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"Laplante’s
is a formidable virtuosity guided by a rare musical intelligence"
Toronto Globe and Mail
"the highlight was Canadian pianist André Laplante’s blazing traversal of
Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3… his hands often look like a one-man ballet
troupe.... this performance won a richly deserved standing ovation."
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
"Laplante
has an immense technique which he uses only to make points such as are called
for. Everything he plays is intensely musical."
The Vancouver Sun
"...brilliantly played by André Laplante...What a tour de force!"
[Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 Montreal Symphony Orchestra]
Toronto Globe and Mail
"...bone deep musical sensibility; a perfection of detail in the meaningful
context of the whole. Nothing, neglected, nothing inflated, and everything
brimming with life....I am in no doubt he (Laplante) is among the master
pianists."
[Mozart Piano Concerto in A Maj. K 414, Via Salzburg Chamber Orchestra]
Toronto Globe and Mail
"Laplante...strode on stage with Lisztian hair and convincing command of a wide
range of repertoire...Liszt...perfect for a pianist with the flair and fingers
of Laplante”
Fort Worth Star Telegram
"The sweeping power of Laplante and his ability to articulate the melody and
accompaniment played simultaneously by the single hand were remarkable."
[Ravel Piano Concerto for Left Hand Buffalo Philharmonic]
The Buffalo News
"...such a performance is almost a miracle ... I shall remember for a long time
with what effectiveness André Laplante fashioned the sonoric material and
succeeded to keep the most forceful passages of an incredible clarity."
[Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 L'Orchestre Symphonique de Québec]
Le Soleil
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André Laplante, piano
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, April 2012 [pdf]
"the highlight was Canadian pianist André Laplante’s blazing traversal of
Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3"
"His fingers sprint, leapfrog and tumble with almost supernatural ease through
this showpiece’s devilish runs. In the galloping second variation of the Tema
con variazioni and in the concerto’s explosive finale, his hands often look like
a one-man ballet troupe."
Newark
Star-Ledger, October 2011 [pdf]
"Laplante asserted an ample, orchestral sound and built suspense as he
intrepidly scaled the range of the piano. Without becoming overly sentimental,
Laplante imparted dreamy, downy sound to the reflective music of the second
movement.... The swarming strings and ripping brass the NJSO brought to the
allegro vivace were a fine match for Laplante's liquid steel timbre and the
considerable skill he brought to its pianistic demands."
Toronto Globe and Mail,
August 2010 [pdf]
"Although Laplante’s is a formidable virtuosity guided by a rare musical
intelligence, his art is not intellectual so much as visionary." And "He did it
again Tuesday night at his sold-out Toronto Summer Music Festival Concert at
MacMillan Theatre."
The Wholenote, June 2010 [pdf] CD review
"André Laplante by now can be referred to as Canada’s ‘national treasure’. He is
a well established artist especially in the Romantic repertoire and has a
worldwide reputation with critics comparing him sometimes to Richter and
Horowitz. This new recording for the Analekta label tackles Liszt in an
ambitious, rarely recorded program of the first book of the 21 year old Liszt’s
romantic wanderings with Countess Marie d’Agoult... To capture the many layered
complexities of this set, Laplante is the ideal choice and this recording shows
it."
Toronto Globe and Mail,
November 2009 [pdf]
"André Laplante and Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, the ideal pairing of master
pianist and masterpiece, superbly supported by Sir Andrew Davis, himself a
master accompanist among conductors, crowned the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's
Wednesday concert.... Many gifted and highly trained virtuosi can manage the
Emperor Concerto, but few can fulfill it with the lofty command and perfect
discretion of Laplante”
[Toronto Symphony, Beethoven Concerto #5]
Ken Winters, The Globe and Mail, November 2009
"Laplante has an immense technique which he uses only to make points such as are
called for. Everything he plays is intensely musical. The Beethoven Waldstein
Sonata was an exclamation mark in the program. Chopin's wild B-flat minor
sonata...was thrilling. It had urgency and colour. The trio of that famous
funeral march wasn't played sweetly but eerily, as it should be, and the famous
minute or so of the finale...was light, racing and fantastic."
[Chopin Society, Magee Auditorium, Vancouver]
Lloyd Dykk, The Vancouver Sun, 2006
"...bone deep musical sensibility; a perfection of detail in the meaningful
context of the whole. Nothing, neglected, nothing inflated, and everything
brimming with life....I am in no doubt he (Laplante) is among the master
pianists." [Via Salzburg
Chamber Orchestra - Mayumi Seiler, artistic director, Mozart Piano Concerto in A
major, K. 414]
Ken Winters, The Globe and Mail, 2006
"...brilliantly played by André Laplante...What a tour de force!"
