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Victoria Simonsen
Cello
- Excellent and Talented Partnership - 5 Stars - Darlington Arts Centre
- Dave Robson - Darlington and Stockton Times, 22nd Jan 2010
In their recital for Darlington Music Society, the gifted young New Zealand cellist Victoria Simonsen and her accompanist Sam Armstrong showed a strong partnership in their deftly phrased projection of Beethoven’s Seven Variations on a Theme by Mozart.
Their expression of Schumann’s Drei Fantasiestücke op 73 offered a richly romantic foil to the Beethoven, as did their other Schumann offering, the Adagio and Allegro in A flat op 70 in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
A century plus later, the gentle humour of Paul Hindemith’s Germanic took on the old English nursery rhyme, A frog went a courting, and provided a quirkily off-beat and often comical retelling of the story, in refreshing contrast to Schumann’s more intense romanticism.
Another 20th century piece, Edward Gregson’s Serenata Notturno (1998) perhaps echoed Schubert in its ability to create a reflective nocturnal moods – even in the 12- note series used in the opening – through dreams to the light of day; an effective and approachable work.
The evening ended with a robust, yet refined, account of Brahms’ Cello Sonata in E minor, op 38 from this excellent and talented partnership, plus a bonus encore of more Schumann.
- Beautifully sensitive and composed cello playing of Victoria Simonsen
- Hilary Finch - The Times, January 12 2009
Park Lane Group - Thursday 8th January 2009; recital shared with the Sirocco Saxophone Quartet:
The recital was shared with the beautifully sensitive and composed cello playing of Victoria Simonsen: her performance of the eight short, eloquent movements of Atta for Solo Cello by her New Zealand compatriot, Lyell Cresswell, focused both technical and imaginative prowess. Her Berio Sequenza XIV, too, showed exactly what the instrument was made of: as much drum and resonating board as singer and dancer.
- Victoria Simonsen's brilliant account ....utterly compelling.
- Stephen Pritchard - The Observer, January 11 2009
Charlotte Bray is a young composer to watch. Her Throw Back, written last year for the Sirocco Saxophone Quartet, is a rhapsody of great haunting beauty, evoking something of the dense, mysterious fog that rose from the nearby Thames ..........
Something of that fog from the river found its way into Victoria Simonsen's brilliant account of Matthias Pintscher's Figgura V/Assonanza for solo cello. Consisting entirely of harmonics, the piece ghosted along in an ethereal, whispering dream; gossamer-light and, in Simonsen's hands, utterly compelling. Those same hands hammered alarmingly at the belly of the cello in Luciano Berio's Sequenza XIV, a fantastically complex piece imbued with the rhythms of Sri Lanka, before she plunged into Lyell Cresswell's exhausting Atta for solo cello, her brow furrowed with the strain of its hellish, furious, triumphant conclusion.
- Victoria Simonsen and Ben Powell in Plymouth
- Philip R Buttall - The Herald (Plymouth)
PLYMOUTH Chamber Music has now notched up more than 100 concerts, yet this recital by Victoria Simonsen and Ben Powell was only the third cello and piano duo in the series.
Rather than keeping to the well-proven pattern of both instruments combining continuously, Victoria chose to open with Bach's quite substantial Third Suite for solo cello.
There was an initial slight sense of shared adjustment, especially during the opening Prelude, but the scintillating playing which followed, bringing together a gloriously rich tone with the neatest articulation and linear shaping, produced a reading of the highest order.
Brahms' first Cello Sonata was a perfect choice, where both cello and piano combined in a flawless ensemble which finely captured every nuance of the composer's essentially somewhat sombre writing.
Ben gave a first-rate performance of the Two Poèmes by Scriabin, in fact an ideal aperitif for the final work, Shostakovich's early Cello Sonata in D minor.
This proved the evening's undoubted highlight, with both players almost nonchalantly dismissing the bristling technical difficulties, and equally capable of creating moments of tender lyricism or sardonic wit.
