SaleemAshkar
Press
Musical Bridges Recital
Manzoni Auditorium, BolognaMar 2023We are faced with a meticulous sound craftsman and a great artist. Saleem Ashkar polishes each note with pumice stone until it sparkles. Every single sound shines with a brilliant brilliance. It is a succession of perfect sound marbles, one after the other, as in a cascade of pearls bouncing on the floor. Each note is intelligible, linked to the previous and the next as if none of those impulsive rebounds were given to chance.
Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor
Atlanta Symphony OrchestraJan 2022Ashkar’s playing was outstanding — rhythmically solid and supple, with crystalline phrasing and no fat, no excess, in his sound. For a concerto that seems to attract kitsch and glitter, his approach made it sound clean and modern. [...] In the cadenza, near the end of the opening movement, Ashkar made the flamboyant Lisztian declaration of the main theme heroic and triumphant, but with an undercurrent of self-doubt. For all the grandiosity, you could feel his inward contemplation. Throughout the concerto, Ashkar found these sorts of new facets, and rarely plumbed depths, in this familiar music.
- Arts Atl
- 31 January 2022
Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 2
St Louis Symphony OrchestraJan 2020The lovely melodies from the composer seem to flow from his head down to his fingers in such a way that, as the program notes, he seems to have three hands… nobody does Mendelssohn better than Ashkar.
- St Louis Today
- 31 January 2020
Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor
Bournemouth Symphony OrchestraOct 2018Grieg’s Piano Concerto drew a powerful [...] account from Saleem Ashkar [Ashkar brought a] Mozartean clarity with a diamond-bright tone at the forefront of his armoury.
- Classical Source
- 01 November 2018
Saleem Ashkar delivered a poised and pleasingly nuanced performance of the ever-popular Grieg Piano Concerto. I was particularly appreciative of Ashkar’s delicacy and sensibility through the lovely Adagio central movement.
- Seen and Heard
- 02 November 2018
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1
Melbourne Symphony OrchestraSep 2017[Ashkar's] Adagio and finale impressed for his insight and vigour respectively.
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- 01 October 2017