Vanessa Benelli Mosell Reviews

VANESSA BENELLI MOSELL | PIANO

Reviews

"The London-trained Italian pianist Vanessa Benelli Mosell has conspicuous musical (and even more conspicuous photogenic) talent, and for a young artist still relatively new to the market it’s understandable that she should to want to showcase it to the max"
Gramophone Magazine, May 2017

"Mosell truly proves herself as a musician"
"Mosell plays through them with impressive ease, meeting every demand for big powerful sound as well as the deepest introspection"
Alex Baron, thewholenote.com, April 2017

"Mosell's set of Scriabin's Op. 11 Preludes is very fine indeed, largely because she's so good at nailing the character of each one."
"They're [Klavierstück XII] irresistible in her hands; each one packed with incident."
"A fabulous anthology, and beautifully recorded too."
theartsdesk.com, 2 July 2016

“Powerful, emotional, romantic and dramatic, she sweeps us along in a dazzling display of assured technique.”
Stephen Pritchard, The Guardian, 29 May 2016

"Glance at the new album from the 28-year-old Italian pianist Vanessa Benelli Mosell, and you might think she’s just another blonde babe seized on by a major label for her looks more than her talent. Look closer and you’ll see the names Scriabin and Stockhausen, an unusual choice of repertoire for a starlet. Listen to the CD and you’ll discover Mosell is a serious artist with a formidable technique and forthright musical personality.”
Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph, 14 May 2016

"Stockhausen is enlivened by bright and enthusiastic reading by Vanessa Benelli Mosell"
"She plays with fearless determination"
"The energy of Vanessa and the visionary of Stockhausen" 
La Repubblica, 2016

"Sound as clear as possible...great technical skills and panache ... great interpretive power ... the energy and enthusiasm which Benelli Mosell has for Stockhausen shows her thorough approach plus the excellent sounding recording makes her contributions worthwhile".
Musicalifeiten, 2016

“She is now the reference point for performances of Stockhausen’s Klavierstücke”
Mamie Pétille, 2016

Stockhausen; Beffa; Stravinsky CD review – Mosell confronts Stockhausen fearlessly
“Mosell confronts this music fearlessly, shaping the smaller-scale pieces … as elegantly as she can, taking their technical challenges in her stride and above all conveying the sense of cutting-edge invention and innovation that is so characteristic of Stockhausen’s early music.”
The Guardian, Andrew Clements, June 2015

“Love & Commitment ... Vanessa Benelli Mosell … keeps her cool with crystal clear sounds ... Benelli Mosell plays Klavierstücke not only with amazing agility, but also allows for example, the beauty of a series of sophisticated overtones resonate. Do you not come closer to Stockhausen?”
5 Stars , De Volkskrant, Biëllla Luttmer, June 2015

Norman Lebrecht Album of the Week
“When was the last time you heard any Stockhausen? Since his death, at the end of 2007, the German avant-gardist's star has fallen in a reverse curve to that of his French comrade, Pierre Boulez. Hardly any Stockhausen is presently available on record, and there are few concerts where the music can be heard. So an album by a young pianist who worked with the composer in his final years is a welcome opportunity to revisit a brave old world that has virtually vanished. … a really clever programme.”
Sinfini, 2015

"...vigorous, impulsive and it evaporated delightfully at the end...Benelli Mosell's piano was very much an equal partner to Barley's cello with the two bringing Janacek's music vividly to life."
www.planethugill.com, Sept 2014

“Liszt is bread and butter to her, making astonishingly light work of his Rhapsodie Espagnole.”
“…dazzling with her technique and surprising with her emotional maturity…”
“…virtuosity, sensibility, panache, however, she has what it takes. Her articulation in particular is outstanding, with every note - Liszt permitting! - clean and precise.”
“…this is a recital worthy of wider attention…”
MusicWeb International, Nov 2012

