Reviews

…One of the highlights of Gloucester Music Society’s 90th anniversary season was the piano recital by Maria Marchant…there was nothing routine in Maria Marchant’s recital, played entirely from memory and completely in the moment. Her insightful spoken introductions to each piece were just long enough to whet the appetite for the ensuing performance of the work under discussion. In sum, this imaginatively programmed concert was graced with top-flight music-making of open and unforced sincerity.

…Attractively devised and immaculately performed…delivered by Marchant with a richness of musicianship that haunts the memory…

A lionness roared today…the Soirées Musicales (Opus 6) by Clara Schumann…how apt that this confident, capable composer, also a brilliant pianist, should ‘share the stage’ with such an assured, talented performer as Maria. Both distinctive individuals, the two women, two personae, complemented each other in an expressive ‘sisterly’ rapport…I’ve seldom encountered such virtuosity….such poetry, grace and fury…Maria created an almost other-worldly, timeless atmosphere and drew amazement, even shock, from the appreciative crowd. Yes – shock – and awe! Even with a large orchestra I would defy anyone to up-stage this charismatic lady – seemingly incapable of withholding an astonishing, almost mesmerizing, energy.

Maria Marchant, who clearly demonstrates a loving empathy for this music, delights in displaying her formidable technical and expressive facility in these contrasting colourful pieces that are receiving their first recordings here…

…Echoes of Land & Sea from SOMM Records…an attractive recital…music by Roderick Williams written for and premiered by the pianist Maria Marchant…very well programmed and played…

I am hugely grateful to Maria for her haunting, magical première of ‘Goodwood by the Sea’ – it was a great compliment to me and a sign of her dedicated professionalism. She brought my music alive with great sensitivity and made it glow in a way I had not imagined possible.

23 world premiere recordings…beautifully executed…

…Full marks here for enterprising and imaginative programming…played with imaginative verve, sensitivity and technical accomplishment…She most definitely brings this (Williams’ Goodwood by the Sea) tremendously evocative music to life on this album and it certainly deserves to become a standard British solo piano repertory item. For me it is the standout item on this album…

resoundingly performed by Marchant…a graceful, detailed recording quality, this is one edition which enthusiasts of rare British music will take to their hearts.

Pianist Maria Marchant’s clean, clear…delicately poised playing gives all these works their full value in an unremittingly seductive performance.

…a superb transcription of his song ‘Sea Fever’… by…Roderick Williams…’Goodwood by the Sea’, a wonderfully realised sea picture…All phenomenally played, with Marchant’s chameleon-like ability to inhabit each work something to marvel at.

…There are gems aplenty in this sensitively played and wholly absorbing survey of British piano music…Maria Marchant brings both power and delicacy to Ronald Stevenson’s marvellous Peter Grimes Fantasy…Kenneth Leighton’s masterly Six Studies (Study-Variations), Op 56… rivet the attention in their exhilarating technical prowess and harmonic resourcefulness…what tingling hush and concentration Marchant brings to the concluding ‘Night’ from Britten’s youthful Holiday Diary, and how deftly she showcases a sequence of six Holst piano works composed between 1924 and 1932…

I could not imagine this music having a better advocate

…Marchant excels…but is most impressive in Kenneth Leighton’s Six Studies Op 56, from 1969, displaying cool control in the monolithic chordal movements and great dexterity in the highly complex contrapuntal sections. Other treats include a new piano piece from the baritone Roderick Williams, a blue-skied and sunny Goodwood by the Sea…

…Echoes of Land & Sea is fantastic…discipline and finesse with undoubted passion…exceptional musicianship…the depth, melodic space and stillness she conveys is overwhelmingly moving…Roderick and Maria allow us to glimpse something of the world beyond our immediate perception…if you buy one CD this year, it should be this one…

…Superbly performed by Maria Marchant, well known at Wigmore Hall and on Radio 3, Williams composed his Goodwood by the Sea especially for her…

…The big contrast between the showy Fun-Fair [Britten] and the subdued Night could hardly be more potent…a well selected work list that will reward close listening…

…a piano recital of pure joy….wonderfully expressive….today’s recitalist was conqueror.

