Press

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  22 Oct 19 70th Birthday Solo Recital Last three Schubert Sonatas
  Wigmore Hall

  “There is perfection in the way that profound sadness is finally transcended by a shift into heavenly major-key light [in D960], and it needs equal perfection, anchoring and inwardness in the playing… Cooper achieved those qualities at the most profound level.”

  ★★★★★

  David Nice, The Arts Desk, October 2019

  “…music-making of this calibre transports us to another plane of existence…”

  ★★★★★

  Barry Millington, Evening Standard, October 2019

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  13 Sep 19 Iberia y Francia CD release Chandos Records
  

  “[Albéniz works] Piquant, understated, with a sultry heat that smoulders rather than bursting into flame, these are compelling performances informed by the palette of Goya and undergirded with an inerrantly zesty rhythmic élan… For some bottom-line terrific piano playing and programming that inflames the imagination, I suggest you set your internal default to luxe, calme et volupté and prepare for departure. A wonderful journey awaits.”

  ‘Editor’s Choice’

  Patrick Rucker, Gramophone Magazine, September 2019

  “Cooper gives vitality and style to four pieces from Albéniz’s hot, atmospheric Iberia suite and two Canción y Danza by Mompou. A favourite from this recital disc is her account of Debussy’s L’isle joyeuse, played with crystalline precision and dreamy freedom.”

  Fiona Maddocks, The Guardian, September 2019

  “Cooper’s pianism has a rare refinement, and is hyper-sensitive to the composers’ demands… The whole thing is studded with lovely moments: the muted sweetness of ‘Rumores de la Caleta’, the sparkling arpeggiations of ‘Alborada del gracioso’, the seductive languor of ‘Soirée dans Grenade’, the rapt simplicity of Mompou’s sixth ‘Danza’ the graceful liberation of L’isle Joyeuse. Brava!

  ★★★★★

  Michael Church, BBC Music Magazine, November 2019

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  09 Mar 19 Beethoven CD release Chandos Records
  

  “Imogen Cooper describes the work as ‘a wonderful journey’… and that is what overwhelmingly comes over in her superb recording… from Variation 29 to the end of the work it all segues like one meditation. Cooper never goes for effect per se: her goal is purely expressiveness.”

  Performance: *****
  Recording: *****
  ‘Instrumental Choice’

  Michael Church, BBC Music Magazine, May 19

  “[Bagatelles Op. 119] It takes real artistry to apply such subtle variations of expressive pressure from phrase to phrase as Cooper delights in. Every detail here is patiently appreciated and gracefully addressed: neither self-regardingly spelt out nor diminishing pieces to the status of a mere appetiser.”

  David Fanning, Gramophone magazine, May 2019

  “She brings drama to the [Diabelli Variations] allegro pesante e risoluto (No 9) and a rapt unfolding of Beethoven’s most profound thought in the three slow variations (Nos 29-31), which comprise the emotional climax of the piece. Cooper’s technical command and musical insights are up there with those of her mentor, Alfred Brendel, or Stephen Kovacevich, and her thoughtful, melancholy delivery of the famous, enigmatic Für Elise is a delectable encore.”

  Album of the Week, Hugh Canning, The Times, 17 March 19

  “This is something special. It shouldn’t be surprising to anyone following Imogen Cooper’s superb series of albums for Chandos in recent years, but Cooper exemplifies here again a lifetime of experience and depth of execution in the classical solo repertoire… When all is done, there is a sense of greatness here; of the performer, who knows the ins and outs of the score but resists the temptation to lecture it; of the composer and, most importantly, the greatness of the composition, a testament to a great artist at play.”

  Tal Agam, The Classical Review, 9 March 2019

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  26 Jan 19 MOZART Piano Concerto No. 25, K503 BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Ben Gernon
  Bridgewater Hall

  “…she responded by bringing both gentleness and gentility to the piano’s second subject, and they shared a suave and aristocratic saunter through the keys in the fantasy.”

  Robert Beale, The Arts Desk, 29 January 2019

   

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  09 Nov 18 Solo Recital Haydn, Adès, Beethoven, Schubert
  Philadelphia

  “She is a great believer in the power of the line – the feeling of pushing through a phrase to the end. A silken, rich sense of melody took listeners happily through the first moments of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in A Flat Major, Opus 110, and throughout the rest of the first movement. And then there is her rich middle-register sense of sound, so deeply satisfying.”

