Review Extracts

                                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                          How can one not have fun playing the Choral Fantasy?

                                        NEW YORK TIMES

"An uncommonly elegant pianist" (Anthony Tommasini)

"Mr. Nel has shown himself in recent seasons to be an excellent interpreter of Romantic music. Here he showed the ability to
address the Mozartean style with an elegance and vibrancy that served as a window into the music."
(Allan Kozinn) [Lincoln Center Mostly Mozart Festival]

"In music breaking down tonality Anton Nel gave superb interpretations of Schoenberg's Six Little Pieces and Busoni's Sonatina
Seconda."
(James Oesterich) [Bard Music Festival]

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

"Anton Nel, first prize winner in the 1987 Naumburg International Piano Competition performed Schumann's Piano Concerto
in A Minor, a piece that does not lend itself to the showy displays contest winners are often fond of. Nel was not only uninterested
in such matters but tapped into the deeper impulses of this music with remarkable maturity. In addition to a beautifully weighted tone
and a nearly flawless legato, Nel possesses the enviable ability to spontaneously react to what he hears. Thus the melodic exchanges
between the South African and members of the orchestra were as alive as they were tenderly wrought. One looks forward to hearing
this gifted musician again."
(Howard Reich) [Chicago Symphony debut at the Ravinia Festival]



LOS ANGELES TIMES

"A pianist of exceptional sensitivity and stylistic discrimination" (Albert Goldberg)

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

"Nel is an exceptionally graceful and elegant musician...." (Charles Ward)

CAPE TIMES

May, 2003

A Splendid Display of superior musicianship

BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL, Thurs 22nd, City Hall; CPO conducted by Arjan Tien, soloist Anton Nel;
The Piano Concertos: No 1 in C major, Op 15; No 2 in B flat major, Op 19; No 4 in G major, Op 58.

"This was the first of two concerts in which South African pianist Anton Nel performed all five of the Beethoven
piano concertos on successive nights to enthusiastic audiences and tumultuous receptions.

I confess having been less than enthusiastic at the prospect of listening exclusively to piano concertos - and those of a
single composer - in successive concerts. It struck me as having all the prospects of proving a somewhat monochromatic
listening experience, notwithstanding the status of all of the works as favored items of the concerto repertoire. In fact,
the experience proved most rewarding, rekindling comparative insights into the works which years of familiarity had dulled.
Part of this was due to the order in which the works were played - not chronologically, for the C major concerto is the second
 in order of composition, although the first to be published and numbered accordingly.

We commenced with the later C major, then, and moved on to the novitiate B flat, which Beethoven himself once described as
“not one of my best works”. It dates from 1795 and, hearing its opening ritornello after the richer tones of the C major work,
its Mozartean protocols are apparent, not only in the type of solo line displayed, but more particularly in the distinctive use
of the smaller wind band. The opening movements of the three works also provide interesting contrasts, one being struck by
the featured use of different figurations in each: the C major dominated by foursquare scale passages; the B flat by bounding
arpeggios (repeated in the irritatingly engaging Rondo); the sublime G major by anxious chromaticisms.

But the concert was no mere musicological curiosity; it proved to be a vehicle for a display of superior musicianship, in all t
hree works, from soloist and conductor. The nearly full house (there were open places only behind the orchestra, in the chorus seating)
listened with rapt attention and rewarded each concerto with a greater ovation - that at the end of the concert assuming the unrestrained
enthusiasm generally associated with sporting events. Nel is a splendid interpreter of Beethoven. Of course, this presupposes a superior
pianistic technique, which he undoubtedly has and, more importantly, takes for granted. One accepts, therefore, that technical
considerations play little role in his interpretive choices; tempi, for example, are set not because of feasibilities, but because of the musical impact of the
passage at the chosen tempo. And what impact he achieves! Phrasing is gorgeous, with a linear understanding that, by its simulation of
breathing concepts in the melodic lines, imports a sense of the organic. Balances between melodic, secondary and accompanimental elements
are rendered with great subtlety, investing divergent elements with a precisely judged differential character, now percussive, now beguiling,
now declamatory in effect. Nor is he afraid of living dangerously: some of the notes being delivered with so gentle a touch as to risk the
total failure of sound production. But - and this is the crucial observation - it is a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained; and what was gained
was some of the most sublime pianissimo playing one has heard in this lovely acoustic.

