En Russie le jeudi

Concertonet, Mars, 18, 2010

Simon Corley

Déjà entendu en récital à Paris (voir ici), Simon Trpceski (30 ans) ne s’y était encore jamais produit en concerto, ainsi qu’il l’indique au public, dans un français impeccable, au moment de présenter son bis, le sobre et nostalgique «Mars (Chant de l’alouette)» des Saisons (1876) de Tchaïkovski, qu’il dédie à sa mère et sa sœur, venues spécialement pour l’occasion. Dans le Premier concerto (1891/1917) de Rachmaninov, le pianiste macédonien, qui vient d’enregistrer les Deuxième et Troisième (voir ici), confirme sa maîtrise technique, qui lui permet de nuancer le propos sans manquer pour autant de puissance et d’énergie. L’entente avec le chef, moins distant et objectif, plus sentimental, invitant l’orchestre à s’épancher généreusement, ne constitue en revanche pas le point fort de cette interprétation.


Deadly seriousness, young drive

Neues Deutschland, March,11, 2010

By Antje Roessler

The 29-years old Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski played the highly virtuous piece ( Rachmaninov concerto No.2) with breathtaking sureness. Although Rachmaninov's mature, shortened version from 1920 was on the music stands, Trpceski's youthful exuberance shone out.. The musician did not come over as a rumbling "Tastenlöwe" ( lion of the keys), but developed an ever transparent piano playing.

The Guardian, January, 2010

Pianists nowadays tend to play the complete work (Tchaikovsky concerto No.2) as written, but Trpcˇeski opted to go back to the version "edited" by Tchaikovsky's pupil Alexander Siloti, which held sway until the 1950s. It cuts around 10 minutes from the three-quarter-hour work, removing swathes of the opening Allegro and most of the rather sentimental exchanges between the piano and solo violin and cello in the second. Some of that music isn't missed, to be honest, but the central movement does lose some of its salon charm, while Trpcˇeski played the bombastic solo ­passages with such fiery panache, we could happily have heard even more of his charismatic virtuosity.

Bournemouth Echo, January, 2010

By Mike Marsh

HAILING respectively from Macedonia and the Ukraine, Simon Trpceski and Kirill Karabits imported some Russian highlights to celebrate the Old New Year in the Julian calendar held on 14th January.

And if live fireworks were off then substituting the whizz-bang of Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture was the next best thing.

Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 2 has more than a fair share of sparkling fingerwork.

Trpceski's breathtaking technique was much in demand in the outer movements, the many solo episodes showing both invigorating power and songful application to the wonderful melodies.

The central movement's beauty is found not only in the piano part but also in solos from Duncan Riddell, violin, and Jesper Svedberg, cello, though here, in Siloti's curtailed arrangement, they were deprived of the first half where the piano is silent.

Simon Trpceski would thrill anywhere

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Karabits at Lighthouse concert hall, Poole

The Times, January, 15, 2010

By Geoff Brown

Still,the Lighthouse penumbra couldn’t blot the light that is Simon Trpceski. It’s unfortunate perhaps that this brilliant Macedonian pianist was playing Tchaikovsky’s inferior Second Piano Concerto (in the shortened version of Alexander Siloti). But even when the composer offers little more than rampaging thumps, Trpceski enlivened the deluge of notes with sparkling clarity and propulsive élan. Away from the work’s onerous rhetoric, he settled into the quieter passages without fuss, stroking Tchaikovsky’s lyric thoughts simply and tenderly, with the art that seems no art at all. The packed house deservedly loved him.

“Happy new year,” he said at the end, before advising us that Karabits and he were to spend the night celebrating the Russian New Year (following the old Julian calendar). Maybe they clinked glasses in hope of a kinder, more focused concert acoustic. I’d drink to that.

If the Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky pieces are among those so remorselessly scheduled that one doesn’t want to hear them again (and it was only on 6 March that Simon Trpčeski played this very concerto in this very hall), these performances were terrific enough to have you listening to these so-familiar works with the freshest and keenest of ears.

Trpčeski was in nonchalant mood, but there was no mistaking the steely virtuosity and focussed musicianship that commanded our attention, whether full-on power, delicate filigree, affecting lyricism or scintillating bravura. Without a similar response from the Philharmonia, this would have been a one-sided account, but Maazel, so attentive to dynamics and detailing, ensured that nothing was lacklustre or jaded, and rarely have the eight pizzicatos that begin the second movement been as ‘together’ as they were here, Paul Edmund Davies’s flute solo adding distinction and Karen Stephenson bringing ardour to the cello solo, the movement beginning exactly at the marked Andantino semplice and the middle section being playful and attractively light of touch.

Trpčeski gave an encore, one of Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words, a 'Venetian Gondola Song' (Opus 19/Number 6), enough to whet one’s appetite to explore all 48 pieces.

Musical Painting
Luxemburg, December, 01, 2009
Volksfreund.de

An American counductor, a young Mazedonian pianist and a British Orchestra in the
Luxemburg Philharmonie - a combination that was experienced by about 1500  spectators
on Monday at the sold out auditorium

In Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, the 30 year-old Macedionian pianist Simon Trpceski blended well with the orchestra. Whether stirring or pleasant, delicate

and playful or wild marching - the diversification of the evening was impressive.
The thunderous applause motivated Trpceski to three solo encores before the break.

The current Albert-slogan "Russian and.."  was accounted for by choosing the b-minor piano concerto by Peter Tchaikovsky. Simon Trpceski, born in 1979 in Mazedonia was a sovereign soloist. Someone, who - one could see - became more and more relaxed, who also has a key

to the lyrical. A pianist who, of course, knows in detail, what has to be  provided in fullness,

pathos and generally "Tastenkunst" (Fingerart) in this heavy athletic example of the gendre.
Overall, the vivid Tchaikovsky interpretation that managed without extremes, was not a sensation,
but nonetheless was an extremely respectable reading on a very high level.
Remarkable and worthy of all honor: The players gave the still striking concert thriller its dignity.
That alone  was not so little - on this powerful evening, when the great world of music came to
Freiburg. With an almost popular program.

Before the interval the Mazedonian pianist Simon Trpceski presented himself. He presented
Tschaikovsky's infamous 1st piano concerto in b-flat minor, where at the first bars the audience
reacted electrified. Maazel started the opus despotically, Trpceski continued elegantly.
And it carried on so. Elegance was the trademark of the performance, that did not unsettle through
brutality nor astonished by sentimentality. Certainly Trpceski knows how to ram the octaves
with thunderbolts into the keyboard.
Two encores. Trpceski accepted the applause with arms open wide.

 As soloist one wins the 30-year-old Mazedonian Simon Trpceski, winner of numerous  international piano competitions. The pianist has a brilliant technique and enormous creative power.
He is able to give the most virtuosic and most dense passages a brilliant polish.

Philharmonia/Maazel/Trpceski

Colston Hall, Bristol * * *

The Guardian, November, 20, 2009

By Rian Evans 

The only redeeming feature of the evening was the playing of soloist Simon Trpceski in Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto. The Macedonian characterized every facet of the music with his typical fastidiousness and some blazing cadenza passages.

The Ottawa Citizen, October 30, 2009

By Richard Todd

Pianist Simon Trpceski was featured in Prokofiev's Piano Concerto no. 1 in C. It's not the composer's finest essay in the genre (that would be the Second), but it is definitely the most popular. Trpceski and Shelley turned in a persuasive account of the score and the orchestra played beautifully, as usual.

As an encore, Trpceski played one of Mendelssohn's most charming Songs Without Words.

Simon Trpčeski (piano): Haydn, Mozart, Chopin, Shahov

Queen Elizabeth Hall

SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW

By Colin Clarke

Ever since experiencing Simon Trpčeski in Prokofiev in the finals of the World Piano Competition in London some good few years ago now, I have been rather fascinated by this pianist. He has sound musical intellect, a daring way with programming and is unafraid of risks. A fine choice of pianist with which to begin the 2009/10 International Piano Series.

Trpčeski oozed confidence as he walked on stage. His love of Haydn was clear in his account of Haydn’s C minor Sonata, Hob.XVI:20. Despite a light touch, one was aware that Trpčeski was honouring the work’s exploratory side, without transgressing over any stylistic boundaries. He clearly loved the cheeky elements of the finale. The central Andante con moto was the weak point – polite, but in need of more fantasy.

The programming of two lesser-known sets of variations by Mozart worked very well indeed. First, the six Variations in F on “Salve tu, Domine” from Paisiello’s I filosofo immaginarii, K398. The ultra-sweet theme led to a little selection of surprises, . The opening variation nodded towards a Baroque, Scarlatti-like rhythmic play. Mozart places a little harmonic postscript at the end of variations. The lovely Adagio variation was the highlight. We were promised Two Variations on “Come un agnello” from Sarti’s Fra I due litiganti yet Trpčeski seemed to add a few extra, spurious variations. This was superb pianism though. It would be good to hear more from this pianist in this particular repertoire.

The second part featured four Chopin Nocturnes and a World Premiere. Chopin’s pair of Nocturnes, Op. 32, perhaps surprisingly, found Trpčeski finding his feet bar by bar. The opening of Op. 32/1 (B major) was wooden, and it was not until the lovely central section that warmth found its way in; drama, too appeared via a composed recitative. The A-flat partner piece was far better, more rounded as an interpretation. Unaffected and stylish, its passion contrasted with the half-lights of the F sharp minor Nocturne, Op. 48/2. The final offering in this group was Op. 48/1, beautifully unhurried, the ominous octaves reminding us that these masterpieces contain much more than just subdued night music.

Finally, the World Premiere: the suite, Songs and Whispers by Trpčeski’s friend, Pande Shahov (born 1973). The six movements divide into four movements based on Macedonian songs from the composer’s childhood and two movements take Chopin as their starting points. The language is mainly tonal, with pronounced influences of Scriabin as well as Prokofiev (the Prokofiev of the famous keyboard Toccata, to be accurate). The most emotive movement is the penultimate Interlude (which starts with a quote from Chopin’s Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17/4).
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Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

The Guardian, October, 16, 2009

By George Hall

* * * *

Music from Macedonia rarely features in UK concert programmes, but Simon Trpcˇeski chose to end his recital in the Southbank Centre's International Piano Series with the world premiere of a suite by his 36-year-old compatriot, Pande Shahov. Songs and Whispers draws on a wide range of material over its six-movement span. Its origins lie in a tribute to Chopin, the 200th anniversary of whose birth is celebrated next year, and there are direct quotes, including one movement entirely based on the opening bars of a Chopin mazurka. Much of the rest takes Macedonian folk music as its starting point, dressing it up as Chopin and – perhaps more pertinently – Liszt. Other influences Shahov cites include jazz, Debussy and Erik Satie.

