6 as an encore: once again, the conduct of the phrase and the legato are prodigious. Fireworks in the violinistic features.

    • Le Temps
    • 22 May 2022

• KHACHATURIAN Violin Concerto

  Auditorium RAI, Turin

  Jan 2022

  • …Sokolov’s interpretation is superb in every respect, the intonation is excellent, supported by a clear sound, pungent when necessary and theatrical, all characteristics necessary for the rendering of Khachaturian's histrionic writing, extrovert even in the most meditative moments. The variety of the violinist's phrasing reverberates in a natural kaleidoscope of facets in the two souls that alternate in the large initial Allegro con fermezza, from the wild dancing accents of the first theme to the heartfelt lyricism of the opposing idea… Sokolov's voice leaps into the foreground where necessary, lights up like a flame of brilliant intensity in a ride of dizzying speed, to burrow suddenly leaving room for the robust symphonic speech of an orchestra that anticipates, glosses under the baton of Valčuha, winks to the counterpointing driving impulses of a music that is only apparently 'easy' in the amiability of his gesture.

    • L’Ape musicale

• PROKOFIEV Violin Concerto No.2

  Auditorium Rainier III, Monte-Carlo

  Jan 2022

  • While Bartók's Dance Suite heard at the start of the concert did not arouse any particular emotion, Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto performed by Valeriy Sokolov was a marvel. Everything seemed perfect in the music, a serious young man strapped in his tight suit, set up like a computer, whose face did not show the slightest smile. "Perfect" is however an epithet that is not used in music criticism. Yet he stands out here to qualify his virtuosity, the sharpness of his playing, his accuracy of nuances and phrasing.

    • ConcertoNet
    • 16 January 2022

  • Violinist Valeriy Sokolov offers a superb interpretation of Prokofiev's Concerto No. 2. The violinist is totally faithful to the score. It recalls the legendary violinist Leonid Kogan with this harsh and deep touch by its alternation of emotion and tension carried away by a rare intuition. Sokolov has a splendid warm, powerful and expressive sound. Absolute mastery of the instrument with incredible intonation, perfect vibrato and an extremely wide range of nuances. After a long ovation, Valeriy Sokolov gave an encore of Fritz Kreisler's Recitativo and Scherzo-Caprice. A fabulous performance, with aplomb, virtuosity and humour, truly channeling the spirit of Kreisler.

    • Crescendo Magazine
    • 18 January 2022

• KHACHATURIAN Violin Concerto

  Teatro di San Carlo, Naples

  Sep 2021

  • The first bars of Aram Khachaturian's Violin Concerto are enough for the violinist Valeriy Sokolov to demonstrate that he is in possession of a very fierce technique, well hidden behind the screen of naturalness, never ostentatious in the execution. Valeriy tackles very fast scales, the entire arsenal of bowstrings, double stops, changes in the position of the left hand that give life to evocative phrasing, with an amazing precision and body of sound. At the end of the Violin Concerto, the applause for Valeriy Sokolov and Juraj Valčuha are so warm that the violinist gives an encore of acrobatic virtuosity, the Sonata n. 3 in D minor, op. 27, Ballade, by Eugene Ysaye, tackled with precision, abundance of colours and perfect mastery, with the usual naturalness, and scintillating technical command.

    • L’Ape musicale
    • 26 September 2021