“She’s 24 and not afraid of Pokofiev’s sonata or Scriabins 1st. Whats more the technique seems to match the ambition. These are very convincing readings, with some LisztandHaydn in between.”
Norman Lebrecht, La Scena Musicale

"...comprehensive naturalness...spontaneous intensity...enviable instrumental fluency..."
"...Listening to her Liszt album you get the impression that this impassioned pianist turns your home into a concert hall, so penetrating and convincing her expressive performances."
"[Benelli] Mosell is clearly a great promise for the future"
De Klassieke Zaken, Dec 2012

” the artist, prodigy of piano technique, seduced the audience”
Il Corriere

"...Benelli Mosell's secure and sophisticated technique..."
Classical Voice of North Carolina

“a remarkably musical and fluent young pianist named Vanessa Benelli Mosell. She held up her end of the tight interplay with complete ease and the fine sense of style. Remember the name.”
New York Post

“...a great talent.”
Washington Post

"Ganz das Gegenteil des finsteren Virtuosen die junge Pianistin Vanessa Benelli Mosell. Sie zeigte ihr Können mit Rachmaninovs "Rhapsodie über ein Thema von Paganini."
Der Westen

“...she is the most natural musical talent I have encountered in my entire life as a musician and teacher”.
French pianist Pascal Rogé

"Vanessa Benelli Mosell has the power to let people appreciate my music."
Composer Karlheinz Stockhausen

This first CD by Italian pianist Vanessa Benelli Mosell …is certainly an impressive programme in every respect…. to open a debut recording with Prokofiev's sarcastic, fiendish Seventh Sonata is a true baptism of fire. Yet Benelli Mosell seems to revel in the densely chromatic, often virtually atonal tumult of much of this Stalin-Award-winning, viciously anti-Stalinist work. To follow that with Liszt's phenomenally virtuosic Rhapsodie Espagnole would be artistic suicide for mere mortals, but Benelli Mosell's arms and fingers, presumably after a good rest, are more than willing, and able, to take on the relentless onslaught of gorgeous notes, and she does so with great panache.
MusicWeb International

"Le jeu de Benelli-Mosell, disons-le tout de suite, se plaît dans ces œuvres puissantes, amples, dans lesquelles la virtuosité arbitraire (celle, par exemple, des premiers Liszt) cède le pas à une virtuosité nécessaire, celle imposée par la musique elle-même. Celle de Prokofiev et du Liszt de la Rhapsodie espagnole, des œuvres d’essence orchestrale où les plans sonores dégagent mille sonorités opposées et dix mille timbres colorés. Dans Haydn, elle s’attelle à faire surgir la puissance du discours au-delà de l’apparente simplicité du discours – car c’est là la sonate la plus tragique de Haydn. Enfin, son Scriabine déborde de diaboliques déliquescences névrosées. Vanessa Benelli-Mosell, une jeune pianiste à suivre de près, maintenant qu’elle a assuré ses débuts sur une majorité de grandes scènes internationales."
Abeille Musique

"Sparkling technique in demanding music", "She leaves no doubt of her enviable facility throughout this, her ultrademanding debut Album", "Dextrous and cool-headed, she launches into Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata at a cracking pace...she is off like a rocket in the drum-beat 7/8 Priceipitato finale, remarkably maintanining her impetus in the ever-widening leaps of the closing pages."
Gramophone Magazine

"Benelli Mosell has chosen a demanding program that shows her remarkable talents and exploits the potential of the piano to the fullest. Furthermore, a precision of high purity technique and a chamaleon ability to match each one of the different styles and moods of the programme."
Melomano

"Challenging program chosen by Vanessa Benelli Mosell for her début album. Works that require it remarkable technical skills beyond sensitivity of interpretation. Armed with a prestigious curriculum that places her among the most talented pianists of our age, the young Vanessa securely tackles this challenge by offering high-level performances."
SUONO

“…This is a promising début recital, showing flashes of inspiration and virtuosity. Young female contemporaries might just have a contender waiting in the wings.”
International Record Review

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