On paper, this might sound a mishmash, but the composer, a pupil of Philip Cashian and Julian Anderson, shows a confidence in handling piano textures that presented Trpcˇeski with opportunities for colour and display that he literally seized with both hands. Old-fashioned in conception the result may be, but it's a genuinely resourceful and attractive work of its kind.

Trpcˇeski was at his most personal here, offering a warmth and commitment….

…authoritative and finely managed,(the) four Chopin Nocturnes, tonally refined and scrupulously voiced... Haydn's C minor Piano Sonata, again immaculately packaged…

Chief Conductor Vasily Petrenko leads the RLPO in Russian Soul, the opening concert of its 2009/10 season

Liverpool Echo, September, 11, 2009

By Catherine Jones

This year is the centenary of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, here taken on by Simon Trpceski who just can’t seem to stay away from Hope Street.

The unassuming Macedonian had some practice when he recorded the technically demanding work – often billed the “Mount Everest” of piano concertos – with the RLPO earlier this summer.

What a shame that recording wasn’t available last night or the Phil would surely have kicked off its regeneration fund with a tidy sum.

Trpceski is rather like the most successful Formula 1 drivers who become completely at one with their vehicle. His lovely, sure touch through the cascading piano of the opening allegro drew nods of appreciation from Petrenko, while the solo cadenza saw him flexing both his great musicality and musical muscle.

There was fine support from the orchestra through the allegro’s thundering crescendo, a dreamy intermezzo waltz and the tricksy syncopation (clearly signposted by Petrenko) of the alla breve, which came to a satisfying, Hollywood-style conclusion.

Trpceski responded to a sustained ovation with a gentle encore from Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words.

He chose to open with a striking programme of Rachmaninov and Shostakovich. His partnership with pianist Simon Trpceski was stunning. Trpceski has been to Liverpool several times before this performance, each time playing Russian repertoire, therefore carving something of a niche.

There was a very deliberate, sustained and almost understated opening to the first movement of Rachmaninov’s sublime Piano Concerto No 3 in D minor. Trpceski’s performance was insightful and his partnership with Petrenko was quite special. There were some wonderfully haunting moments here, but yet the cadenza was particularly powerful.

The intense melodic development of the slow movement revealed Rachmaninov as one of the most clever spinners of melody who must ever have sat before a blank sheet of manuscript paper. Once again, the relationship of soloist and conductor was finely balanced, melting into the variations which form the finale. Here, Petrenko exploited the orchestra to its fullest degree.

The programme consisted of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto and Shostakovich's 10th Symphony. Petrenko's Rachmaninov is passionate yet strikingly unsentimental. This approach that fits well with that of his soloist Simon Trpceski, whose playing of this most difficult of concertos combined impish nonchalance with great muscularity. Much of it was dazzling – above all, the discreet brilliance that Trpčeski and Petrenko brought to the finale. Yet the performance was also as much about form as it was about bravura: Trpčeski dispatched the first-movement cadenza with breathtaking panache, yet never allowed us to forget its place in Rachmaninov's musical argument as a whole.

Seen and heard

BBC Promenade concert review

Proms Chamber Music 15 - Chopin, Mendelssohn and Stravinsky: Simon Trpčeski (piano)Simon Crawford-Phillips and Ashley Wass (two pianos), Cadogan Hall, London, 31.8.2009 (BBr)

Chopin: Four Mazurkas, op.24 (1833) Mazurka in A minor, op.17/4 (1833)Mendelssohn: Songs Without Words, op.19/1 (1829/1830), Venetian Gondola Song, op.19/6 (1829/1830), Venetian Gondola Song, op.30/6 (1833/1934), op.38/2 (1836/1837) and op.62/1 (1842/1844)

To start the third day of this festival within a festival,  there was  piano music, and not the most obvious. Starting with five Mazurkas by Chopin, Simon Trpčeski displayed fine taste as he gave the pieces without recourse to sentimentality, which can so often happen, and with a full understanding of the light and shade of the music. He was aided and abetted by the most sublime use of rubato. This was Chopin playing of the highest order. No less impressive was his performance of five of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words. His playing never pushed the music; he allowed it to speak for itself and thus brought out the underlying passion of the pieces. They somehow ceased to be miniatures but became something much bigger.

The kids just keep on coming. Saturday, July 11 at Blossom Music Center, the Cleveland Orchestra played host to two very young musicians already making their mark in the world of classical music.

It must be noted that Trpceski is an engaging artist of fine sensibilities and romantic flair. In the opening Moderato's slower passages, as well as the meditative second movement, Trpceski spun delicate lines of melody that hung suspended in the night air. Bringuier's support here was discreet and alert.

The final Allegro scherzando, blessed (or cursed, depending on your point of view) with one of Rachmaninoff's biggest and most indelible melodies, was given a confident workout by pianist and conductor that brought the audience, predictably and justifiably, to its feet.

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In Britain we tend to be fairly blasé about orchestras visiting from abroad, so often do they pop in in the course of a European tour. In Macedonia, however, it is a different matter. This concert, the first to be given in Skopje by Moscow's Bolshoy Theatre Orchestra, was also one of those rare occasions on which any major foreign classical ensemble had made an appearance in the city. The paparazzi were out in force; the 2,500-seater venue was packed; dignitaries and members of the public clamoured for tickets.

This was a signal event as well as a musically rewarding one. A vital catalyst in its happening at all was Simon Trpčeski. His exceptional pianism might be well-known worldwide, but that is nothing compared to his fame in Macedonia, where, as any taxi-driver will tell you, he is a national figure to match any football hero or pop star. His friendship with Alexander Vedernikov, the Bolshoy's music director and chief conductor, had clearly been a crucial factor in initiating the concert, and it was only natural - not to mention a positive public expectation - that he should be part of it.

Snug in the middle of the Balkans, Macedonia has given the world Alexander the Great, Mother Teresa and a term for that most delightful invention, the fruit salad. Honourable and tasty achievements all, though for music lovers today the chief Macedonian export is definitely Simon Trpčeski. It is not simply that this pianist’s blend of phenomenal technique, good taste and inspiring imagination wins him this eminence. It’s also his gusto for championing his small, plucky country and furthering its cultural renaissance.

Without Trpčeski’s involvement, the foreign excursions of an ensemble like the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra would be unlikely to reach Skopje, the capital city but still some way off the beaten track. When they performed an all-Russian prorgamme with Trpceski on Saturday — the night of the European Song Contest too — two and a half thousand eager people filled the Metropolis Arena, the kind of utilitarian modern space more set up for boxing matches than eight rounds of classical music.

No gilt. No plush velvet. No curving balconies. This was certainly not the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Yet as soon as the orchestra and their music director Alexander Vedernikov launched into Tchaikovskys Hamlet overture, the national timbres asserted themselves: resinous strings, earthy woodwinds, brass with an almost malevolent power. The Arena’s dry, unadorned acoustic gave the orchestra no place to hide — not that they had any reason to in this impassioned, well-argued performance.

Then the piano was wheeled on for a glittering and playful account of Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Some pianists of renown play as if the piano is either their adversary or the partner they’ve stopped loving. But as Trpčeski’s hands frisked over the keys so lightly, so unaffectedly, you knew immediately that the piano was his home, his best and most faithful friend. Rachmaninov’s kaleidoscopic variations gave him a chance for every variety of tone and attack, from puckish flourish through bell-like chant to a thundering Dies Irae. With Vedernikov’s orchestra in perfect step, Trpčeski switched between moods without any shadow of the mechanical. All was natural ebullience and fun.

Come the second half and Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony, some of the Bolshoi Orchestra’s patina started to fade a little. There were reasons, chiefly the Arena’s heat, exacerbated by the industrial blast of the platform’s lighting. Rough edges crept over some of the string playing and the score’s climactic gestures needed a fraction more force to match the composer’s rhetoric and Vedernikov’s far-flung arms. Yet nothing affected the mastery of Prokofiev’s sinuous lyrical line, the vim of the second movement's toccata or the slow movement’s darkening nostalgia.

Plenty of vim among the encores too, launched in foot-tapping style with the stomping dance of In Struga by the contemporary Macedonian Pande Sahov — a piano piece dressed on Saturday in French-flavoured orchestral finery. With luck, in three years’ time Skopje will be able to house classical concerts like this in its first custom-built concert hall. I’m sure Alexander the Great would approve.

From the familiar opening notes of the Grieg concerto, pianist Simon Trpceski brought all his artistry and energy to the technically demanding work.

Trpceski performed dramatically, riding the theme from the depths of the keyboard to the heights and back again in a series of splendid, cascading glissandi. The folk music echoed throughout the final movement, a lively rondo in which similarities to traditional Norwegian folk dance could be detected.

PSO does Rachmaninoff proud

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April, 4, 2009

Rachmaninoff's final work, "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini," introduced Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski. "I am pure Russian school, but with flexible opinions about music," he told me in an interview, and that came true in a wonderfully imaginative playing.

While still offering the needed resonating tone and crisp technique, Trpceski opened his imagination, unleashing colors and exuberant phrasing that belied the predominant dour-looking image of Rachmaninoff. (See? Stereotypes falling already.) The result was organic in nature. Nothing felt tacked on -- not certainly the famous Eighteenth Variation, which unfolded modestly and without the typical spotlight many pianists give it. He played Chopin's Waltz No. 19 in A minor as an encore. Clearly a pianist we need to hear again.

Conductor Gianandrea Noseda cultivated Trpceski's vigor and let the work bound forth, bringing out several vibrant solos from the orchestra.

PSO soloist strings along composer's brilliance

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The Pittsburgh Symphony's "Rediscovering Rachmaninoff" festival began Friday night at Heinz Hall with a masterpiece that should fuel anyone's desire for musical exploration and concluded with a reward for that curiosity.

Soloist Simon Trpceski and conductor Gianandrea Noseda gave a scintillating performance. Trpceski's clarity was striking, and no matter how many notes he was playing they never lost their fleet purposefulness.

