Interviews and Reviews
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“You recognize it immediately when you hear it. A long, arching, beautiful line that sings naturally, the way a fine singer sings.
A true pianissimo poised just above audibility, natural gradations of sonority between very soft and very loud, and a thundering fortissimo that resounds without clamor or ugly overtones. A way of voicing chords so that inner voices have their own dappled color and richness. A projection of personality that makes interpretation highly individual but illuminates rather than exploits
the music. These are some of the characteristics that mark the true romantic pianist, a pianist who can unlock the secrets of the great romantic composers. All of that and more was on display in Roger Wright's recital Sunday at the Phillips Collection. . . .”
-Washington Post"Roger Wright...rocked the Rach, in a blistering performance of Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 3 in D minor, the renowned pianist...took no prisoners, playing with passionate aplomb and athletic intensity. In Wright's capable hands, the majestic concerto, especially the cadenza in the first movement, was both elegant and furious."
-The San Antonio Express News"With the piano placed in front of the orchestra came Roger Wright, who with his youth and elegance began to delight the audience with Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor for piano and Orchestra, op. 18.
.........a performance pervaded with the spirit of the work, very expressive.....
Closed eyes, red face, and dancing hands
on the keyboard visually added to the spectacle of the performance. Not only does Wright deliver the work, he seems to live it fully. The audience placed their eyes and ears on this guest pianist and thus remained hypnotized throughout the three movements of the piece."
-La Nacion (Costa Rica)"I enjoyed the rare delight of listening to one of the greatest pianists of our time, Roger Wright. Wright's talented and energetic playing style was brought to bear on one of the most difficult and technically demanding concerti in all of the piano repertoire, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, which he performed brilliantly...audible chocolate."
-The Costa Rica News"The soloist showed a technical mastery that held a version distinguished by the boldness and vigor of spontaneous response phrasing and melodic flow, free from sentimental excess."
-La Nacion (Costa Rica)“Wright, the Houston-born gold medal winner of the 2003 San Antonio International Piano Competition, delivered two contemporary works requiring jaw-dropping displays of virtuosity before joining the [Camerata San Antonio] Quartet for the Dvorak. The second of these was a vigorous, fleet-fingered account of William Mason's jazz-flavored ‘Toccata,’ which had impressed piano-competition audiences last fall. The first was an astonishingly evocative score by Frederic Rzewski, ‘Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues,’ which begins with rumbling low-bass tone clusters and repeated chromatic tics that actually sound like noisy machinery. Later, a bluesy honky-tonk theme emerges, punctuated here and there with other aural imagery of a working mill. Wright's traversal was facile, confident and utterly absorbing ... Those who followed the competition knew that Wright has a commanding technique whose dynamics range from whispery soft to absolutely teeth-rattling. Thus, it was particularly enlightening to hear him as part of an ensemble. For the Dvorak, he proved an intuitive collaborator, moving in and out of the textures, flirting with the strings or taking the lead with confidence. The result was an impassioned, wholly committed traversal by all the musicians, concluding a concert that will be memorable on several levels.”
-The San Antonio Express News
“. . . Wright’s reading of it [Schumann C-Major Toccata] was revelatory, a ‘light show’ of variegated tone and shading, offered with masterful ambidexterity and a clear eye to the score’s architecture.”
-The San Antonio Express News
"Wright has been impressive for his commanding technique and even more for his sensitivity to piano sound and general musical intelligence. . . [His] performances of Liebermann...and Rzewski were absolutely riveting. But Wright also possesses the most liquid, romantic piano tone imaginable..."
-The Calgary HeraldThe piece of the evening was "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" by Frederic Rzewski, who is noted for incorporating "socio-historical themes" into his compositions. Mr. Wright said that the work was like a factory tour. Starting at the bottom of the keyboard, it chugged up to the middle of the instrument in clusters, literally with fist and elbow, to depict the noisy machinery of the mill. The effect was an amazing amalgam of sound and music and approached being, as he had warned, "louder than you might like." It receded to a few notes, became bluesy, and then built with a vigorous, weighty drive to the extreme ends of the keyboard. If the expression "dazzling technique" seems like an overstatement, you should have been there.
-The East Hampton Star"A savvy, elegant, and charismatic pianist, Wright commands an astonishing but musically informed technical apparatus...he will turn heads before long."
-American Record Guide
"CD of the year, in my view, is a recently released ABC Classics recording of pianist Roger Wright."
-The West Australian"Roger Wright played . . . with a technique equal to Marc-Andre Hamelin's, a charismatic presence and a fine musical mind to boot. . . He stole the show."
-Clavier Magazine"Wright is indeed a phenomenal pianist, but he is also a profoundly insightful and imaginative artist who is fully aware that along with a virtuoso technique goes an awesome responsibility: making music. Indeed, what concerns him are not just the notes, but what goes on in between them."
-The St. Petersburg Times"...As with any competition, there are stars and one that shone resplendently was the 26-year-old American Pianist Roger Wright. His diet wasn't one of the competition standards, but even when he did choose to play pieces frequently aired in competitions - a Chopin B flat minor Sonata of Rubinstein-like nobility, for instance - they were newly lit, magnificently unfolded. His choice of American contemporary music (by Fabregas) and his Schumann and Haydn hovered around the elegant and rarefied worlds of Kempff, Haskil and Lupu."
-International Record Review“...[W]hile his heart is with the romantics like Arthur Rubinstein, his formidable technique aligns more with . . . Vladimir Horowitz to Ivo Pogorelich. In many ways, Wright presents the best of both worlds, a remarkable pianist with a winning and heartfelt interpretation & rapport with his audience.”
-Eye Spy LA
