John Lenehan - Reviews

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One of our most celebrated musicians....He has a sophisticated range of tones into which he dips like an old master with his palette. Infinitely graceful playing charged with Lenehan's characteristic vitality and warmth. Savour the sound of a pianist in his element.
Classic FM magazine

Delicate articulations, subtle shadings,....measured control and finely poised sensitivity.
Gramophone

Ah! John Lenehan: he unfailingly set the mood from the first bar creating creamy lyricism and building phrases that lingered sublimely.... turning the last movement of Schubert's B Major Sonata into a lilting ballet.
American Record Guide

Lenehan's strengths are his firm rhythmic underpinning and acute ear for inner contrapuntal lines. A masterly recital .....which rightly drew gasps and cheers!
The Times

John Lenehan is a soloist of infectious enthusiasm, rhythmic vitality and charm.
The Financial Times

John Lenehan proved to be a formidable partner, moving adeptly from background to foreground as the music demanded and masterfully creating colour.
The Strad

Lenehan's playing is of a special integrity and musicianship.
Gramophone

John Lenehan stood in for an indisposed artist and blew a breath of fresh air over the programme. Prokofiev's third Sonata was brilliantly dashed off and showed his spiky, exuberant playing at its best.
The Times

John Lenehan played with great flair and virtuosity.
The New York Times

John Lenehan is one of the leading chamber musicians in the world. His performance was one of the most sensitive and expressive interpretations I have ever heard from a pianist.
Svenska Dagbladet

In Franck's Prelude, Chorale and Fugue Mr. Lenehan proved himself a sensitive artist commanding a warm often delicate array of sonorities and the technique to produce under technical stress a seamless legato. Chopin's Barcarolle was similarly sweet sounding in its lyricism.
The Daily Telegraph

Not only was John Lenehan's accompanying sympathetic but he is clearly an exceptional artist in his own right.
The Times

John Lenehan is a very accomplished performer: not only is his technical address impeccable, but he also possesses a strikingly wide dynamic range and sophisticated variety of tone colour, both of which he uses to marvellously poetic (and never remotely self-conscious) effect throughout.
Gramophone

John Lenehan once again proved that there is no finer accompanist in the world.
The Yorkshire Post

John Lenehan, who was winner of the Alkan Competition with a unanimous vote from the jury, more than confirmed the qualities admired then in his South Bank recital devoted to the works of the extraordinary French composer. Above all he illustrated both graphically and subtly that Alkan needs not only a stupendous technical control but a poetic brio and inwardness. From such a pianist the Funeral March seemed all too short, its sinister thread and sudden surges of nobility illuminated with rare pianistic cunning and finesse. The massive climax of the B major Etude rang out the sort of richness and clarity that only a true virtuoso could achieve and a similar acuteness illuminated the startlingly Faurean ease and nobility of the "Chants". However, Mr. Lenehan saved his trump card for his encore, "Le premier Billet doux" which he played with a tremulous intimacy and intensity, a superlative avoidance of all possible banality or naivety. In short, John Lenehan is a major discovery - very possibly among the finest pianists in this country.
Music and Musicians (Bryce Morrison)

For contrasts of delicacy and persuasiveness we had to rely on Mr Lenehan's impressively judged accompaniments. He produced some sparkling arabesques in his solo passages and was always discreet and forward in exactly the right proportions.
The Financial Times

They are both great soloists and also partners who play perfectly as a team with a pronounced feeling for chamber music..
Velberter Zeitung

John Lenehan emphasised his combination of musical insight and striking virtuosity of firm attack and lyrical warmth in Stravinsky's Petrouchka. Samuel Barber's Excursions were dazzlingly and seductively done.
The Daily Telegraph

Simply one of the best chamber pianists going.
The Scotsman

....technical confidence and panache, the ability to play with uninhibited expression, yet showing proper respect for the text of the music.
Gramophone

Modest, but profoundly involved, Lenehan's playing was powerful and committed.
Salzburger Volkszeitung

Lloyd Webber and Lenehan responded to the music's high romantic fervour with soaring lyrical phrases and all out virtuoso playing.
The Washington Post

Lenehan's musicality and pianistic expertise have frequently in the past commanded attention and, although he has exemplary tact and finesse in his role as accompanist he is always potentially stealing the show: the bristlingly effectual finger work and immaculate dynamic shading in last night's performance were typically absorbing.
The Daily Telegraph

He claimed the status of a powerful equal from the outset, setting up a telling dialogue with Lloyd Webber in Britten's Sonata and impressively shouldering the burden of prominence in Rachmaninov's almost concerto-like Sonata.
The Times

The pianist from London has the gift to voice chordal passages with enviable clarity. He plays completely without pretension and, with an extraordinary precision, always creates exactly the right balance.
Salzburger Nachrichten

Lenehan excels himself throughout, despatching even the lethal closing pages of the first sonata with effortless brilliance.
CD Review