Given the wonderful repertoire out there for cello and piano together, the jury’s still out as to whether two individual solos did quite compensate, but this could in no way detract from a superbly enjoyable recital by these two talented and highly personable young artists.
Additional note from Tashmina Artists: in case it is of interest, we wanted to mention that the unaccompanied Bach was requested by Plymouth Chamber Music Trust and Victoria Simonsen was very happy to respond by including it in their programme.
- Tonal Contrast
- Mike Wheeler, 11/10/08 - mvdaily
Derby Chamber Music's new season was launched by a recital from award-winning cellist Victoria Simonsen (Multi-Faith Centre, Derby University, Derby, UK, 26 September 2008). She was partnered by Simon Lane, replacing the advertised pianist, who was indisposed.
In J S Bach's 3rd Cello Suite, Simonsen made the music really dance, with a lively sense of rhythm balanced by beautifully clear phrasing. The pair of Bourrées was crisp, with finely judged tonal contrast between the two, and the final Gigue positively skipped along.
Simon Lane played four pieces from Schumann's Kinderszenen 'Of Foreign Lands ...' ('Von Fremdern Ländern ...') was kept nicely on the move; 'Perfect Happiness' ('Glückes Genug') bubbled; there was a bold, striding energy to 'Great Event' ('Wichtige Begebenheit'); 'Dreaming' ('Traümerei') was not sentimentalised and was all the better for it. He found a finely-shaded range of colours in Nos 4 and 6 of Brahms' Fantasies, Op 116.
After the interval the two players joined forces for Schumann's Fantasiestücke, Op 73. The middle section of No 2 was playful, and they caught the mercurial changes of mood in No 3.
Well-integrated mood swings were also a feature of their playing in the first movement of Shostakovich's Cello Sonata. There was drive and energy in the second movement (and Simonsen's arpeggio harmonics were faultless). There was a sense of unhurried unfolding to the Largo, and the sharp contrasts that mark the finale were pointed up without being melodramatically exaggerated.
The second of Schumann's Funf Stücke in Volkston (Five Pieces in Folk Style), Op 102, was the aptly-chosen wind-down at the end of the evening.
- Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, York
- David Denton 18/1/08 - The Yorkshire Post
"At a time when young instrumentalists are being accused of placing technique above musicianship, Victoria Simonsen stands apart as one of the most talented cellists to have emerged over the past decade.
Thought, affection and expression had been brought to every note in this remarkable recital, while at the same time the technical challenges posed by the sonatas from Debussy and Shostakovich were hardly apparent in her total command of the instrument.
Will we ever hear that sweeping melody that emerges in the first movement of the Shostakovich played with such love and beauty, and I doubt that we shall again experience so many delicate shades in the Debussy.
All of these virtues were signalled in the programme's opening Pohadka by Janacek, a score that needs detailed interpretation if is not to sound slight and uneventful, while the Five Pieces by Schumann sang in long sweeping pages.
She was partnered by an equally notable young pianist, Ben Powell, potentially one of the finest accompanists since the days of the legendary Gerald Moore. Together they form a formidable partnership."
- New Zealand Young Musician of the Year
- Lindis Taylor - The Evening Post
Final - with The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
"Cellist Victoria Simonsen’s exquisitely touching performance of the Elgar concerto ... she revealed a profundity of understanding, as well as splendidly projected tone and plenty of vigour when needed. Even in the highly personal slow movement her insight seemed not too remote from that of some of the world’s great interpreters."
- Maestro James Judd, conductor
"She has a tremendously deep understanding and profound respect for music"
- Auckland Philharmonia, Auckland Town Hall
- William Dart - NZ Herald
"Simonsen tackled the Elgar Concerto with the vehemence and poetry of a young Jaqueline du Pre. From those soul-wrenching chords of the opening bars through to the scurrying Finale ... this was a performance with attitude and vigour. Drawing some lovely sounds out of her instrument ... she made the Adagio an elegy to remember, working in perfect rapport with the orchestra."