Reviews |
Carl's concerts receive a lot of press attention and his performances are featured in local and international magazines. Below a selection of reviews by respected magazines and critics. "Friedrich von Flotow (1812-1883), composer of Martha and protector of Offenbach. Here are two piano concertos that concise a whimsical virtuosity worthy of Weber. The Concerto No. 2 in four movements with it's Allegro Marziale emphasized snare rolls deserves to get out of oblivion. Brilliant performance thanks to the young Swedish pianist Carl Petersson. Five Stars." "Youngish pianist Carl Petersson, approaching 30 when he made this recording in 2010, certainly has the facility that the idiom demands, offering performances of tremendous verve and transparency. He’s got the textural control to allow the busiest music to emerge cleanly (say, “In the Streets of Old Batavia,” where the bazaars offer a “kaleidoscopic, multifarious conglomeration of humans [that] bewilders even the most seasoned globe-trotter”); he has enviable control of repeated notes (most evident in “Chattering Monkeys at the Sacred Lake of Wendit”); and he’s got the stamina and power to splash out the most dramatic climaxes (listen to the very end of the cycle). An impressive performance. [...] This new disc offers a significant alternative to the Budiardjo. [...] The scorching account of Horowitz’s elaboration of Liszt’s elaboration of Saint-Saëns’s Danse Macabre (itself an elaboration of an earlier song) makes a splendid encore, and the performances are captured in good, if not state-of-the-art, sound. [...] Recommended." "Classical suite of the month [Java Suite]. Petersson paints up chattering monkeys, ruins in the moonlight, volcanoes, gardens and streets with brio and elegance for more than 45 fascinating minutes. Extraordinary piano music." "Carl Petersson is good [in the Java Suite]. His playing is captivating, and he is good in introspective music. He should give the Debussy Preludes a go. In his playing of the Danse Macabre he certainly executes the showman element of the piece effectively." "Lovely music! By all means, Flotow's second concerto is a discovery. And it is much due to Petersson's spirited interpretation." "Congratulations to Mr Petersson, whose ability to render these fiendishly difficult tone pictures [Godowsky's Java Suite] with charm and grace I greatly admire." "Carl Petersson plays these little known concerti to perfection with great sensitivity, and a precision ideally suited to Flotow's transparent scores. Hopefully, we will be hearing more from this talented young performer." "Nothing could have prepared Flotow's teachers for this work. It may well be the first piano concerto written in four-movement symphonic form, and its opening Andantino, with the piano immediately picking up and expanding a short minor-key orchestral cell, seems to point forward to Brahms, who wasn't even born yet. [...] Pianist Carl Petersson and the Pilsen Philharmonic play with a fine sense of the young composer's ebullience in a nice feat of rediscovery." "Carl Petersson is a name to remember. I have heard many pianists, but never any one like this when it comes to play brilliantly, elegantly and yet with so much musicality. When he performed Alkan's Scherzo diabolico I thought that only Carl Petersson can play like this." "Intriguing and pleasant. Carl Petersson performs the concertos in a spirited and rythmically bouyant way. He makes a fine advocat for both works." "The piano concertos recently rediscovered by Carl Petersson are very charming works, full of ingenuity and energy. Witty, inventive and surprising." "Peterson impresses with an amazing ease of executing these demanding pieces [Godowsky's Java Suite]. It is a phenomenal display of virtuoso piano playing." "Carl Peterson goes on in his career as a concert pianist and is now engaged in the Polish American pianist and composer Leopold Godowsky. I have not seen the score to his Java Suite, but can imagine that the staff lines are really packed. Anyway, Carl Petersson delivers in a convincing and fascinating way." "Petersson emphasizes Godowsky. A different kind of disc that honors both the executor and the record company." "Carl Petersson gave an explosive concert with a firework of tones in a concert that started with Chopin, then wandered to Schumann, Liszt, Godowsky and Saint-Saëns." "The Piano Virtuoso Carl Petersson mixes the known with the unknown and then adds brilliant acrobatics to wake the audiences curiosity and awe." "Somehow Carl Petersson got the huge Steinway to sound like a cembalo while performing some of Scarlatti's sonatas. Albeniz's Iberia was undoubtedly performed in a Spanish way and in Horowitz "Danse Macabre" his fingers flew over the keys in a powerful and twisted fresque on the power of Death. Overwhelming and impressive." "Two enjoyable piano concertos which Helsingborg's Carl Petersson presents with honor. The disc proves that there is much more about Flotow than just Martha." "To my mind, not only is his playing endowed with unordinary virtuosity, standing out even in this times of pianists instrumental proficiency, but - more importantly - it is graced by elegance, taste, sense of style, and unforced Romantic grandeur. Given these qualities, it is but natural that Mr. Petersson is especially - indeed, spectacularly - convincing in the works by composer-pianists of the late 19th - early 20th centuries." "Carl Petersson presented Camille Saint-Saëns 5th piano concerto in a truly fabulous and ekvilibristic way. His steel hard fingers with their pliable touch, lightning speed and awareness of lyrical frases is difficult to exceed." "That he masters overabundance he showed in three movements of Godowsky's Java Suite. Eruptive outbreakes, dazzling contrasts and menacing passages. Virtuosity!" |