Trpceski plays the big lyrical variation with a degree of classicism Rachmaninoff would have admired, I think. And when the orchestra took the theme as the soloist played amplifying chords, Noseda shaped the line with a refinement of feeling that did not preclude intensity.

After the well-deserved standing ovation, Trpceski's encore was a poignant and patrician account of a Waltz in A minor by Frederic Chopin.

Trpceski, RTÉ NSO/Markson

NCH, Dublin

The music shows a combination of chunky crudeness and sophisticated orchestral manipulation which Markson made hard to resist. Nor was there any resisting the approach of Simon Trpceski in Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. This is a work that’s been come at from many angles of virtuosity and sensitivity. Trpceski gave the refreshing impression of being able to see it with simple clarity and deliver it with a tight rhythmic control. He eschewed much of the rutted rubato to which the piece is often subjected, and the outcome was a performance of exceptional freshness.

He avoided all temptations towards grandiloquence, took an excitingly unflinching line through the gruelling octave passages, and, with judicious accompaniment from Markson, never gave the impression of having to struggle to be heard. The audience’s palpable delight resulted in two encores.

FROM THE FOOTHILLS TO COMMANDING HEIGHTS

Simon Trpceski and the London Philharmonic, review

Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski confronts the formidable challenge of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Louis Langré.

In the quarter of a century that I have been writing about concerts for The Daily Telegraph, the enduring joy has been to witness talented young musicians on the foothills of their careers and to follow them as they steadily rise in stature to become key exponents of their art. There are many performers and conductors who have enriched my life in this way, but one of the foremost among them is the Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski.
In this concert with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Louis Langrée, he confronted one of those formidable challenges of playing a work so central to the repertoire that its familiarity is often in danger of making it seem commonplace.
 
Commonplace, however, is not a word in Trpceski's vocabulary. On the several occasions I have heard him in Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto, the music has always been infused with freshness, suppleness and expressive sophistication.
Not for him any vacuous grandiloquence or run-of-the-mill display. Rather, as in this performance, he is able to tap the concerto's grandeur and nobility, its excitement, drama and poignancy to fuel an interpretation that fuses taste with a lucid exposition of the score's palette of colouring and emotion, together with sinewy, assured bravura in which every note has its proper place.
There was palpable, communicative depth of thought here, allied to all the deft virtuosity, brilliance and power that the concerto demands. The interaction with the orchestra was spontaneous and steadfast, igniting those sparks of electricity and the surges of current that Tchaikovsky's writing implies, with a peroration in the final bars that was all the more satisfying for seeming to burgeon naturally from all that had gone before.
Trpceski received an ovation for his performance, and as an encore played the athletic, ebullient Struga by his fellow-Macedonian, Pande Sahov.
It might be that the sheer force and finesse of the Tchaikovsky cast a shadow over the rest of the programme, but the textures of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique did not always gleam with their intrinsic lustre. Messiaen's Les Offrandes oubliées made for an unusual though intriguing curtain-raiser, but Trpceski in Tchaikovsky was unquestionably the high point of the evening.

In the vineyard

Simon Trpceski`s Munich debut in the Herkulessaal

Süddeutsche Zeitung München, March, 5, 2009

 By John Rubner

In the matinee "young pianists" Simon Trpceski from Macedonia impressed the audience of the BASF Gesellschaftshaus with pieces by Frederic Chopin, Claude Debussy and Sergej Prokofieff. The Shopin-part was an extraordinary event of his appearance in Ludwigshafen.

Wilhelm Furtwängler, the legendary principal conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker once said that for him there are only four really important composers: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and - surprisingly - Chopin. Those who listened attentively to Trpceski`s Chopin could understand what Furtwängler felt.
Chopin did not compose symphonies, but mainly piano-pieces, which the lyric poet Gottfried Benn called "tragic progressions of artistic conviction and with a small hand".

Also to the 5 Mazurkas from Chopin, which Trpceski celebrated solemnly and respectfully one cannot at all dance happily.
These dances are profound character-pieces in the spirit of dance.

Trpceski is a psycho-analyst of the keyboard. The sequence of the 5 Mazurkas felt like a uniform assembly of different feelings.
Trpceski lingered, slowed down the tempo, phrased remarkably faint-hearted and let the notes almost die whensadness or the longing for his homeland Poland
arose up in Chopin. There were also violent chains of chords in Trpceski`s play that charmed like visions or daydreams of happy intimacy and warm shelter.
Chopin`s Mazurkas as well as his Walzes and Polonaises are something like entries in a diary of an always melancholic genious.

At Chopins b-flat-minor Sonata one could equally be not as happy as at the dances. The beginning of the sonata is a feast for acrobats of the keyboard.
But the point is not an empty circus-performance but a drastic rebellion. In Trpceski`s play one perceives passionate unrest and the longing for the heights of life.
In the "marche funèbre" Chopin burys all hope. The pianist sympazised, He slowed a little too much and became sentimental. The "marche funèbre" is followed
by a fast unisono movement, that lasts only a few minutes. Trpceski made something like Chopin`s "Flight of the Bumblebee into the inferno" out of it.

No wonder that the pianist who was born in 1979 (?) in Mazedonia had his debut in the London Wigmore Hall in 2001 and achieved overwhelming rejoicing attracted
and enchanted thousands of English and Scottish music-lovers in the 2004 Proms and celebrates world wide triumph since 2005. He is especially popular  in the USA.

Debussy`s cycle "Children`s Corner" he played nobly and elegantly. His flexible fingers modelled extremely delicate impressive pictures from giggling, dreaming and playing children to frolic-like Jazz-dance in "Golliwogg`s Cake-Walk".  (Those) who had thought that the fascinating delicately touching pianist is not the right man for the powerful Russian Sergej Prokofieff were deceived. In Prokofiev`s devilish Toccata op. 11 and in his 7th Sonata Trpceski`s hands tranformed into turbines of a musical power station. Overwhelming motoric and nearly perverse rhythm dominated the fast movement.

To roaring orgys of expresssion also belongs shocking sudden braking, where the notes scream out and wail of pain.
There the pianist recollects his beloved Chopin and dedicates to him at the encores a very beautiful, very quite and enchanting piece.

Big boy in the play-corner

Mannheimer morgen, March, 2009

In the Gesellschaftshaus in Ludwigshafen, the pianist Simon Trpceski is a deeply exploring virtuso.

Very hard acoustics

He trims the Mazurkas by Chopin despite his luxurious, but very natural rubato application to a

flexible three-four-time. In the direct, rather unemotional acoustics of the Gesellschaftshaus, which

is as hard as life is, in the Mazurka op. 17/4 he is successful to emigrate into a world in which one

speaks gentler and enraptured.

After a short orchestral emotion the music declines. While in the „Marche funиbre-Sonata“ Trpceski

again starts up his Steinway and allows voluminous tone to grand form. He knows the extremes –

but skilfully mediates among them. His references go back to Artur Rubinstein.

Unlike some other „Wunderknaben“ (boy wonder) of the global „pianist-circus“ who threaten to

loose the ground under their feet, Trpceski still in 2009 conserves the tradition of romantic piano

playing, as if it were nothing. And purely technically the Mazedonian is world class. In the „marche

funиbre“ the crescendo comes like from the mixing console. Completely regular. Also, for the end

of the sonata, there are at best five collegues who play it like him.

That Trpceski's Debussy in „Children's Corner“ is made for adults, is clear. In „The snow is

dancing“ the pianist does not look with naive children's fun, but with the eyes of an asthete, who

accurately reproducts pattern, lines, density of the sprinkling. Finally „Golliwogg's Cake-Walk“

becomes a plastic pantomime. Sometimes slapstick-like study of movements. The Music becomes a

scene.

The Toccata by Prokofjiew the Mazedonian winds up like a wild chase in a silent movie. Sergej

Eisenstein meets Walt Disney, und the flee circus takes place in the age of machines. Spectacular.

Also Marta Agerich in her best times could hardly do better. In Prokofjews B-Major-“War-

Sonata“ he celebrates again a romantic legato in the second movement, rich and solid. The beauty

lasts astonishingly long. But in the finale the accords in the bass fall like a bombshell,

chains of descant cut in like barbed wire into the flesh, and high single notes transmit SOS. But SimonTrpceski is victorious.

Auditorium du Louvre, Paris, Février, 27, 2009

Simon Trpceski (piano)

By Simon Corley

concertonet.com

The popular Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, based on Russian folk material, was the centre of the second RNO’s concert, and Trpceski handled the score’s numerous challenges with aplomb and nuance. That won him, too, vigorous audience approval.

Royal festival Hall, London

Simon Trpceski / Vladimir Ashkenazy

The Guardian, December, 4, 2008

By Tim Ashley

The evening's main concert, in marked contrast, was a high-voltage affair conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. Pride of place, inevitably, went to a glorious performance of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto, played by Simon Trpceski, whose ability to make its daunting technical challenges sound easy earned him a standing ovation.

Simon Trpčeski (piano)

Vladimir Ashkenazy

Philharmonia Orchestra

Royal Festival Hall, London, November, 30, 2008
SEEN AND HEARD CONCERT REVIEW

By Geoff Diggines

RFH, Nov. 30, 2009

LPO/  Ashkenazy/ Simon Trpceski

Classical source

By Colin Anderson

Simon Trpceski had offered a bridge to the symphony with his encore, “October” from Tchaikovsky’s the Seasons, which he dedicated to his family, a sensitive rendition that held the air and was welcome after mightily impressive account of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, which found the Macedonian pianist in imperious, even nonchalant form, wrong notes not on the agenda and with a length and line that confirmed recent impressions that he has become an artist of the first order, an attentive and sympathetic musician whose sense of colour and balance  illuminates what he plays in the mist discerning way.

Such a long-term approach made his cutting loose in the first movement cadenza a necessary release rather than a gratuitous display. The whole performance, vital, lucid and noble was refreshingly alive to Rachmaninov the symphonic rather than sound-bite composer.

SCO/Storgårds

City Halls, Glasgow

Daily Telegraph, October, 13. 2008

By Geoffrey Norris 

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s spruce, unadulterated playing had a more natural feel, both in the Emperor Concerto and in the overture Consecration of the House that opened its concert.

John Storgårds conducted lean, focused performances which, in the concerto, matched Trpceski’s mix of power, clear vision and freshness.

This was essentially a Classical interpretation, its grandeur deriving not from bloated gesture or Romantic utterance but from firmness, force of argument and limpid purity.

