Sample reviews

Božena Steinerová and Liszt’s Vallée d’Obermann | Thoughts following a Recital at the Hungarian Institute, Prague, 11. 4. 2012

We know, of course we know, that the Vallée d’Obermann does not exist except in the creative mind of the writer, Senancour.  And yet this remote valley of the imagination, with its dreamed-for solitary aspect, its lakes and rushing streams, its promise of respite for the soul of a Wanderer, was brought to life in the most extraordinary way by Božena Steinerová.

It is true that Liszt’s greatest works have suffered at the hands of a never-ending procession of pianists anxious to reveal to the public their own technical prowess through his compositions, thereby not fully revealing to the audience a sense of the composer’s meaning. But with Steinerová a magnificent technique is only a starting point; the technique is the servant and also the communicator of a powerful intelligence and an imagination of great depth: a combination which elevates this Czech virtuoso to the highest level of artistic achievement in public performance.

Steinerová acted as a conjuror, creating as if without effort a magical tapestry of evolving sounds and colours which spread out to cross every dynamic range. This world of sound was itself shot through with jangling, cimbalom-like overtones as Liszt’s harmonic language refers simultaneously to an ancient music and points to the future to the works of Bartók and Kodály. Within this glittering backdrop she brought to life or rather, she dragged and pulled into existence powerful, breathing melodies as if they had emerged from a deep lake, rising to the sky so that we, the audience, were able to survey the dramatic panorama of Obermann’s valley as if portrayed in a landscape as depicted by John Martin.

The performance of this work was a passionate act of creation which can only confirm Božena Steinerová as one of the great and most imaginative interpreters of Liszt. One looks forward to hearing her perform the Sonata and Chasse-Neige and I for one would travel a long way to hear these.

Geoffrey Chacaro,
Pianist, Writer

Successo della serata musicale organizzata dall’Associazione ex allievi con la pianista Božena Steinerová
Un’altra serata musicale è stata organizzata dall’Associazione ex allievi della Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, riscuotendo un ampio successo. All’inizio del concerto è stato osservato un minuto di silenzio in memoria della Shoah, proprio in occasione del sessantesimo Anniversario della liberazione di Auschwitz. Durante la serata, la nota pianista praghese Božena Steinerová ha regalato al folto pubblico della Chiesa di Sant’Anna momenti di elevato virtuosismo ed atmosfere riflessive che hanno emozionato la platea. Conosciuta a livello internazionale per il suo impegno concertistico e per l’intensa attività d’insegnamento svolta in diversi paesi europei, Božena Steinerová vanta un repertorio musicale ampio ed impegnativo che spazia dagli autori classici del Settecento e Ottocento ai più noti compositori contemporanei. Il programma ha unito pagine musicali di grande difficoltà tecnico-pianistica, come la sesta sonata di Prokofiev, a brani di notevole profondità musicale come Vallée d’Obermann di Liszt e la sonata in fa minore di Brahms. In quest’ultima il pregevole controllo dei livelli sonori e timbrici, associato alla piena consapevolezza dei riferimenti culturali e poetici dell’opera (Sternau, Joachim, Schumann), hanno determinato un esito musicale di raro valore e maturità artistica.

Ich habe selten eine so hinreißend überzeugende Musiksprache gehört, eine so ehrliche Darstellungskraft und ein so animalisch instinktsicheres Temperament.

Mittelbayerische Zeitung

Schon lange hat man nicht mehr solchen virtuosen Schwung, solch stupende Technik, solch herrischen Zugriff gehört.

Eichstätter Kurier

Als Pianistin von kraftvoller Bravur, technischer Souveränität und klagüppiger Anschlagskultur stellte sich die Pianistin Bozena Steinerova vor.

Der Tagesspiegel

 

Nowadays her touch has as much orchestral sounding fortissimo, and both lyrical shades melodious and cultivated and her pianistic certainty are sometimes enviable.

Vecerni Praha

 

Da excelence podría calificarse la interpretación de algunas de las más conocidas obras de Franz Liszt, compositor y pianosta húngtaro, por la pianista checoslovaca Bozena Steinerova en el recitál que ofrecira en la sala García Caturla de bibloiteca José Martí, de Santa Clara. La sensible artista puso de manifesto el viruosismo y el temperamento fogoši del célebre creador del poesma sinfónico y de numrosas piezas religiosas.

Gramna, Cuba

 

Niespotykana enegria, dynamika, expresia środków wyrazu i temperament xydobyly ów typowy węgierski koloryt tego specjalnie melodyjnego i bogatego utwaru.

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