…[Schubert/Liszt’s] Am Meer was performed with great poignancy….Throughout Marchant played with great sensitivity and the audience welcomed her back enthusiastically for a sublime encore of Balakirev’s transcription of Glinka’s ‘The Lark’.

Maria Marchant’s recital on Sunday afternoon was without doubt a thoroughly satisfying and memorable occasion. She is a musician of great sensitivity – but, as in the Liszt Ballade in B minor, capable of much power and passion. Perhaps most of all she has the gift of sharing her enjoyment of music making with her audience.

The piano music of John Ireland occupies a significant place in twentieth century British music. Maria Marchant has a particular understanding of its combination of poetry and rhythmic bite, highlighting the unique combination of virtuoso pyrotechnics and depth of feeling.

…Debussy’s ‘Bergamasque’ followed encapsulating the different moods and atmospheres of the four movements which included the renowned ‘Clair de Lune’. Maria engrossed herself in each of these demonstrating the different aspects of harmony and dance with consummate ease…

…outstanding performances of Bliss’ piano music at the Eastbourne Arts Centre…. ‘Dramatic Recitative’ was more characterized than any performance I have ever heard….the two Bliss items fitted well into the balanced and interesting programme…the audience were delighted.

Maria Marchant’s ‘Conflict and Memories’ programme is an extraordinarily imaginative idea, vividly contrasting three different composers’ writing during the First World War. Not only does Maria capture those contrasts so vividly in her playing but she also meets the huge technical challenges of all the works with great skill and musicianship.

Maria Marchant is the consummate concert pianist whose annual playing in the Shipley Arts Festival touches each member of the audience individually with original and creative programming that inspires the community to fill our venues to capacity.

…….Maria Marchant’s intelligent and expressive reading of Haydn’s G minor Sonata, so subtle in its composition with much being spun across its two movements from so fine a thread…..

The pianist Maria Marchant combines restraint, intensity and passion in such a way that your heart and mind is bound to the music – perfect qualities for Mozart’s Piano Concerto K414 No. 12.

…the prodigiously gifted Maria Marchant…..another promising pianist of clean fingers and ambition…..Maria Marchant’s unfussy, emotionally charged and superbly virtuosic playing caught Leighton’s brand of fierce romantic mysticism…….the whole series ended with Kenneth Hesketh’s Poetic Conceits which Marchant played with consummate mastery.

The music presented by Maria in Seaford derived from thoughts raised by the introduction ‘Conflicts and Memories – the First World War’, resulting in a remarkable range of styles and challenges, all of which Maria conquered with breathtaking virtuosity. The recital was notable for its fluency and dramatic impact, with pianism and musicality of the highest order.

In two works by John Ireland and one by Frank Bridge…the genius of two somewhat neglected composers was revealed in playing of extraordinary power and eloquence. ….the demanding, technique-stretching G Minor Ballade, to which Maria brought a sense of controlled abandon ….In the two Opus 27 Nocturnes the piano sang with crepuscular sweetness; and in three of the Opus 25 Studies the technical demands were somehow wrapped in the musical qualities that Chopin brought to the genre and that Maria revealed to the full.

Maria establishes an immediate rapport with her audience. Her programmes are well thought out and played with sensitivity and insight.

It has been a unique pleasure to conduct for and work with Maria in quite a few concerts. She is an artist of consummate technique, musicianship and insight. Her preparation is thorough and she is at home in all the many styles of music we have performed together.

Thank you for a lovely recital – so well thought out and full of lovely music beautifully played. I know they all enjoyed it so much!

Maria set the scene well with her introductions in this delightful programme. She held the audience with her fluency of thought, technical assurance and total concentration throughout, capturing the essence of the music and projecting it with conviction.

Selected by the Royal College of Music as one of its ‘Rising Stars’, pianist Maria Marchant opened the season in October with a fascinating programme…. All were impeccably played, but the pièce de résistance were Ginastera’s Danzas Argentinas. The furious rhythms, intertwined ancient modes, general feel of the Pampas, and not to mention the tremendous glissando at the end, made the performance a gripping experience.

The piano recital given by Maria Marchant….excellent and very well received.

This was a splendid start to Darlington Piano Society’s new season…an accomplished and confident musician performing an attractive and thoughtful programme….[the] three London Pieces were so vividly portrayed….it was possible to imagine the varied scenes she described in her introduction.