The shapely, restrained lyricism of the central adagio established moments of reflective repose between the more robust outer movements, in which the music’s energy was confidently harnessed while being malleable enough to highlight Trpceski’s expressive, enlivening way with details of phrasing and touch.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

City Hall, Glasgow

Glasgow Herald, October, 13. 2008

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Star rating * * * *

In an idle moment before Friday night's SCO concert, I wondered if the orchestra might have miscalculated the weight of its programme by having, as its core, two magisterial masterpieces in E flat major back to back: Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto, the Emperor, and Schumann's Third Symphony, the Rhenish.

In other hands that might have proved to be the case, but the approaches to the two Olympian works by, respectively, Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski and Finnish conductor John Storgards were so radically different that there was not the faintest risk of coagulation, with both concerto and symphony being coloured from completely varying tonal palettes.

Trpceski, as was evident in some moments of the Emperor - such as the thunderous octaves in the development section of the first movement - has massive physical power. But this was an Emperor of a different hue, one that eschewed the leonine potential of the rolling piano arpeggios at the start, and any sense of impending battle with the orchestra. Trpceski's Emperor was about clarity, discretion - and even intimacy. He was incredibly economical in the use of the sustaining pedal. No walls of sound here, just pristine playing with a light, yet steely, touch.

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Good, pacey tempi allowed for a soft spotlight on the hypnotically slow speed the pianist adopted for the dreamlike Adagio, while the rhythms of the finale were well-sprung, but not aggressive.

Then, in dazzling contrast, John Storgards conducted a hot-blooded version of the Rhenish Symphony for which the expression "full-on" might have been coined. Despite his exhilarating, high-energy approach, the most sumptuous moments, particularly the gorgeously burnished second movement, emerged intact.

Simon Trpceski

Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh

The Scotsman, October, 10.2008

Review by Susan Nickalls

* * * * *

…Soloist Simon Trpceski slotted comfortably into this high-octane mix with a magnificent edge-of-the-seat performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concert No5 Emperor.

    Dynamic subtleties can often become a casualty in the struggle for dominance between orchestra and soloists in concertos, but here the Macedonian pianist produced a spectacular array of colors and textures from the Steinway that blended seamlessly with the orchestral sound.

   Trpceski also captured the full spectrum of Beethoven’s moods, from the militaristic swagger in the first movement and dreamy tenderness in the second to a finale that danced triumphantly to the close.

Spontaneous musicality  
Winterthur, October, 03.2008

By Rita Wolfensberger

Glut, strength and stormy temperament  
The first subscription concert of the Musik Kollegium in more ways than one brought youthful vigor.  
 

"...in contrast to the early symphonies in the first part of the programme, one of Beethoven's main pieces of his late period was presented after the interval: the powerful piano concerto in E flat major, and its soloist was also a not even 30 years old pianist, who now shared the interpretation with ardour, power and strong temperament with the conductor and the orchestra.

His name is Simon Trpceski, he comes from Macedonia and combines perfectly highest technical proficiency and fantastic trills with spontaneous musicality, which at the time moves along the pulse of the music, tracing it, expressing it with warmth, also with pride and sovereignty.

As a whole it was a generous, in many details (e.g. wonderfully formed returns and transitions) a brilliant interpretation, that carried away the audience."

Simon sparkle raises the tone

CBSO/Simon Trpceski

Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Birmingham Mail, September, 26.2008

Review by John Mclaren

MAGICAL Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski transformed what was threatening to become a so-so evening with an electrifying rendition of the Piano Concerto No.2 by Saint-Saens.

Earlier, during a rather placid Prelude a l’Apres-Midi d,un Faune, by Debussy,there was little to distract us from the bouncy 1986 World Cup-style mullet of the otherwise excellent conductor, Andris Nelsons. But from the dramatic first note of this beautiful, under-rated concerto, Trpceski had his audience spellbound. It was hard to believe that fingers could move so lightening fast and yat so precisely.

A plug here for the unbeatable acoustic of Symphony Hall, so superior to the muddy, muffled tones of the Royal Albert Hall which almost spoiled a Rachmaninov piano concerto for me less than three weeks ago. Move the Proms to Brum, I say…

Responding to a thunderous and prolonged  ovation, Trpceski than treated us to two encores, including Mendelssohn’s Gondolier and twinkle-toed UK premiere of fellow-countryman Pande Sahov’s In Struga. It’s about watching pretty Macedonian girls parade by, apparently. The pianist dedicated it to the “wonderful” orchestra, who than concluded a memorable evening with a super-lush Rachmaninov 2^nd Symphony of autumn fruitfulness.

Rating: * * * *  

CBSO/Andris Nelsons

Symphony Hall, Birmingham

September, 25 2008

By Christopher Morley

Totally different, spectacularly ill-defined, is the Second Piano Concerto by Saint-Saens, beginning with arresting Bach pastiche and ending with cheap sparkling wine.

But Simon Trpceski was a persuasive soloist, clear and full-toned, his deft technique matched by a bright and supportive orchestral accompaniment under Nelsons’ baton.

Trpceski gave two encores, the first discourteously unannounced (I think it was Mendelssohn), the second endearingly by a Macedonian compatriot.

Mastery of detail 

Toward the light

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Hamer Hall, Melbourne

The Age, July, 19.2008

By Clive O'Connell

Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski took us one country to the west for the Saint-Saens Concerto No.2 in G Minor, one of the French composer's most accessible works: a portentous opening followed by a Mendelssohn- light scherzo with a darting and brisk piano part, and finally a brilliant tarantella finale of remarkably happy temper despite its minor-key setting.

 Trpceski impressed with his mastery of detail and rapidity of response-some of the quickest trill-work I've witnessed for some time-and, if you missed the detached control of Entremont or Thibaudet's flourishes you were compensated by this artist's pleasure in the task and his communication of the work's spirited drive, notably in the last movement, which became a dazzling moto perpetuo that generated high enthusiasm from an audience that clearly enjoyed virtuosity for its own sake.

Dazzling Teamwork 

WASO/Perth Concert Hall

The West Australian, July, 15.2008

By William Yeoman

From the magical seascape of Ravel's "A Boat on the Ocean" through Saint-Saens' glittering Piano Concerto No. 2 to the technicolour brilliance of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, this was a program guaranteed to dazzle senses.

Even more impressive, though, was the dynamism and the theatricality of young Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski in the Saint-Saens. Playing from memory and with complete abandon, Trpceski subjugated the piano to his will with an ecstatic dance that easily despatched the many sweeping arpeggios, fast octave passages and complex figurations.

The NZSO the Russians and the Macedonians

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/Auckland Town  Hall

The Manpower Professional Season

June, 30. 2008

By John Daly-Peoples

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NZ Symphony Orchestra

Auckland Town Hall, Auckland

The New Zealand Herald, June, 30. 2008
By William Dart

Simon Trpceski is one charismatic Macedonian. Guesting with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the weekend, the 28-year-old pianist arrived with two potential pot-boilers and transformed them into pure gold.

On Friday, Saint-Saens' light but stylish G minor Concerto was a frothy delight. The Bachian ruminations of its introduction were laid out by Trpceski with just the right combination of intellect and passion, paving the way for conductor Yoel Levi and his orchestra at full tilt.

Throughout, Trpceski tendered the sort of virtuosity that leaves one gasping; syncopated octaves, molto furioso, one moment and chromatic scales whirling like snakes on amphetamine the next. The melody of the first movement yearned with chic; the second and third movements were incisively elegant romps.

Similar alchemy took place on Saturday, with Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini as Trpceski performed this perennial party piece with the impetuosity and zeal of a youthful athlete. It set off coyly, as well it might, but by the sixth variation, Trpceski was dazzling us with vertiginous chromatics and, in the celebrated 18th, he surrendered to the rich emotionalism of Rachmaninov's writing, inspiring Levi and the orchestra to do likewise.

Encores were generous; each evening paired an understated gem by Mendelssohn or Chopin with a rip-roaring Prelude and Pajduska by his fellow Macedonian Zivojin Glisic. Delivered with the utmost virtuosity, this was like a musical tumbledryer with Bartok spinning around in the company of composers from George Winston to cut-and-paste Antheil.

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Vasily Petrenko's masterpieces

Classical music review, April, 29. 2008

Then Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto: a work full of pitfalls and whose character depends on a soloist daring enough to flirt with all of them. Simon Trpceski may have lost his luggage to the insatiable maw of British Airways, but he still brought bags of self-confidence, which might even have been alienating, were it not that the music itself thrives on it.

True, there were passages, especially in the first movement, where others find more charm and wit, and that here emerged more ruthlessly than Trpceski maybe intended. But there were plenty more that were borderline sensational in their agility, articulacy and colouristic flair, and some that were actually so, with virtuosity and imagination, instinct, understanding and experience firing together in a dazzling display of fireworks.

 All that, plus the RLPO's accompaniment, which was a riot of subtle pointing and quicksilver reactions, provoking a rapturous audience reception, fully deserved.

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Pianist Trpceski gives a splendid recital at Meany

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P-I MUSIC CRITIC/Music review       

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The ascent of Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski, who gave a recital Tuesday night at Meany Hall, has been rapid indeed.

PIANIST SIMON TRPCESKI

Only six years ago he graduated from the University of St. Cyril and St. Methodius in Skopje. Already he was a member of the BBC New Generation Scheme, having won competitions in the United Kingdom, Czech Republic and Italy, and he'd given a highly acclaimed recital at Wigmore Hall in London where the Times proclaimed, "Here is a musician who looks ... to dominate the pianistic world for a long time to come."

He made his American debut with the Seattle Symphony in 2002 and was a sensation.

Among his pianistic attributes is high-voltage command of the keyboard. His fingers move at lightning speed, and every note is in place. Yet his astonishing bravura is never a gesture of mere ego. In addition to technical authority is musical authority. He has interpretative breadth, depth and an ability to make music that possesses myriad colors and points of view.

Trpceski arrived in Seattle fresh from a series of appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall, where he gave a dazzling performance of Prokofiev's First Piano Concerto Saturday night. There was plenty of Prokofiev at the Meany concert on both sides of intermission. In the first half was the Toccata in D Minor and rarely heard "Tales of an Old Grandmother" and the second half, the Seventh Sonata. "Tales of an Old Grandmother" is simple and charming, wonderfully tuneful, and Trpceski played it as such with welcome lightness. The Toccata by contrast is fierce and dense and very, very difficult. Trpceski played with both utter concentration and abandon.

