“Pavel Nersessian, winner of the recently established GPA Dublin piano competition, made his American debut on Thursday night in a recital of Russian music… Mr. Nersessian displayed a gift for softly colored expressiveness (in Medtner’s ‘Canzona Serenata’) and also for hammering virtuosity (in Shostakovich’s Piano Sonata No 1 and up-tempo sections of Rachmaninov’s Variations on a theme of Corelli). Tchaikovsky’s ‘Seasons’, all 12 pieces, made a rather daring climax to the evening. Mr. Nersessian managed to sustain interest throughout and gave lyrical breadth to the familiar strains of ‘June’ and ‘November’”
“Nersesians pianistische Sternstunde”
“Grossen Beifall erhielt eine russische Seele, die zwar etwas eingekapselt wirkte, nur in Ansaetzen aus sich heraus wollte, dabei jedoch eine brillant Vorstellung bot, wie sie in Krefeld nicht alltaeglich ist”
“Pavel Nersessian is a 33-year-old Russian pianist and a prizewinner in many competitions. He is also the sort of free spirit who can set a stage alight with high-flying bravura, personal colour and imagination. In an age still inclined to admire a more impersonal, tautly disciplined expertise Nersessian’s romantic freedom, his indifference to received wisdom or conventions, will surely both delight and provoke.
…Moskowsky’s Etincelles is sufficiently trail-blaizing to make comparison with Horowitz’s legendary RCA live performance seem churlish and on home ground he is superlative. His Scriabin is sultry and individual and in Pletnev’s dazzling realization of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty his virtuosity is enthralling and acute. Never merely a question of flawless trills and octaves (though they are present in super-abundance) has charisma comes from a freedom to concentrate on every conceivable tint and character. Rarely has Tchaikovsky sounded so indelibly Russian, yet so individual.
The recordings are often confined but they rarely inhibit one’s sense of Nersessian’s glamour and excitement”
“It’s soloists rather than audiences who are likely to be frozen with fright at the exhausting demands the young Prokofiev makes through his bold seeking after sensation {in 2nd Piano Concerto}. Not, however, the Russian Pavel Nersessian, first prizewinner of the 1991 GPA Dublin International Piano Competition, whose physical calmness in the last night’s performance with the National Symphony Orchestra reminded one of descriptions of the composer’s own performances as being austere, laconic, very simple, with clear-cut rhythm, full and resilient sound, and sharp, brilliantly-moulded phrasing.
Creating an awareness of something being held in reserve is one of the most powerful means of maintaining tension on a work so full of clamorous piano writing as this concerto. It was an awareness that Nersessian exploited with unerring skill, and he was acutely perceptive, too, in the way he achieved brilliance not merely through recourse to velocity and volume (which he has in abundance), but by careful handling of the elaborately-woven, scrunching harmonic clashes which are so peculiarly effective in this work.”
“Pavel Nersessian in Franck’s Les Djinns… made the most of this occasionally crude piece, especially via a superlative range of tone”
“Few lunchtime orchestral concerts in the National Concert Hall have been in the same league as that given last Tuesday by the National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Gerhard Markson. The substantial programme was a good start. But everybody on the platform seemed inspired by the presence of Pavel Nersessian as the piano soloist in Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.
Nersessian’s command of this music’s technical challenges had a transcendent quality which made virtuosity serve pure expression. At all levels of volume and speed, his subtle changes of tone were remarkable. Successive variations were connected to make large groups, contrasted in tempo and character… This was an inspiring performance – ample yet tightly sprung, and certain of how to make the most of music which needs persuasive performance”
“Pavel Nersessian was the soloist in Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, placing the music under a bright, analytical light through playing that was cleanly sculpted and fearlessly muscular”
“Eine grandiose, kraftvolle premiere”