Music festival on the piano.
Piano enjoyment in the highest perfection.
Alexandra Sostmann perfectly translates the sunny-silvery flow of the harpsichord sound to the modern piano, embellishing the repetitions so elegantly and joyfully that it is a pleasure to distinguish all the button-nosed trills, freckled bumps, and curly-headed slides among the artfully entwined garlands of Bach’s dances.
… the mastery of the pianist in calmness – a calmness that does not imply passivity, but rather the opposite: Sostmann succeeds in cautiously opening the poetic interiors of each piece beyond ostentatious gestures…
Sostmann’s Baroque Meditation captivates not only through the intelligent combination of original and adapted elements but also through its completely unpretentious, almost simple and introspective presentation of these timeless messages on the modern Steinway: thus, it preserves its mystery and unfolds its human charm.
The way that Sostmann moulds Bach’s music to suit its surrounding is exceptional
Sostmann has access to depth; she plays as if in a different state of consciousness, keeping the listener’s attention away from external distractions and through silence providing access to a world that invites deep meditation.
Alexandra Sostmann is a sound alchemist at the piano. Great art.
Under Sostmann’s fingers, Bach’s music sounds incredibly clear and logical, while also being musical and authentic. Alexandra Sostmann achieves the quadrature of the circle here, her Bach playing unites heart and mind in an ideal balance.
My first reaction: now it is here. Not just a superbly played WTC, but one with a message that can help us endure our strangely demanding present.
The listener feels that there is a musician who moves through these 24 preludes and fugues with passion, deep knowledge, and joy. ‘This can only happen in flow, in the here and now…’: Alexandra Sostmann transforms her words into music. The formal, the purely mechanical are merely means to an end, to create wonderful music from the strict form. And she has the flow into which she takes the listener.
Sostmann balances each chord to perfection.
… expressive, incredibly flexible playing…
Intellect and emotion find an ideal balance in Sostmann’s playing – this is piano art at a very high level! Her playing is always strikingly clear, colorful, and rhythmically precise. She is a top-notch interpreter, distinct from the mainstream – idiosyncratic and convincing.
Alexandra Sostmann opens new horizons of experience, which also includes liberating musical presence from its elite reserves, and freeing musical messages from their temporal context. Impressive.
… Feeling is one thing, a structuring, clearly analyzing interpretation is another. Alexandra Sostmann has and can do both.
Sostmann’s art of clearly distinguishing individual tones while still shaping melodic lines evokes occasional associations with the harpsichord sound, but skillfully utilizes the extended possibilities for color differentiation…
… simply music… nothing else… how refreshing…
… Her touch is crystal clear, almost sober, thoughtful and transparent, free of pathos but full of poetry.