The Seventh Sonata is one of Prokofiev's most highly regarded and best-known works for the solo piano. It, too, presents many challenges to the pianist. It is percussive and often spare. The slow movement is lyrical and the final movement is in perpetual motion. All together, the work is compelling, provided the pianist does not just bang away, which many do. Trpceski did not. He brought finesse, dynamic variety and high intelligence to the performance.

Five individual works from Rachmaninoff completed the Russian part of the evening. They bore no particular connection to one another but they worked handsomely. As with the Prokofiev Trpceski gave the works a musical dimension and all sorts of flavors other pianists seem to miss.

The only non-Russian on the program was Debussy -- his "Children's Corner." With its lovely sense of intimate pleasures, the work has much to offer. It was the beginning of a splendid evening of music making.

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Simon Trpceski conquers great works in President's Piano recital

Seattle Times music critic/ Concert Review

By Melinda Bargreen  

The best thing to come out of Macedonia since Alexander the Great is the 28-year-old pianist Simon Trpceski, who returned to Seattle for Tuesday's President's Piano Series — and, like his long-ago predecessor, did some conquering.

The thorniest musical scores just seem to fall over when Trpceski approaches, their most difficult challenges handled with such ease that technique is simply never an issue. This pianist is pretty good at conquering audiences as well as scores, not only with his playing but also with an engaging manner that connects with his listeners. (He announced the dedication of one of his three encores to Evelyn Simpson, one of Seattle's most indispensable artist aides, in a classy gesture.)

The recital program opened and closed with Debussy, a composer to whom Trpceski clearly feels close; EMI Classics has just released his exquisitely nuanced disc of Debussy pieces, which sounded even better live in Meany Theater. The opening "Children's Corner" was full of puckish humor, and surprises in both dynamics and phrasing.

Prokofiev's seldom-heard four "Tales of an Old Grandmother" emerged as charming character pieces, moody and dreamy or angular and acerbic. You don't hear Prokofiev's Toccata in D Minor much on concert programs, either, and it's clear why: It's a work of staggering technical complexity. Trpceski tossed it off as if it were just a trifle.

The pianist's command of pedalling was particularly clear in a Rachmaninoff set, which included some relative rarities as well as some of the big-moment preludes (including the famous one in C-sharp minor, which Rachmaninoff himself was called on so often to play that he came to hate the piece).

The terrific finale, Prokofiev's much-played Sonata No. 7, was one wild ride, with Trpceski's famous clarity transforming the final "Precipitato" movement, in which other players often mash together the fast-arriving and percussive chords. Not this time. You actually could hear every note — what a concept!

The pianist met an ovation with three Debussy encores: the Arabesques Nos. 1 and 2, and "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair," with some of the loveliest playing of the evening.

Demonic character and boiling energy

Seattle Sound, April, 2. 2008

By Zach Carstensen

It took Simon Trpceski three encores, but Tuesday’s Meany Hall audience finally got their fill of the young, Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski. Trpceski was in town as part of the President’s Piano Series. Seattle holds a special place for Trpceski, it was, after all, the location for his North American debut. His fondness for the city was evident in an interview I did with him for Seattle Sound Magazine. “Their [Seattle’s] appreciation and reaction for my art is certainly a great motivation for me.” Given the audience’s response last night, we should expect to see much more of Trpceski in the years to come.
Trpceski took the world by storm with a scintillating recital in 2001 at England’s famed Wigmore Hall. A recording contract with EMI soon followed and before too long he was recording Rachmaninoff’s Preludes and his thorny Piano Sonata No.2. His most recent recording, a collection of charming and evocative Debussy pieces, acted as a foundation for Tuesday’s performance, beginning and ending the recital.
Trpceski’s program choices were a collection of marked contrasts. The first half, featured music that conjured more than it wowed. Debussy’s Children’s Corner was splendidly performed. Debussy composed the suite of miniatures for his daughter with the dedication: “”to my dear Chou-Chou, with the tender apologies of her father for what is to follow.” The dedication would end up being prophetic; both Debussy and his daughter would be dead within one year of each other.
Trpceski’s articulation and coloration was exceptional, both which helped to illustrate the essence of childhood. The Snow is Dancing is enchanting when given an average performance, under Trpceski the movement was spell binding. At this point in his young career, Trpceski is still a work in progress, and Children’s Corner demonstrated there is more to the Macedonian than just virtuosic prowess.
Children’s Corner was balanced at the end of the first half with a wild performance of Prokofiev’s Toccata. In Trpceski’s own words “the Toccata is a devil piece that shows the sometimes demonic character and boiling energy of the young Prokofiev.” For four minutes I don’t think I took a breath as Trpceski dashed off the piece.
After intermission Trpceski returned with a collection of some of Rachmaninoff’s most famous Preludes and more Prokofiev, the composer’s Piano Sonata No.7. You could quibble with the pianist’s sluggish Op.23 No.5 Prelude; however the effect served to underscore the work’s darker colors and somber texture.
Prokofiev’s Sonata No.7 combined the contrasts of the night and gave Trpceski a chance to show off both his technical brilliance and his tremendous artistry. The sonata is the third of Prokofiev’s “war sonatas.” The movement’s varying sensations challenge the technical and descriptive abilities of a pianist. I suspect this is what drew Trpceski to the work.
The second movement of the sonata demonstrates this contrast best. The movement begins with a reassuring main subject that is overcome by a violent, hair raising, clanging middle, which leads us right back to the original subject. The pianist tackled the charged middle without sacrificing the beauty and panache of the original subject.
Even though the night was filled with contrasting pieces, Trpescki mused “It’s always about love one way or another. The energy that the love for the music brings or the music itself brings.” There’s no doubt about it, if Trpceski continues to impress like he did on Tuesday, Seattle will continue to welcome the pianist back with open arms.

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Two piano stars, but only one dazzles

Toronto Star/Classical music critic, March, 19. 2008

By John Terauds  

Chinese sensation Yundi Li disappoints while Macedonian wonder Simon Trpceski impresses

You can’t be at two concerts at once, but you can certainly be at two concerts in the same evening.

There were two big-name pianists giving solo recitals in town last night: 25-year-old Chinese sensation Yundi Li at Roy Thomson Hall and Macedonian wonder Simon Trpceski, a scant three years older, at the Jane Mallett Theatre for Music Toronto.

It was tough deciding which concert to attend. In the end, Li’s won because there would be about 2,000 more people in the hall.

But Li’s performance in the first half of his program was so uninspired that, early on, I began having regrets that I wasn’t sitting in the smaller theatre a few blocks to the east.

By the end of his strange and sharp-edged pairing of the Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante by Frédéric Chopin, I just wanted to get away. The thought of him pounding through Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition during the second half was further incentive.

Li’s was the grand affair, with the gleaming-black concert grand artfully bathed in a circle of light in front of a nearly full house. The artist himself wore white tie and tails to play his program of Western pieces drawn exclusively from the 19th century, as well as seven Chinese compositions.

Li’s recital was filled with pieces that dazzle with their virtuosic demands - like Franz Liszt’s transcription of Robert Schumann’s song Widmung - but the Chinese pianist was only concerned with surfaces.

Beneath the metallic glint of the Steinway was emptiness, like puff pastry without any custard filling.

Li has recorded Chopin before, and very beautifully at that, but his performances of a Nocturne and four Mazurkas from Op. 33 were not even phoned in, but text-messaged in, with vacuous emoticons substituting for the real thing.

It is possible that Li was having a bad night - or a bad first half. But I didn’t wait to find out more. Not when Trpceski, who has performed dazzlingly with both the Symphony and Music Toronto several times before, beckoned.

The Macedonian artist’s program was all 20th century, also based heavily on the creations of composers who were star pianists: Sergeis Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, as well as Claude Debussy.

Trpceski may have been wearing a plain, black suit and sitting at the Jane Mallett’s old Steinway that can no longer stay in tune through an entire program. But the music he produced during the second half of his recital was pure gold.

There were five sparkling, short pieces by Rachmaninov followed by an electrifying interpretation of Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 7, which was written during the height of World War II. The pianist shaped the ugly piles of notes into towering edifices of rhythm and counterpoint, while making the reflective middle movement sound almost romantic.

Here was a young artist not only possessed with phenomenal technique, but with an iron will that could bend these steely, spiky shapes into awe-inspiring sonic sculptures.

As a bonus for someone who missed his Children’s Corner by Debussy earlier in the evening, all three encores were by the French composer.

Thanks to Trpceski and my sudden, rapid change of venue, what was quickly becoming one of the season’s drudge-recitals turned into one of the most memorable evenings of the year.

Not that I want to make a habit of hearing two concerts in one night.

boulezian.blogspot.com

Wigmore Hall, London

Tuesday, March, 4.2008

Simon Trpčeski

Wigmore Hall

Chopin – Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op.35
Debussy – Children’s Corner
Prokofiev – Old Grandmother’s Tales Op.31
Prokofiev – Toccata in D minor, Op.11
Prokofiev – Piano Sonata no.7 in B flat major, Op.83

Simon Trpčeski (piano)

Simon Trpčeski possesses a phenomenal technique, but is also clearly a fine musician with a mind of his own. Chopin’s second sonata received a commanding reading, a couple of slips in the scherzo notwithstanding. Trpčeski has an extraordinary fullness of tone: undoubtedly pianistic, but also highly suggestive at times of orchestral colours. This, one could tell, was someone born to play a Steinway (and Rachmaninov). The first movement was big-boned, at times almost Beethovenian in its sound, although there is of course nothing Beethovenian about Chopin’s remarkably original handling of sonata form. There was a true sense of a cortège to the Marche funèbre, which somewhat surprisingly put me in mind of the ‘Bydlo’ from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. The middle D flat major section of this movement was especially notable. Taken at a daringly slow pace, there was a daring spareness of texture allied to the noble singing tone that was Trpčeski’s throughout the recital. The Presto final movement sounded less spare, less flickering, than is generally the case, but certainly worked well in Trpčeski’s bolder interpretation of its moto perpetuo. Indeed, there was a sense in which it therefore seemed more of a ‘finale’ than is often the case with a movement that bewildered Schumann and Mendelssohn amongst others.