[Montreal Symphony Orchestra - Kent Nagano, Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2]
Alan Conter, The Globe and Mail, Toronto October 2005
"Beethoven's Emperor truly is music that nourishes the soul, and---with the
exceptional pianism, thoughtfulness and expressive depth of this guest
artist---proved uplifting in every way...
...Laplante surely is one of the great romantic pianists of the era. Bringing
the virtuoso's technical wizardry and dramatic flair to an icon of the high
classic era can yield extraordinary results, as it did last night.... Laplante's
playing proved characteristically awe-inspiring; he is capable of delivering the
softest, most elegant trill as well as unleashing the most thunderous double-flated
outbursts from top to bottom (and back) of the keyboard.... Yet it is a
technique fully at the beck and call of an artistic sensibility in the grandest
sense...Music-making of which memories are made."
[Columbus Symphony Orchestra - Alessandro Siciliani, Beethoven's Piano Concerto
No. 5 "Emperor"]
Aaron Beck , Columbus Review, March 2005
"I have never heard Laplante play better than he played this music Saturday
night, using the Fazioli's responsiveness to a soft attack to turn the Andantino
into a profoundly introspective experience. Here was a master pianist at the top
of his form."
[Toronto Symphony Orchestra - Peter Oundjian, Mozart Piano Concerto No. 9 in
E-flat Major, K. 271]
William Littler, The Toronto Star, January 2005
"Laplante's meticulously considered pallette was in flawless synchronization
with the formal considerations of the piece, sensuous and sensitive playing..."
[Vancouver Chopin Society Recital, Queen Elizabeth Playhouse]
David Gordon Duke, The Vancouver Sun, October 2004
" Laplante...strode on stage with Lisztian hair and convincing command of a wide
range of repertoire...Haydn...one sensed, as is usually the case with
particularly fine interpreters of music of the classical era, the undercurrent
of gathering revolution....Liszt...perfect for a pianist with the flair and
fingers of Laplante...Laplante closed with the equally difficult but far
different demands of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy...successfully conveying a
particularly stormy, often mournful side of Schubert.
[TCU Cliburn Institute's Master Recital Series, Fort Worth, Texas]
Wayne Lee Gay, Fort Worth Star Telegram, June 2004
" Laplante is not only a great pianist, but also a great musician, aurally
absolutely inside the music's fabric and momentum. He played as Brahms himself
might have played."
[Glenn Gould Studio: Onstage Series, Toronto, Brahms Piano Quintet with the St.
Lawrence String Quartet]
Ken Winters, The Globe and Mail, October 2003
"Unalloyed pleasure is a given, when you hear Laplante. A fastidious artist he
is, but never soberly academic....Laplante responds with the freshness of first
discovery."
[Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra - Imre Pallo, Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2]
James Manishen, Winnipeg Free Press, March 2003
Victoria Symphony - Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini
"...hearing it played by a pianist with the technique and sensibilities of
Laplante can be...revalatory....the range of dynamics and tone colours Laplante
produced was little short of astonishing."
Deryk Barker, Times Colonist, Victoria, December 2002
A440 Concert Series, Eckhardt-Gramatte Hall, Calgary
" Laplante evokes a world, now nearly past, in which a concert is a serious
artistic event...Laplante always chooses important works, full of significant
musical content...Laplante's listening ears are surely among the best in the
business when it comes to nuance and tonal gradation, and his voyage into the
emotional world of this music was nothing short of magic."
Kenneth DeLong, Calgary Herald, February 2002
Edmonton Symphony Orchestra - Grzegorz Nowak
Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3
"Andre Laplante played the work splendidly, making those florid, dizzyingly
rapid passages appropriately glittering, while the tender moments had real poise
and thoughfulness."
D.T. Baker, THe Edmonton Journal, January 2001
Buffalo Philharmonic - Jorge Mester
Ravel Piano Concerto for Left Hand
"The sweeping power of Laplante and his ability to articulate the melody and
accompaniment played simultaneously by the single hand were remarkable."
Herman Trotter, The Buffalo News, July 1999
L'Orchestre Symphonique de Québec - Kees Bakels
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3
"...such a performance is almost a miracle ... I shall remember for a long time
with what effectiveness André Laplante fashioned the sonoric material and
succeeded to keep the most forceful passages of an incredible clarity."
Richard Boisvert, Le Soleil (Québec), February 1999
UBC Music at the Chan Series Recital
" Laplante's playing...was both technically awesome and time-stoppingly
beautiful."
Lloyd Dykk, The Vancouver Sun, February 1999
Glenn Gould Studio Recital, Toronto
" Laplante proved once again why he is one of Canada's most highly regarded
pianists...He is one of those rare soloists whose every effort is aimed at
serving the music...immense musical intelligence."
Christopher Hume, The Toronto Star, April 1996
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