  Peter Dobrin, The Inquirer, 9 November 2018

  “Ms. Cooper managed, without resorting to interpretative idiosyncrasy, to shine on the three classical works on her program – works I thought I knew well – a light that revealed aspects of them I had not previously been conscious of. Part of the reason for this was, again, intense concentration on harmonic pulse, enhanced by a truly rare and meticulous balancing of melodic lines with inner parts that too often go unheard. Coupled with the lambent tone she drew from the piano, rhythm blessedly flexible yet always lucid, and a quicksilver touch with embellishments, she made Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert all sound like their familiar selves yet at the same time refreshingly new.”

  Bernard Jacobson, Seen and Heard International, 8 November 2018

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  26 Jun 18 Solo Recital Beethoven Diabelli Variations
  Wigmore Hall

  “Imogen Cooper’s are very much the right hands, containing a rare, refined artistry that only continues to grow with the years… The culminating fugue powered along, indomitable, before the final moment of anguish that ushers in a last, transcendental minuet. This was expertly shaped and finally left us hovering in mid air, almost scared to breathe.”

  Jessica Duchen, The Arts Desk, 28 June 2018

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  17 Mar 18 Solo Recital
  Wigmore Hall

  “The highlight of Cooper’s recital was her marvellously poised, richly intoned account of Haydn’s Sonata in E flat, a work in which concision and structural breadth — as also deep surprise and insouciant inevitability — are exactly matched.”

  Paul Driver, The Sunday Times, 25 March 2018

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  18 Aug 17 BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 2 Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Simone Young
  

  “Cooper is known for her poetic interpretations of Schubert… and she brought that poetry, along with elegance and plenty of heft when needed, to her performance of Beethoven’s second piano concerto.”
  Steve Moffatt, Daily Telegraph, 21 August 2017

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  03 Jun 17 MOZART Piano Concerto No. 25 K. 503 Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle
  

  “Cooper’s fine understanding of sound is characterised by brilliance and precision.”
  Berliner Morgenpost, 3 June 2017

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  01 May 17 Liszt & Wagner CD release Chandos Records
  

  “Cooper’s keyboard mastery is as searching as the music itself: the whirling bravura of the Deuxième valse oubliée and Bagatelle sans tonalité has their harmonic world sounding astonishingly forward-looking. Her way of balancing chords mesmerises the ear – both in the consonant close of Sposalizio (whose poised opening is exquisitely delivered) and the strangely dissonant final bars of Il penseroso. This is altogether exceptional music making” ★★★★★
  Malcolm Hayes, BBC Music Magazine, May 2017

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  25 Apr 17 BACH Week Festival review
  

  Music of the Baroque
  Conductor: Jane Glover
  MOZART Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major K503

  “Cooper has long been one of the world’s most eloquent and stylish Mozarteans, like her teacher, Alfred Brendel. Yet her approach to the C major concerto was very much her own — forthright in formal outline, firm yet elegant in tone, crystalline in articulation and chordal voicing, sensitive to the subtlest inflections of rubato, color and dynamics. Cooper and Glover’s shared sensibility worked entirely to the benefit of this most grandly symphonic of Mozart’s final keyboard concertos.”
  John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune, 25 April 2017

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  17 Jun 16 CHOPIN CD Release Chandos Records
  

  “In the quieter lyrical passages [Polonaise-fantaisie] she finds a rare poignancy that I find most affecting – and indeed it is this element that is a constant feature of Cooper’s playing. She has always been rightly lauded for her luminous, rich tone and it is deployed telling in Op 61 and the two late Nocturnes which follow.”
  Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone

  ★★★★★ “Atmospheres are intense, intimate, turbulent and dreamlike by turns; and Cooper injects every note with strength of personality”
  Jessica Duchen, BBC Music Magazine (Instrumental Choice), September 2016

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  08 May 16
  The Frick Collection, New York

  “After intermission came Schubert’s Sonata in B flat (D. 960), a broadly paced, tightly structured work. Still, it has within it many fleeting gestures similar to Schumann’s: notably, those seemingly heaven-sent incursions of lyricism in the Andante sostenuto. After the wonderful first two movements, the third and fourth can, in the wrong hands, sound empty and rattling by comparison. Ms. Cooper sustained attention admirably, adding rhythmic interest with subtle touches of rubato … Many performances of this sonata prove memorable for the beauty of individual moments. This one stood out in making the work a satisfying whole.”
  James R. Oestreich, The New York Times, 10 May 2016