The six movements of Debussy’s Children’s Corner were sharply and winningly characterised. Trpčeski’s Debussy is not a composer of (post-)impressionist hazes, but paints in bold, primary colours. This is Debussy for the Steinway, not the Erard. I do not wish to imply absence of variegation. ‘Jimbo’s Lullaby’ was softer in touch and approach than, say, its predecessor, ‘Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum’, which fairly rattled through Debussy’s affectionate parody of Clementi’s tedious keyboard exercises. Yet mystery was not to the fore of this pianist’s agenda. Occasionally, for instance in ‘The snow is dancing’, I felt this as a lack, but there were compensations aplenty, not least from Trpčeski’s tightness of rhythm, which did not preclude well-considered rubati from time to time. This is a pianist of aristocratic poise, as he would also show in the first of his encores, the first Arabesque. The part-writing was as clear as it would have been with Maurizio Pollini, but with a more Romantic, less modernistic tone. In ‘Golliwogg’s cake walk’, the gently mocking quotations from Tristan und Isolde were wonderfully handled: full of character, yet integrated into the general musical argument.

Prokofiev perhaps fared best of all. The Old Grandmother’s Tales sounded duly nostalgic, pining for a Mussorgskian ‘Mother Russia’ that no longer existed, if ever it had. The ‘whiteness’ of Prokofiev’s piano writing – irrespective of key – was married to a wonderful, vocal projection of line. This was followed by a simply spellbinding Toccata, which never relented and yet never lost that extraordinary fullness of tone. I have long treasured Pollini’s recording of the seventh sonata as hors concours, but upon the evidence of this recital, Trpčeski is a serious rival. Indeed, his tone and more general post-Romantic approach are arguably more appropriate than the crystalline modernism of the Italian pianist. (In practice, of course, there is absolutely no reason why one should choose; I simply mention Pollini in order to signal the level of pianism at which Trpčeski is operating.) The mechanical – war-like? – quality of some of the first movement’s rhythms was once again projected with an orchestral fullness of tone. This did not soften the hints – and more – of barbarism, but rather heightened the tension. The pianist’s singing tone and length of line present in the middle Andante caloroso could not have been more impressive. And the barbarism of the final Precipitato exceeded that of the Toccata, which in retrospect at least now sounded jejune. The relentless 7/8 rhythm put me in mind of the wilder reaches of Bartók (in whose music I should love to hear Trpčeski), and once again this was miraculously accomplished without the slightest hardening of tone. There was an abandon which perforce had to remain controlled, but one might never have guessed so as the sonata was hurled towards its barnstorming conclusion. Trpčeski had the measure of that strange marriage between percussive and lyrical writing, which stands at the heart of Prokofiev’s writing for his own instrument.

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Simon Trpceski

Cairn Hotel, Harrogate

Harrogate Advertiser, February, 22. 2008

By Staff Copy

RADIO 3's prestigious New Generation Artists scheme awarded a place to Macedonian born pianist Simon Trpceski. Appearances at the BBC Proms, others with the New York Philharmonic and leading European and American orchestras followed. All have contributed to his high profile.
Russian composers from a sizeable part of his Romantic repertoire, although he began with Chopin’s dark Second Sonata from Opus 35. A dramatic, emotional piece considered to be one of his most complex. The third of the four contrasting movements is the Funeral March, Simon Trpceski’s tone control was masterly and effective.

His latest recording is of Debussy’s piano music released in January on the EMI label. Included, the second item on Sunday’s programme, Children’s Corner. He gave a very imaginative, crystal clear performance particularly of the snow that danced and the Jazzy Golliwog.

Prokofiev’s Toccata with its raging ostinato and final sweeping glissando was brilliantly played by the soloist, it led into the composer’s Stalingrad Sonata, his comment on the political turmoil in Eastern Europe between 1939 and 1941. Opening aggression gave way to the wistful melody of the second movement followed by an exuberant and demanding finale.

A vivid portayal by Simon Trpceski of Prokofiev’s USSR and the high point of his recital.

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Simon Trpceski touches the soul

Simon Trpceski
Lighthouse, Poole
Daily Telegraph, February,19. 2008

By Geoffrey Norris

Pragmatism spiked by a modicum of self-interest governed my decision to catch this Simon Trpceski recital in Poole rather than write about the similar (but not identical) one he is giving in London's Wigmore Hall in a couple of weeks' time.

Admirers of Trpceski's art will appreciate my reasoning: by covering the Dorset one, I can actually go to the London one without thinking about having to conceive a review afterwards. Trpceski's piano-playing is something to be savoured, and on occasion it is a treat just to ponder privately rather than attempting to convey thoughts through prose.

That said, the quality of this recital was such as to trigger the most public of superlatives. Buttressed by two classic sonatas - Chopin's Second in B flat minor and Prokofiev's Seventh - the programme touched on the Debussy that Trpceski has so luminously explored on his new EMI disc, and also embraced some Rachmaninov preludes and transcriptions.

In the first of three encores, he gave a preview of his approach to Prokofiev's early, diabolical Toccata Op 11 which will feature in his London programme.

It was no surprise that Trpceski was technically equipped to cope with keyboard writing that seems to break all bounds of what is humanly possible, but his ability to make music of it, and to give a clear impression of the young composer's iconoclastic nature, lent the performance much more substance than mere surface dazzlement.

It is this capacity to identify deeply with the character of music, and to convey it fully, that makes Trpceski's interpretations so absorbing. We talk of music's soul, and there is infallibly a sense that he has touched it.

The familiar funeral march of the Chopin sonata, for example, was tinged with genuine melancholy and resignation within a performance that tingled with nervous energy and an assuaging contemplative lyricism. The Prokofiev sonata had gripping physicality, but ever present were the pangs of anxiety that the dissonances seem to suggest.

Trpceski's way is to find expressive clues in the music itself, as illustrated by the subtly observed cameos in Debussy's Children's Corner. Comparable finesse of texture and colour imbued his Rachmaninov, not only in the delicate, floating G sharp minor Prelude and the transcriptions of the songs "Lilacs" and "Daisies", but also in ravishing performances of the famous Preludes in C sharp minor and G minor.

Anyone with a passion for piano-playing at its most spellbinding should hear Trpceski whenever they can.

Philadelphia Orchestra

The Philadelphia Inquirer, December, 15. 2007
By David Patrick Stearns

The implication from the first half, featuring Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 with Simon Trpceski, is that Pappano is about solidity with style, not unlike Charles Dutoit... Many listeners were knocked out by the Prokofiev. I was impressed, and liked the Gallic rationality and precision that pianist and conductor brought to the work. Tempos were surprisingly moderate; no cheap thrills here, but thrills nonetheless, even if the episodic final movement didn't entirely hang together...I'd hear Trpceski anytime, anywhere... Trpceski's encore, Prelude and Pajduska by Macedonian composer Zhivoyin Glishich, was a dense melange of familiar notes bundled in unfamiliar ways.

A year of musical superlatives

Birmingham Post/Classical Music, December, 28. 2007

Christopher Morley picks his classical music highlights of 2007
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This magnificent building has proved its worth as a venue for all kinds of presentations, including chamber music (the Takacs String Quartet's glowing account of works by Haydn, Janacek and Dvorak - himself a composer who also conducted in this historic venue); baroque music, with a perfectly-scaled semi-staged performance of the first great opera, Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, from Philip Pickett's New London Consort and solo piano music, the exciting yet deeply serene Simon Trpceski giving an absorbing recital of Chopin, Debussy and Brahms.

Simon's triumph at the Town Hall

Simon Trpceski  
Birmingham Town Hall

Birmingham post, December, 4. 2007 Music
Review by Christopher Morley

* * * * *

Having already proved what a perfect venue it is for choral, baroque and chamber music, Birmingham Town Hall hosted the first piano recital on Sunday since its triumphant refurbishment.

The soloist was one of the most exciting young pianists on the world stage, although "exciting" is perhaps the wrong word, for Simon Trpceski is among the most thoughtful of artists.

His brilliant technique is totally at the service of interpretations which cut to the core of his material in playing which goes beyond the mere notes.

A piano sonata by Scriabin in the improbable key of G-sharp minor began with self-communing, confiding chords projected so clearly beneath the lowered acoustic canopy, and ended with a fleet tarantella crisply delivered by Trpceski's well-balanced hands.

Chopin was evoked here, and the Polish composer's B-flat minor sonata followed, its coiled tension released in unforced strength.

The famous Funeral March grew inexorably in power, with a magical change of timbre for the consolatory major-key interlude.

After this the mysterious finale was a whirlwind of rat-like scurryings - a pessimistic vision of the soul's despatch to torment, perhaps.

Three late Brahms Intermezzi drew from Trpceski warm, contained tone and fluidity of line, before a total change of mood and style brought music by Debussy to conclude the official part of the programme.

Subtle pedalling, adroit keyboard colouring and a genuine sense of fantasy and characterisation informed Trpceski's account of the Children's Corner Suite.

L'Isle Joyeuse, such a compendium of Debussy's style and vocabulary, was limpidly given, before a record-breaking (for this venue, and perhaps anywhere) five encores.

Well-chosen Brahms and Debussy complemented what we had heard, and we also enjoyed a colourfully Balkan piece by a Macedonian compatriot.

Town Hall, Birmingham
Guardian, December, 4. 2007
By Rian Evans

4 stars

His opening account of Scriabin's second Sonata, Op 19, for all its brilliantly virtuosic sweep and stormy drama, seemed to hold something in reserve. In Chopin's second Sonata in B flat minor ....Trpceski made the flowing melodies, including that of the funeral march, sing from the heart,....After the interval, Brahms's three Intermezzi, Op 117, found Trpceski at his most reflective and expressive. He realised the quiet intensity at the heart of late Brahms while allowing the momentary surges of passion to flare up. The warmth and clarity of the fast passagework meant that the Children's Corner Suite by Debussy was also convincing, notably the jazzy humour of the final cakewalk, but it was only in the same composer's L'Île Joyeuse that Trpceski seemed to relax and play with the conviction of a pianist born to communicate.
Having got into the groove, he played five encores - mainly Debussy, for whom he has an evident affinity. Significantly, though, it was another contemplative Brahms Intermezzo, the second from Op 118, that showed the insight of the master pianist that Trpceski is becoming.