Dutch conductor Arjan Tien provided superb support throughout the evening; actually, more than mere support, for the orchestral contribution
 had unfailing interest in its own right and gave the suitably scaled down orchestra (a 6.6.5.4.3 string disposition) fine opportunity to
demonstrate cohesive musicality. Tien is a very fine accompanist, anticipating the soloist well, maintaining appropriate orchestral tonal l
evels, and achieving superior ensemble with an unfussy elegance that is undoubtedly attributable to care in rehearsal. There were
momentary lapses - the opening of the C major Rondo was rhythmically unsettled - but such did not detract from the overall achievement.
Orchestral playing rose to the occasion and contributed in no little manner to an entirely memorable evening."

(Deon Irish)

CPO conducted by Arjan Tien, soloist Anton Nel; The Piano Concertos: No 3 in C minor, Op 37; No 5 in E flat major, Op 73.

"If Thursday night’s City Hall was gratifyingly full, Friday’s was truly packed beyond capacity. One has but to mention that the Friends
of the Orchestra’s bar ran out of wine to demonstrate that the organizers’ expectations of numbers were hopelessly pessimistic! I was also
struck by the number of tourists amongst the concert goers. The authorities need to remember that our tourists need entertainment in the evenings
as well and that a great many of them will respond to music of this nature, performed at this level. How gratifying it is to know that there are persons
 who will be returning to communities spread across the planet with the tale of a quite memorable concert they experienced down in Cape Town.
 For memorable it certainly was, concluding with an ovation as lengthy and boisterous as anything I can remember. Soloist and conductor
were called back time and again; orchestra members repeatedly called to stand and share in the accolades.

We commenced with an account of the dramatic C minor concerto. The orchestra, once again playing quite splendidly under the elegant
direction of Arjan Tien, delivered the lengthy - indeed, symphonic - exposition which commences the work. It was unusually delicate
in its opening phrases, building expectations with increasing intensity of tone and color until the piano entry. Nel burst in with an
undeniably percussive, even aggressive mien. The movement affords the pianist moments of great charm, too, but his account lingers in
 the memory as virtuosic in the modern sense: full of bravura, display and passion, a creation of a composer Kenneth Clarke would
recognize as “The Artist as Hero”. Playing was assured and fluent; better, intelligent, with a refined sense of the architecture of the work.
One detail will suffice as example: the delivery of the coda, which revealed it to be a little miracle of structural detail, building in embryonic
fashion from the barest of fragments in a handful of bars to the fully fledged conclusion of a major movement. The succeeding Largo is one
of the composer’s most glorious creations: a Nocturne, the pianism of which Chopin would have been proud. Nel gave of himself, here,
and showed the sensitive, perhaps even fragile personality behind the mesmerizing fingers. The final Rondo romped along in happy fashion,
string playing rising to the occasion with percussive chirpings quite worthy of the Cape’s finest cicadas.

After interval, the concerto most had undoubtedly been waiting for: “The Emperor”. This was treated in The Grand Manner, its rich E flat
 sonorities entirely appropriate for the nobility of its conception. Orchestral playing was assured, with fine contributions from horns and
 timpani in their distinctive writing. A solitary wind wandered off the beaten track at one point, but that was atypical of the account. Nel
 used the work as a vehicle for a display of tasteful virtuosity: a left hand which measured out the triplets against percussive right hand
figurations; double octaves which strode the length of the keyboard with pounded strength; arpeggios of precise definition and placement;
broken chord passages having machine gun regularity; dervish- whirling passage work which utterly captivated. And, centrally placed, a
pool of quiet beauty in an Adagio which had the huge audience as quietly content as a mother enjoying her sleeping baby. But there was
nothing quiet about the ovation which greeted the conclusion of the work, Nel and Tien receiving due tribute for a splendid musical
partnership over two memorable nights."
(Deon Irish)

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