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  23 Sep 15 ROBERT SCHUMANN CD release Chandos Records
  

  “… for many years now, Imogen Cooper has reaped glowing reviews and the profound admiration of her colleagues, but have we, as a nation, really awakened to the fact that we have here not only a very distinguished but a truly great pianist? Why is she not ‘damed’? A CBE is not sufficient honour. True, she’s a woman, and woman pianists are still short-changed, but greatness, human or musical, transcends gender. Pianistically alone, Cooper commands a dynamic and colouristic range beyond most pianists. She understands that musical, like verbal, speech acquires eloquence and continuity though the close, asymmetrical juxtapositions of extreme but varied contrasts – as in any polysyllabic word. Nowhere is this truer than in Schumann…” ★★★★★
  BBC Music Magazine (Instrumental Choice), November 2015

  “Every musical twist and emotional turn is negotiated with deftness and insight, and the (Snape Maltings) recording is of demonstration quality.” ★★★★★
  Classical Music Magazine, October 2015

  ” … Cooper remains one of the sovereign pianists:
  everything she touches exudes integrity, the highest understanding coupled with a melting beauty of sound. Witness the superb articulation within a perfectly
  Schumannesque  soundworld of the opening
  F-sharp minor Novelette, and the amazing sense of rightness … ”
  International Piano Magazine (International Piano Choice) Nov/Dec 15

  “This is the third of Imogen Cooper’s discs centred around Schumann for Chandos and the first wholly devoted to Robert. It’s a fascinatingly programmed affair, taking us from his youthful Abegg Variations right to the end of his life and the Geistervariationen … Everything Cooper does speaks of long acquaintance and real empathy. She opens with the extended Eighth Novellette, which is full of tenderness, passion and humour and never sounds overbearing in the louder passages.”
  Harriet Smith, Gramophone, October 2015

  ” … this new discographic landmark takes its place among the most balanced of Schumann’s Keyboard works.”
  Michel Le Naour, p109 Classica Magazine, December 2015

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  18 May 15 Schubert Piano Trios With Adrian Brendel and Henning Kraggerud
  

  “The performance was characterised by moments of great delicacy and tenderness in which the music spoke for itself. The Scherzo was a frivolous, lighthearted affair in which the musicians seemed to be having fun, with its plaintive trio providing a delicate contrast. Kragarrud started off the Rondo in fine style with Imogen Cooper taking over from him, her fingers scurrying up and down the keyboard. This was a fast, ebullient movement with melody after melody pouring forth and tremendous rapport between the three players.”
  Seen & Heard International, 20 May 2015

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  07 May 15 Mozart Piano Concertos No. 17 and 24 Seattle Symphony
  

  “Cooper herself is an exemplary example of how Mozart is best played today, discerning and expressing every nuance without overdoing it, portraying emotion with restraint, and introspection lightly carried though clearly present. The lighthearted charm of the first and last movements of No. 17 were contrasted with that restraint and introspection in the slow movement, where the orchestra gave light accompaniment to the outward serenity combined with inner depth of Cooper’s playing.”
  Philippa Kiraly, The Seattle Times, 8 May 2015 

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  06 Jan 15 ROBERT & CLARA SCHUMANN CD Release
  

  “This disc contains some very distinguished Schumann playing…the understanding, individuality and poetic refinement in Cooper’s playing, and the inclusion of piano music by the composer’s wife is a fascinating broadening of our listening experience.”
  International Record Review, Jan 2015

  “Cooper asserts her stylistic credentials right at the start of the disc in Robert’s Humoreske, playing with a warm, golden tone … Cooper’s articulation is clearly defined but also effectively varied in touch and colour; her phrasing in the more meditative music is mellifluous, a quality that beautifully spills over into the F sharp major Romanze.”
  Geoffrey Norris, Saturday Telegraph 14 February 2015

  “In madcap structure, imagination, ambition and sheer wealth of ideas, Schumann’s Humoresque and Sonata No Op 11 are among his most fascinating works … Cooper allows them to cohere naturally through the sheer élan with which she imbues them.  Fresh and inspiring … a rich, empathetic and beautifully calibrated recital.” ★★★★
  BBC Music Magazine, March 2015