Photo: Marco Borggreve
Press
2015
"Benjamin Grosvenor added his trademark velvet gloved sonorities to Mozart's evergreen Piano Concerto in D Minor K 466. Grosvenor's tonal palette contains colors of astonishing beauty and coupled with a commanding technique plus unassuming but relentless focus, he reached the heart of Mozart's Sturm und Drang in an urgent reading."
- The Sunday Mail (Adelaide), November 2015
"Benjamin Grosvenor added his trademark velvet gloved sonorities to Mozart’s evergreen Piano Concerto in D Minor K 466. Grosvenor’s tonal palette contains colors of astonishing beauty ... For many, Grosvenor’s luscious Gershwin-Grainger encore would have proved a high point amongst high points."
- The Advertiser, Adelaide, November 2015
"Grosvenor showed not only the prodigious security of his technique but his expressive power...a dazzling display by a musician who has rightly been dubbed one of the brightest talents of his generation."
- Limelight magazine, 5*, November 2015
"At twenty-three, there is more than a touch of the Wunderkind about what he does. But make no mistake: this is a serious, talented, imaginative, and committed musician who makes some of his more hyped competitors seem, by comparison, adolescent and lacking in both range and insight....Both the works themselves and his reading of them were revelatory, while also indicating how Grosvenor is not shy of tossing in technically challenging works at the start of a programme."
- Australian Book Review, November 2015
"He commands the stage with aristocratic ease … Mr Grosvenor makes you sigh with joy … A temperament rare in yesteryear, let alone now.”
- The New York Times, October 2015
"[Benjamin gave] an electrifying performance of Shostakovich’s 2nd Piano Concerto. He summoned a beautifully meditative, pearly tone in the second movement, where just for a moment the balloons stopped fizzing, and you could hear a pin drop. The quicksilver finale he tossed off with unimaginable brilliance."
- The Telegraph, September 2015
"Grosvenor is clearly now a master of the keyboard, but he wears that authority lightly; there is little of the superstar temperament about him. But his Shostakovich is secure and confident, often lyrical and certainly dramatic when required."
- The Arts Desk, September 2015
"Grosvenor dived into each piece, seeking out the innermost secrets of their harmonies with a degree of maturity found in only the giants of the keyboard."
- El Mundo, June 2015
"Shostakovitch’s Concerto For Piano And Trumpet was brisker and brassier with motor rhythms and few lyrical moments. It is very technically demanding which Benjamin Grosvenor hardly seemed to notice. The brilliant young pianist gave a terrific account, ably abetted by trumpeter Gareth Small."
- The Argus, May 2015
“An artist with infallible musical instincts and remarkable emotional range”
- Ottawa Citizen, May 2015
"His technical prowess is peerless, as reflected by the ease with which the torrential octaves and arpeggios were tossed off; his inner sensibility and ability to craft breathing lines out of printed notes underline his standing as one of the greatest musicians of our generation."
- The Straits Times, April 2015
"The great soloist Benjamin Grosvenor presented a lyrical, almost playful interpretation [Beethoven Concerto No.3]. Each trill, every sixteenth note was treated by the young British pianist with care. Nevertheless, he did not lose himself in details, but had the whole and its requisite fluctuations of pulse in mind – even in the cadenza. To the extraordinary solo opening of the Largo he brought fragility. Above the bass he floated the melody line, making his right hand sing. And as he whirled with playful ease through the Rondo Finale – the solos dovetailing perfectly with the Tutti entries – a Beethoven of pure bliss unfolded."
- Badische Zeitung, March 2015
"Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor unleashed the subtlest of dynamics and blessed them with just the right tempi during his performance on Monday evening (March 9) at Lincoln Hall at part of Portland Piano International recital’s series. His meticulous artistry brought out the essence of each piece on the program in an intimate way that made listening to the music a life-enhancing experience."
- Northwest Portland, March 2015
"There is no doubt Grosvenor is among the elite of this century’s pianists ... Grosvenor’s performance flickered like a will-o’-the-wisp yet sang at all times, and his beautifully judged pauses, to let Chopin’s periodic feints to a foreign key ring in the air, were nothing short of magical."
- Oregon Arts Watch, March 2015
"Grosvenor is the real deal. In a Sunday recital at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, he demonstrated a rarefied musical sensibility ... Grosvenor’s honeyed tone and mesmeric intensity penetrated to the very heart of this mysterious and ravishing music."
- Boston Globe, March 2015
"Benjamin Grosvenor does not just play the piano. No. He also grafts lungs to his instrument and gives it the breath of a choir; he puts wings onto his instrument and makes it breathe fire. In short, he turns it into fantastical creatures. The young British pianist imparted truly great emotions to subscribers of the Musical Club of Québec, Tuesday night at the Raoul Jobin Hall...such was the level of technical perfection, the interpreter managed so well to vary the different layers that it seemed as if he had a whole orchestra at hand. It was simply phenomenal."
- Le Soleil (Québec), March 2015
"Grosvenor was in his element. First, came four beautifully judged pieces by Chopin, including a honeyed Barcarolle and a lilting Ballade No 3. Then there were three Goya-inspired pieces by Granados. Their mercurial moodswings and narrative drive reinforced the sense that Grosvenor is constantly searching for new things in the music he plays, and that he confidently expects to find them. It’s an attitude that pays off.
- The Guardian, January 2015
"The 22 year old pianist is a genuine talent of the old school, championing music that not everyone bothers to play today and doing so with impressive yet unflashy pianistic flair."
- The Telegraph, January 2015
"Benjamin Grosvenor performed Franz Liszt's lyrical Piano Concert No. 2. The opening, with its shower of sparkling notes, was exquisitely paced, while Grosvenor's cadenzas got pulses racing."
- The Northern Echo, January 2015