Sofya Gulyak - Reviews

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…she gave the third Prokofiev concerto a strong sense of the music’s overriding shape, matching subtlety in accompaniment with exuberance in the more bravura passages, alongside obvious technical mastery of the concerto……the mischief of the end of the first movement left a definite smile in the hall.
Bachtrack - Bridgewater Hall, Manchester  (Halle Orchestra / Cristian Mandeal)


Sofya Gulyak is a fearless pianist, never afraid to scale the most technically demanding heights of the repertoire and equally proud to wear her heart on her sleeve. The pieces she chooses here from fellow Russians suit her emotionally charged approach perfectly. Medtner's Tragic Sonata, written as a response to the 1917 revolution, is like a hammer in her hands – intense and frighteningly violent. Rachmaninov's Variations on a Theme of Corelli are dazzlingly dismissed, before she marches us across the brutal landscape of Prokofiev's Sonata No 6, thundering through the demonic opening allegro moderato, teasing with the irony of the allegretto, flirting with the delicate waltz lentissimo and finally slaying us with the barbaric finale. Not for those of a delicate disposition.
The Guardian


Moiseiwitsch, Horowitz, Gilels gave us superb, but few recordings, and I am grateful  for Gulyak‘s generosity. Her Rachmaninoff, like her performance of the Third Concert in the Kapell competition, has a disarming reserve, but her musicianship is unfailing, concentrating on a delicate emotional fervour rather than more obvious display. …How memorably she responds to Medtner, to an elusive fragrance and intricacy than can leave your imagination haunted by such a distinctive idiom. And whether you note her special lyrical warmth in the second subject of the Prokofiev or wonder at her unfaltering command in the final pages, you will be hardly pressed to find a playing of greater authenticity. …This is a stunning debut album.
Gramophone


After her triumphant appearance in the Malvern Autumn Festival a couple of years ago, the young Russian pianist Sofya Gulyak,  returned to opened this year’s Festival in equally impressive style.….her programme of bravura piano works revealed a command that reduced the massive technical demands she’d set herself to near insignificance……a display of sheer artistry of a kind that must surely earn Ms Gulyak a place among the world’s great concert pianists.  This was a recital of the very highest class.
Hereford Times


International pianist Sofya Gulyak recently electrified Manila audience anew in a solo recital at the CCP Little Theater. This was only weeks after her sterling collaboration as featured soloist of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra in its final concert for the season.

The program was a showcase of intense virtuosity that summoned power and technical brilliance only a well-honed, steely pair of hands could execute.    There was no histrionics, only plain sensitive playing, as she brought out vibrant tones.    Gulyak’s playing elicited rousing applause punctuated by shouts of bravos.
Philippine Daily Inquirer 


Sofya Gulyak gave a staggering demonstration of what it takes to win the Leeds Piano Competition - this was pianism on a grand scale; an all-Russian programme delivered with straight-from-the-shoulder heft……this Russian pianist is working on a plane from which any technical problems have been well and truly banished…..she revealed a real musicianship.
New Zealand Herald


Her depth of tone, and evocation of both a deep stillness and a wonderfully oceanic surge caught us up in her sound-world within seconds, one which rose and fell at will throughout the music's journeyings….. her delivery of the final "pay-off" phrase had an electric thrill whose shock momentarily knocked our receptive powers sideways, though we recovered to give her the ovation and recalls she so richly deserved.     Bravo, Sofya Gulyak!
Peter Mechen


The Concert Fantasy with Sofya Gulyak on piano is a technical tour de force. Gulyak’s performance is intense and virtuoso. The piano solos show off her technical ability whilst the moments with the orchestra are deeply sympathetic.
The Public Reviews 


The whole performance was brilliant, but Rachmaninov is one of my favourite composers. Sofya Gulyak played Concerto No. 2 beautifully with lot of passion. Vasily Petrenko, the Russian conductor, was fabulous. Unforgettable experience!
Classics2000


…a varied program — Bach-Busoni, Clementi, Brahms, Schumann, Liszt and Shostakovich —the Bach-Busoni Chaconne benefited from the style of solid, assured pianism that she brought to it, and there was something appealing about the apparent ease with which she sailed through this difficult, monumental score. 
The New York Times
 

The gold medallist at this year's Leeds International Pianoforte Competition was a 29-year-old Russian named Sofya Gulyak, whose success carried with it intimations of history in the making. "She is our first woman first-prize-winner," Fanny Waterman announced. Waterman 
co-founded the competition with Marion Thorpe in 1961; despite this very female genesis, its winners, up to now, have all been men.

With Mark Elder conducting the Hallé, Gulyak powered her way to the prize with a performance of Brahms's First Concerto that was often superb in its measured intensity. In some respects, she's an unassuming player. But she has the right combination of tonal weight and dark lyricism for Brahms, and she's wonderfully alert to the mix of passion and rhetoric in his music, all of which mark her out as being a formidable artist, with a significant career ahead of her.
The Guardian