Realizing the work’s hour-plus expanse rivals that effort within the musical universe, so when the superb pianists Katherine Chi and Aleksandar Madzar took on the challenge at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on Sunday, it was a welcome opportunity: courtside seats at the creation.
Boston Globe | November 18, 2009
Pianists Katherine Chi and [A]Leksandar Madžar, along with the assistance of three engineers (could their roles have been described in more direct, everyday language?), certainly pulled off one the best concerts of this young season, a concert that may very well come in as one of the top 10 concerts of the entire year. What they did for nearly 70 minutes of non-stop playing at the Gardner Museum on Sunday afternoon, November 15, will be remembered for some time to come.
But this afternoon, nothing short of galactic exhilaration of the kind you feel when you look at the sky one beautiful night. The concert was advertised as “A tour-de-force performance of Stockhausen’s Mantra, one of the seminal works of the 20th century in this unique, rarely performed piece, technology and instruments combine for a truly cosmic experience.” I would have to say that that is exactly where Katherine Chi and [A]Leksandar Madžar, et.al. took me. And, can you imagine, that the audience went beyond politeness and appreciation in expressing their wonder and exhilaration.
Boston Intelligencer | November 15, 2009
Classical music is a repository of the past as much as the present, but Katherine Chi’s Sunday piano recital at the Gardner Museum took that idea a step further. The Canadian pianist, familiar to Boston audiences thanks to her New England Conservatory connection, performed a fascinating program built around composers reworking and reclaiming the classical heritage.
Chi’s playing was electric, alternating between ricocheting expressionism and mechanistic intensity.
Boston Globe | April 29, 2009