Photo: David Thompson - EMI Classics

Stephen Kovacevich, piano

'when Stephen Kovacevich played the work on Thursday, it felt as if he were whispering a bedtime story, inviting the audience to share memories almost too private to reveal.'

New York Times - Schumann's Kinderszenen

'In a period when Beethoven interpretation has become fairly standardized, Kovacevich remains a free spirit, making a profoundly personal response to the music and playing in an improvisatory style, which fits descriptions of how Beethoven performed his own music.'
Boston Globe - Beethoven's Emperor Concerto

'Here was a pianist who truly did play Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata as though it were a first performance... the way he kept this fabulously risk-taking music on the edge of playability - my 21st-century ears had never appreciated the full audacity of the fugal finale - and us on the edge of our seats, was an index of his moral rather than his physical courage.'
Sunday Times - Beethoven's Hammerklavier

Stephen Kovacevich recordings on EMI Classics