"This is a singularly impressive recital, both for the choice of music - a mixed programme that works very well as a continuous listen ... in which the performances are really quite compelling. Such commanding interpretations are made the more so by the musicians being ideally recorded ... This is a spectacularly fine disc of unhackneyed repertoire in richly expressive performances"
INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW
"Vilde Frang delivers new excellence for EMI ... For the duo sonatas she's teamed with a pianist who shares her perceptive musicianship - an ability to find the right shape for every phrase - as well as her polished technique ... In the Bartok I was immediately struck by Frang's fine rhythmic sense and varied tonal palette. Her playing has the necessary physicality for Bartok, without ever appearing forced ... overall it's a top class performance and, indeed, the whole programme is clearly a winner"
GRAMOPHONE
"Vilde Frang's micro-sensitive responses to dynamic, articulation and phrasing .... prove a revelation in the heady opulence of the Strauss, which has never sounded so urgently seductive or expressively supple on disc ... Bartok's scorching amalgam of ethnic folksong, Baroque formal procedures and precipitous musical interfaces inspires Frang to astonishing levels of majestic virtuosity ... Another outstanding disc from Frang, who makes even the most well-worn phrases sound as though they have just arrived freshly minted from the composer's creative workshop"
CLASSICAL FM MAGAZINE "EDITOR'S CHOICE"
"The charm begins immediately. The originality of tone (something so precious nowadays) , a heightened virtuosity and a deep sensitivity amaze us in the first Grieg sonata ... On the piano Michail Lifits is no less stunning: energetic, inspired and impish. Their dialogue in the only sonata by Richard Strauss is effervescent ... one follows the two partners with passion throughout the recording. [In the Sonata for Solo Violin by Bartok] the search of timbres and the exploration of contrasting sound worlds demands admiration, the audacity of her playing rivals the most prestigious recordings by Menuhin and Gitlis ... Exceptional!"
DIAPASON MAGAZINE "DIAPASON D'OR"
“Frang plays with astonishing dexterity and musicianship, putting paid to the notion that only Hungarian musicians can play Bartok with any real understanding. This is a quite compelling performance”
MUSO MAGAZINE
"Hier präsentiert sich ein grandioses Duo, das die lebensbejahende wie hochdramatische Intensität bestechend mit Dramatik zu füllen weiss. Gerade die Strauss'sche wird berauschend austariert, bedacht als echte Duo-Form ausgekostet - mit bestechender Virtuosität inklusive"
ENSEMBLE
"In allen drei Stücken klingt Frang's ungebrochene Freude am satten Ton durch, dessen unmittelbaren Glanz sie aber vielfach abzutönen und höchst kultiviert einzusetzen versteht ... Bartok's Solosonate macht sie zum dramatischen, vehement ausformulierten Monolog, die verschiedenen Charactere der vier Satze nahezu zornig verdeutlichend. Und die Strauss-sonate klingt so, als habe der Komponist sie ihr auf den Leib geschrieben: Furios, schwungvoll und die Kraft- und Vitalitätsgesten dieser Musik lustvoll auskostend"
HARALD EGGEBRECHT, SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG
Prokofiev & Sibelius: Violin Concertos (2009)
"A bright future beckons for Vilde Frang with this impressive debut"
GRAMOPHONE
"An unusually searching interpreter of the Sibelius concerto: rarely has this music sounded so tender, so intimate or so lyrical"
FINANCIAL TIMES
"Frang heralds one of the freshest and most vital accounts of this familiar and frequently recorded work in recent years"
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
"Vilde Frang plays as though the inner soul of Sibelius's music is being revealed for the very first time ... A luminously engineered disc that is surely bound for classic status"
THE STRAD RECOMMENDS
"Vilde Frang, who is going to be very big, indeed ... opens Sibelius with the iciest wisp of evanescent sound, announcing a major new force on the strings front ... Frang is my hot tip for 2010"
NORMAN LEBRECHT in "LA SCENA MUSICALE"
"Vilde Frang's music making here is distinguished by care, character and a communicative spirit all at the service of a refreshing search for musical truth rather than self-regarding virtuosity. This sense of quest registers with an unforced maturity and conviction well beyond her years"