SIMON TRPCESKI

John Innes Centre, Norwich

Eastern Daily Press  December, 1.2007
By Frank Cliff

Norfolk and Norwich Chamber Music has an enviable reputation in introducing audiences to the finest of new generation artists. Last night  provided the opportunity of hearing the young Eastern European pianist Simon Trpceski in a programme of nineteenth and twentieth century music.
The terms romantic and post romantic can be applied, somewhat liberally to Chopin Brahms and Debussy. The music of Scriabin is much harder to classify. Russian, and an almost exact  contemporary of Debussy, his music has an entirely individual voice though perhaps not quite so individual in his early second piano sonata. It is a work demanding both superb virtuosity and , if it is to make true import, superb musicianship, both of which Trpceski had, communicating the essence of the music superbly.
Chopin mostly eschewed the sonata form, and the second of his three sonatas is famous principally for its slow movement, the funeral march. Here Trpceski produced sumptuous sound, yet perfectly controlled an nothing overdone. The three intermezzi Op 117 of Brahms were exquisitely done, almost like an improvisation, yet with infinite ability to colour the sound. Debussy's Children's Corner had a lightness and Gallic charm, with not a little showmanship, and the final work, more Debussy, L'Isle Joyeux mad a superb finale.

Suave Night of Chopin, Finished Off With Brahms
Simon Trpceski

New York Times, October, 2. 2007
By Anne Midgette 

Elegant. Debonair. Chopin.
On Sunday night the pianist Simon Trpceski gave a recital at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that offered the flip side of the Romantic coin from Tchaikovsky's First Concerto, which he played with the New York Philharmonic the night before.
While Mr. Trpceski (pronounced terp-CHESS-kee) has a firm, warm touch, his Chopin was above all gentle and urbane, playing down the virtuosity he unquestionably has at his fingertips. Chopin himself mentioned that the English used to comment on his playing with the accolade "like water," meaning that the music flowed; Mr. Trpceski is indeed in that Chopin tradition.
Here he offered a very specific look at Chopin, focusing on the early 1830s, with the four Opus 24 Mazurkas, the two Opus 26 Polonaises, a single mazurka from Opus 17 and the three Opus 70 Waltzes. Though these Waltzes were written from 1829 to 1842, Mr. Trpceski played them as a fluid whole, a wash of slightly brighter energy at the end of an elegiac set.
The overall tone of the pieces was a gentle wistfulness, to the point of a slight sameness, as he played them. The fourth of the Opus 24 Mazurkas evoked "La Valse" of Ravel in looking back through a golden frame at a past world, a tension underlined at the end in the pull between major and minor keys. Mr. Trpceski kept the tone gentle even in the pained, dark intensity of the E flat minor Polonaise, which moved from thunder to martial crispness but ultimately died out in a quiet final gasp.
In the second half of the program, the coin flipped yet again, as the New York Philharmonic, evidently unwilling to let its newest soloist go, sent Glenn Dicterow and Philip Myers, its concertmaster and principal horn player, to join Mr. Trpceski in a performance of Brahms's E flat Horn Trio.
It was an unusual conclusion to a piano recital and a move back into the realm of showiness, particularly thanks to Mr. Dicterow, whose violin playing brought to mind a description of Chopin's contemporary Henri Herz: "His execution is elegant, agreeable and coquettish but without subtlety."
Mr. Myers, by contrast, played gorgeously, and the whole thing was robust and rousing.

A No-Nonsense Approach to the Work of a Master

New York Philharmonic

New York Times, September, 28. 2007
By Anthony Tommasini

In a program note for the New York Philharmonic's concert at Avery Fisher Hall on Wednesday night, Lorin Maazel calls Tchaikovsky a "very well-known but not completely understood composer." You might quibble with the idea that any composer can ever be completely understood. Moreover, the idea that appreciation of Tchaikovsky is lacking may come as a surprise to concertgoers who hear his works constantly.
In any case, Mr. Maazel has begun a three-week festival called "The Tchaikovsky Experience," including the symphonies, the famous concertos and music from "Swan Lake." He is right that some Tchaikovsky scores are heard infrequently, notably the First Symphony, "Winter Dreams," which concluded Wednesday's program. It was paired with the First Piano Concerto, perhaps Tchaikovsky's best-known work, a terrific piece that needs rescuing from its own popularity. Programming agendas aside, both performances were outstanding.
In interviews over the years Mr. Maazel has objected to the overemotional interpretations of Tchaikovsky and other Romantics that have become fashionable. He may be overstating his case. I have heard many Apollonian accounts of Tchaikovsky. And sometimes Mr. Maazel's performances of this repertory are marred by his penchant for making interpretive points in the way he shapes phrases and manipulates tempos.
But he was at his best on this night, and he had an ally for his no-nonsense approach to the concerto in Simon Trpceski, a 28-year-old Macedonian pianist who seems poised for a significant career. Mr. Trpceski has formidable technique and energy to spare. He dispatched volleys of thick, crashing chords with steely tone and power, and conveyed contrasting passages of scampering runs with clarity and lightness. He tore through the double- octave outbursts with arm-blurring speed and no sense of strain. Yet in tenderly lyrical moments he caressed the phrases, playing with naturalness, never milking anything.
He seemed at one with Mr. Maazel in treating this war horse as a majestic, shrewdly structured and substantive score. In the orchestra, Mr. Maazel voiced sonorities and textures in ways that revealed the tartness of Tchaikovsky's harmonies. Rhythmic articulation was always crisp and incisive.

An Old-School Youngster
New York Sun, September, 28. 2007
By Jay Nordlinger  

 What a surprise: another young virtuoso pianist from east of Prague. In this case, well south, too. Simon Trpceski is from Macedonia, and he is in his mid-20s. On Wednesday night, he played the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto with the New York Philharmonic. And an awesome performance it was.
Where to begin? At the beginning: Mr. Trpceski played the opening chords of the concerto unusually precisely. They were not mushy or splatting; they were exact, and brighter than usual. In fact, the entire concerto felt scrubbed clean - it had zero Romantic excess (without being un-Romantic at all). Mr. Trpceski has a little Pollini in him, a little Weissenberg - and a little George Sandor. But he is neither cold nor harsh.
Mr. Trpceski did unexpected things in the first movement. Many of the notes were detached, though not clipped, and the music had a rare "scherzando" feel. More than playing it, Mr. Trpceski was playing with this concerto.
The technique was fabulous, with Mr. Trpceski's arms perfectly loose (enabling him to play all those notes - tightness kills). His octaves were lightning-fast. Pletnevian. Still, they were a little over-pedaled, and he faked a few of them - which is perfectly forgivable.
Mr. Trpceski exhibited what you might call a sense of musical timing - he knows where the top of a phrase is, how to get the most out of a skilled composer's rhythm. And his soft playing had a crystalline beauty. At times, you might have been listening to Debussy or Ravel.
For my money, the final movement - that dance, "con fuoco" - could have been more marked. More emphatic. But plenty of pianists overdo that aspect, and if Mr. Trpceski underdid it slightly, so much the better.
The Philharmonic's music director, Lorin Maazel, is an excellent collaborator in concertos, but something was wrong on Wednesday night. There was a bit of a pushmi-pullyu effect. The pianist often wanted to go faster than the conductor; and the conductor did not accommodate. The playing was often out of coordination. And the orchestra was sloppier than it can be expected to be.
Yet Mr. Maazel did some admirable things. The rocking in the middle movement was wonderful. And I'll tell you something funny: Mr. Maazel is a great cutter-off of notes - of the final notes of phrases, sections, and pieces. He is loath to linger. And once, when Mr. Trpceski was playing by himself, he cut him off in just this fashion. Mr. Maazel might have forgotten himself. But he was perfectly correct.
You may think you can't possibly hear the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto - that old warhorse - again. But Mr. Trpceski proved you can. From him, the piece was fresh and lovely. Could we be looking at a great pianist? Yes, we could.
Mr. Trpceski played an encore, "October (Autumn Song)," from Tchaikovsky's "Seasons." And here he demonstrated an incredible capacity to sing on the piano - to sustain notes that, in lesser hands, die right away (or too soon). If anything, Mr. Trpceski's playing of this gentle, elegiac piece was more impressive than his rendering of the concerto.
I might mention, too, that young Mr. Trpceski is old-school, and Old World: Before and after the concerto, he kissed the hand of the concertmistress, gallantly.

Pianist's dazzling concerto
The Arizona Republic, September, 21. 2007
By Richard Nilsen

If you have any interest at all in Classical music, you should run, not walk, to get a ticket for the remaining performance by this week's guest artist, Simon Trpceski. His performance of the tired chestnut, Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, brought it back to life. And not only back to life, but made it dance and sing.

We have many soloists come through the Valley. Many are top-flight performers - Yo-Yo Ma, Midori, Pinchas Zuckerman - but this week's concert gives the audience a chance to hear a young artist who looks like he is going to be one of the big boys: He took a piece of music some audience members were dreading - it's so overplayed - and turned it into a reason for living.

The orchestra did not help. Underrehearsed and coarse, they blasted and hooted while Trpceski purled and whispered. It was as if soloist and ripieno were attending different concerts simultaneously. But there is enough in the Tchaikovsky concerto that is naked piano that anyone with a loving ear could be seduced by Trpceski's poetry: It wasn't so much the thundering parts, but the pianist's ability to circle down to a tiny pianissimo with a rallentando, ending with a sound so small a mouse could jump over it.
 
Phoenix audiences tend to give a standing audience to anyone who can still breathe, but Thursday the audience erupted into shouts of "Bravo!," and enough curtain calls that Trpceski sat down for an encore: the Autumn Song (October) from Tchaikovsky's rarely played The Seasons, as quiet as a sunrise, vapor as much as sound.

DR/DNSO

Copenhagen, August, 2007

By Kristeligt Dagblad

The National Symphony Orchestra returned from holiday with manners, in a concert of Russian music in Tivoli. Led by a conductor rarely so excited, Alexandre Lazarev, and with the excellent pianist Simon Trpceski as soloist, it was a joyful re-appearance of the Orchestra.

Then the Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski appeared on stage to play Shostakovich's piano concert no. 1. Last year he created a small sensation when he debuted with the Orchestra, and he fully met the expectations this year. He is elegant when he plays, and suited the music of Shostakovich perfectly, which is sometimes as transparent and clear as Mozart, and other times it contains a dry humour and rhythmic élan that is Shostakovich's very own. 

DR/DNSO

Berlingske Tidende

Copenhagen, August, 2007

It's really fun and it's really good. Only a shame the musicians were not that good at turning pages. With so much noise coming from them, you can hardly complain about the audience coughing.

Why is it fun and good? Because music must not become book keeping. Artists have to work their instruments, otherwise they might as well close the shop.

