PIANIST & CELLIST

PRESS

Exerpts from press releases


Brabants Dagblad:

[…] I experienced an inspiring performance by two Russian-born musicians. As hostess, the pianist Diliara Zalialdinova [...] left enough space for the virtuoso performance of Elena Gaponenko on the cello. The two four-hands piano pieces were simply breathtaking [...]. This was balm for our ears – a musical performance at a high leveln […].
(Translation: Original Dutch)


Kölnische Rundschau:

[...] what the pianists Diliara Zalialdinova and Elena Gaponenko offered this evening [...] had a captivating/tempting level. Gaponenko, an equally accomplished pianist and cellist, [...] impressed [...] with powerful playing that was full of warmth and voluminous depth [...]. Diliara Zalialdinova and Elena Gaponenko mastered the evening with skill, drive and passion [...].
(Translation: Original German)


Münchener Merkur:

Let's start this way: how she extracted the motif was especially musically admirable. This is more than great talent. [...] I ask further, have you ever experienced the personification of a musical instrument - a cello - as a unit of tone, form, presentation and charisma, as with Elena Gaponenko? [...] What we experienced was something rare, it was - I had to look it up - it was, in the deepest sense - agogic. [...] Agogic means: free, floating, unattached from the austerity of the earthly. For this wonderful experience we thank Elena.
(Translation: Original German)


Kölnische Rundschau:

A great performance also by the two pianists Lydia Lehan-Fisk and Elena Gaponenko. [...] The duo opened the evening quite furiously with Darius Milhaud's "Scaramouche" and joyfully accompanied the Orff'sche cantata in five images.
(Translation: Original German)


Rheinische Post:

Elena and Lisa Gaponenko opened the concert as the "Duo Enigma/Amgine". This enigmatic name, (the second part is the first read backwards), can be readily explained by the performance of the two young ladies. Both ladies play  piano as well as cello, allowing them a wide repertoire of works, specifically those written for cello and piano (alternating), piano four hands and alternately, piano two hands Cleverly, they had selected the most rewarding and at the same time demanding works from the above-named directions. During the concert they impressed with their enormously escalating curve. [...] with their ravishingly executed Paganini Variations by Witold Lutoslawki, the sisters finally played their way into our hearts and minds. In between, there was not only the "usual suspects", [...] but also such a little known gem as the "Souvenir de Saint- Pétersbourg" by Adrien François Servais, the Belgian "Paganini of the cello".  And without wanting to be unjust to either of the two talented sisters, it seemed to us that Elena Gaponenko ultimately sounded slightly fuller and was a more charming cellist and a didactically more  skilful presenter...
(Translation: Original German)


Schwarzwälder Bote:

The audience at the concert were able to enjoy over an hour of Bach at its best. Whether it was the more sacred works, or more lively strains, the artist displayed sensitivity and highest concentration – Music brought to our ears with brilliant ability and the greatest devotion. [...] She must have inherited her over-abundant musical and language talent in the cradle. After all, since early childhood she has been tutored at the piano, which, like the cello, she simply masters.
(Translation: Original German)


SÜDKURIER:

On Sunday, Elena Gaponenko made a fantastic introduction to the series of events "Bach is fun".
[...] For an hour she offered perfect music on her cello, pulling the audience in her spell.
(Translation: Original German)


Solinger Tageblatt:

With the first Set of Maurice Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Cello the two virtuosos completed a style shift toward impressionism: Gaponenko challenged  the audience to "Imagine, there were colours not sounds". The composition, from the beginning of the artistically experimentally-friendly 20th Century actually did sound like bold brush strokes. The Russian-born Elena Gaponenko then excelled with two solo pieces by the cellist Cassadó.
(Translation: Original German)


Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung:

The confident title "World Stars of the Future" promises performances by top artists. The program design is in the hands of musicians Elena and Lisa Gaponenko [...] Despite the short planning time, Elena and Lisa Gaponenko have managed to arrange a comprehensive program with seven concerts, which is to run from October to December. "We know many artists who make music at the highest level, but  are not at the top – for various reasons", says Elena Gaponenko.  The diversity of the program is equally important to the two musicians. [...] At the same time, the two musicians are committed to their educational mission and want to inspire a wide audience for classical music. [...] A special feature is that each concert will be hosted by one of the two sisters, in order to facilitate access to the music. Elena Gaponenko: "Music is a special language that must be translated".
(Translation: Original German)