2007
Daily Camera, CO (USA)
By Wes Blomster, Camera Classical Music Critic
December 29, 2007
"in the solo piano version of Ravel's "La Valse" Russian-born Stoupel made this work -- so familiar as an orchestral production -- a fully contemporary score, raising to the level of the composer's war-informed Concerto for the Left Hand."
Mainzer Rhein-Zeitung
September 25, 2007
Russian music brings melancholy to the “Großes Haus” of Mainz “Two solo concertos made up the programme: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto No. 3 in E flat major op. posth. 75 "Allegro Brillante”; and Galina Ustvolskaya’s concerto for piano, strings and timpani. Vladimir Stoupel lent both single-movement works an authentic Russian spirit. Showing clear touch and intense passion, he delivered the syncopated rhythms and fervent, tranquil themes of the Tchaikovsky concerto with precision and subtlety. In his cadenzas, in particular, Stoupel displayed a diversity of expression ranging from melancholy restlessness to passionate determination. The pianist also impressed in Ustvolskaya’s concerto, thanks to an abundance of timbres. The orchestra adapted to the pianist with sensitivity, producing sound as a mystical haze or in menacing strikes.”
Neue Westfälische Zeitung
September 12, 2007
Overcast moods “The hands of the distinguished pianist and proven all-round musician Vladimir Stoupel gave a thorough reworking to Rathaus’s Sonata No. 3, instilling it with distinct creative power. In Schubert’s Impromptu op. 142/1 in F minor, his mature performance combined clarity of formulation with a richly-shaded aesthetic, allowing the enigmatic tone of Schubert’s late work to fill the entire sound space. In Debussy's “Estampes“ piano cycle, Vladimir Stoupel displayed a most refined touch to trace and evoke sound impressions from Java, Spain and Paris: transparent, lucid, poetic. He rendered Maurice Ravel's “La Valse" with disarming virtuosity. Rapturous applause was followed by a wonderful Schubert encore, sculpted with scrutiny and crystal clarity.”
Leipziger Volkszeitung
January 21, 2007
Long applause follows sumptuous tones from the piano: Vladimir Stoupel impresses with his Tchaikovsky concerto in b-flat “Stoupel gave a downright perfect performance: thunderous octaves, brisk runs, melting cantilenas. His interpretation was commanding and brilliant - no weakness was ever apparent, even it this stunningly demanding vision. The finale skipped along nimbly, but was also soft and smooth in tone. There was long applause for the amicable pianist.”
DER TAGESSPIEGEL BERLIN, Germany,
December 28, 2007
"Stoupel risked an exceptional, and entirely private interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto: he transformed the virtuoso thriller for keyboard sprinters into a tone poem about the struggles of a distraught soul. From the musical text he inspired to arouse a rhapsodic narration, an operatic tableau - enthralling and atmospherically dense. During a time in which many swear by the weightless brilliance of interpreters such as Lang Lang, a pianist has to summon up great courage to show, by means of an emotional and utterly heartfelt interpretation, why the work was once considered so outrageously, and indeed, so obscenely, private."