And Friday night's soloist understood that just as well. Simon Trpceski got all the exciting stuff out of Shostakovich's early piano concert: both the Russian element and the world art, both the cultural element and the feeling of jazz.

Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Copenhagen
Politiken, August, 2007

"There is something scary about demagogy and people on dope. I don't know what Lazarev was on Friday night in Tivoli's Concert Hall, but I do know that his exalted efforts - that he even delivered with a smile, as if he knew the whole time that he was acting crazy - was an ugly contrast to the young Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski's plastic and energetic play in Shostakovich's concerto for piano, trumpet and strings.On top of Glazunov's clichés, Shostakovich seemed most of all nuanced, which is very relevant to a present 2007-person. And in Simon Trpceski we now experienced a sympathetic musician, who gave us an extremely detailed, yet super lively performance, together with the equally young and brilliant trumpeter Michael Frank Møller." 

Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Copenhagen
Jyllands-Posten, Augus,t 2007

"Macedonian Trpceski plays sensibly and beautifully, with clear ideas that are easy and logical to follow. And technically he is nothing less than sublime."

Simon Trpceski terrific at CMF

Camera Classical Music Critic, July, 27.2007

By Kelly Dean Hansen

About the only thing the Colorado Music Festival was lacking thus far in the current season was a concerto performance by a world-class pianist. Van Cliburn winner Jon Nakamatsu did visit the festival last week for a terrific, if windy, night of chamber music, but did not play with the full orchestra. That honor this season went to Macedonian virtuoso Simon Trpceski, familiar to Boulder audiences from a memorable solo recital at the University of Colorado Artist Series in 2004.

Since then, Trpceski's international reputation has only grown. For his CMF performance Thursday at Chautauqua Auditorium, to be repeated tonight, he chose a competition warhorse, the Third Concerto by Sergei Prokofiev. While performances of this particular work by Slavic pianists are almost a cliché, Trpceski's interpretation was fresh and riveting.

He was helped in this by the splendid CMF orchestra under director Michael Christie. The interaction between piano and orchestra is intricate and difficult in many spots of the score. Both conductor and soloist had an assured command of the music throughout.

The first movement drew enthusiastic applause, a rare occurrence for the usually disciplined CMF audience, who typically strictly observe the "no applause between movements" convention, but in this case it was very much justified. The ovation at the end of the entire concerto was as loud as it has been for any soloist this season. Trpceski rewarded the crowd with a solo encore-a Venetian Gondola Song by Mendelssohn.

Colorado Music Festival

Rocky Mountain News, July, 27. 2007
By Marc Shulgold

...The novelty of the evening was the opening work, the premiere of a 10-minute Ouverture by Macedonian composer Dimitrije Buzarovski. Never heard of him? Me, neither.

This very busy, very prolific composer/author/teacher/scientist came recommended by the concert's guest soloist, his fellow countryman Simon Trpceski. It turns out that Buzarovski has penned operas, oratorios, ballets, concertos, symphonies, electronic works and solo piano pieces - along with 14 books. Nice of him to take some time to write a work for the festival.

The piece is really more of a mini-dance suite, consisting of four linked Macedonian folk- dance settings that feature all manner of colorful orchestration and a heavy emphasis on asymmetrical rhythms (common in the folk music of that lower corner of Europe). Peppered with machine-gun percussion, this lively work showcased the considerable talents of Christie's orchestra. It makes one wonder when, if ever, we might hear more of Buzarovski's music.

Trpceski has become a welcome presence on the concert stage - particularly in Colorado, where he's performed in recital and with orchestra at several venues. Each performance by this brilliant pianist serves to reinforce his status as a lovably warm, thoroughly musical artist. The hands are soft on the keyboard, even when the music - in this case, Prokofiev's Third Concerto - calls for some serious virtuosity.

Not once did Trpceski descend into percussive pounding. .

The pianist rewarded his cheering listeners with a single encore, Mendelssohn's Venetian Gondola Song.

London Symphony Orchestra's residence at Daytona Beach, FL
St. Petersburg Times, FL, July, 24. 2007

By John Fleming

Saturday night's all-American program, which opened with Glennie, was the high point of the weekend. Even the most familiar work, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, sounded new -- and truly rhapsodic -- in the hands of a young Macedonian pianist, Simon Trpceski. His bluesy, idiosyncratic interpretation of the solo passages contrasted dramatically with the sonic blasts of the orchestra.

Aspen Music Festival

Denver Post Fine Arts Critic, July, 16. 2007
By Kyle MacMillan
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"Rhapsody in Blue" has become almost a cliché, but Zinman and guest soloist Simon Trpceski actually made it sound fresh. Zinman infused the symphony's playing with sass and snap, and several of the principals contributed suitably jazzy solos, such as the fine muted trumpet work by Lou Ranger.

Trpceski, an up-and-coming Macedonian pianist, brought an appealing improvisatory feel to his playing. He took some unusual interpretative liberties with tempos and textures and was unafraid to have fun, as his frequent smiles made clear.

"Rhapsody in Blue" has become almost a cliché, but Zinman and guest soloist Simon Trpceski actually made it sound fresh. Zinman infused the symphony's playing with sass and snap, and several of the principals contributed suitably jazzy solos, such as the fine muted trumpet work by Lou Ranger.

Trpceski, an up-and-coming Macedonian pianist, brought an appealing improvisatory feel to his playing. He took some unusual interpretative liberties with tempos and textures and was unafraid to have fun, as his frequent smiles made clear.

In the footsteps of a Macedonian master

Daily Telegraph, June, 2007

Geoffrey Norris reviews Simon Trpceski at Wigmore Hall and the Macedonian Army Hall in Skopje

In a piano recital so rich in imagination and finesse, it is perhaps gratuitous to single out individual pleasures. Simon Trpceski's BBC Lunchtime Concert of Chopin and Liszt was an unalloyed joy, but there was one moment of especially haunting beauty.
  
It came in the third of Chopin's Waltzes Op 70, where Trpceski floated the theme weightlessly on a quietly rippling stream of sound. The effect was spellbinding. No words can do it justice.
The more one hears Trpceski, the more one appreciates how closely he identifies with the distinctive soul of the music he is playing. This was equally evident a few days earlier at a concert in his native Skopje.
The programme began with a foretaste of the works he was to play at Wigmore Hall, but then shifted focus, because he yielded the limelight to some younger musicians, with whom he played as duettist, accompanist or as part of an ensemble.
When Trpceski first made his mark here in 2000, I was probably not alone in being shamefully unaware of other Macedonian musical talent, but this concert exposed some winning examples of it.
With two of his pupils, Andrej Naunov and Edita Hadzi-Hamza, he played some of Grieg's Norwegian Dances, both of the younger pianists revealing the fusion of sensibility and technique that is a hallmark of their teacher.
Two promising singers, the baritone Goran Nacevski and soprano Irena Krsteska, performed songs by Grieg and Dvorák. Trombonist Viktor Ilieski played a transcription of Schubert's Serenade and, with panache, a concerto by Vladislav Blazhevich.
Notably impressive were three violinists, the 16-year-old Sofija Nikoska playing the Ponce/Heifetz Estrellita with eloquence of line, and boldly tackling the stratospheric Paganini/Kreisler La Campanella.
Gjorgi Dimcevski was dazzling in that Vengerov favourite, Bazzini's La Ronde des lutins. Kliment Todoroski was outstanding, not only for his confident stage manner but also for the tonal shading, sensitivity and élan he brought to Elgar's Salut d'amour and the Falla/Kreisler Spanish Dance.
All the artists joined in a final encore of a rip-roaring arrangement of a Macedonian folksong by Damir Imeri.
Trpceski embraced the spirit of this diverse repertoire with exceptional insight, just as each of the Chopin polonaises, mazurkas and waltzes in his solo programme encapsulated specific moods, and the two Liszt Soirées de Vienne had that enveloping atmosphere and consummate artistry which mark him out as one of the great musicians of our day.

SLSO in exciting concert

Saint Louis SO/Tortelier
Post-Dispatch Classical Music Critic, April, 22.2007
By Sarah Bryan Miller

.. one reasonably familiar concerto with a heralded young soloist in his local debut (Simon Trpceski playing Serge Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, op. 26)..The performance by Trpceski, a native of Macedonia who is not yet 30, was frequently thrilling. Clear and precise, he more than held his own against massed forces even in the biggest orchestral passages. Still, he had a light touch when that was called for, for a near-perfect match to the music. This is a major talent, and we're lucky to have heard him at this stage in his career.

Trpceski plays Prokofiev to perfection

Seattle post-inteligencer, April, 14. 2007
By R.M. Campbell

Well known to symphony audiences is Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski, who made his American debut with the ensemble and never fails to make an impression of musical depth and virtuosity. That certainly was the case Thursday night when he was the soloist in the Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto, one of the great statements of 20th-century literature for piano. It makes multiple demands on the soloist, not only in terms of its bravura, which is extraordinary, but also intellectually and musically.
Trpceski swam through those difficult waters seemingly with ease. All the technical challenges came and went with his barely taking a breath. But he also captured the lyricism of the work as well as its scornful and bitter wit.

Bournemouth SO/Alsop

Colston Hall, Bristol

The Guardian, April, 2. 2007
By Rian Evans

...This all-American programme was constructed to create the optimum atmosphere for a Copland piece with a tricky performing history. A first half of Gershwin - with Simon Trpceski the precise-yet-passionate pianist in Rhapsody in Blue - guaranteed a general high, so that after the interval Alsop could present Copland's Symphony No 2 to a far more willing audience than might otherwise have been the case…

..Trpceski had breezily given Dave Brubeck's Take Five as an encore; Alsop trumped the Bernstein with a wonderful arrangement of Sweet Georgia Brown. It was calculated to bring the house down, and it did.

RLPO/Petrenko

Liverpool Daily Post, March, 22. 2007

By Glyn Mon Hughes

THIS concert really took me back to my schooldays - too many years to remember.
A traffic-jammed Hope Street, not because of some mad-cap council plan to dig a up the road, but because the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic was playing. Not only that, but the foyer jammed and, wonder of wonders, all the platform seats sold out. Apparently this concert, tonight and tomorrow, could have sold out twice over..
Yes, it was a popular programme, part of the Classic FM series, but there were some rarities: Rachmaninov's First Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, for instance. And therein was one of the secrets of the concert - pianist Simon Trpceski.
His performance of the concerto was exemplary. A first movement which started excellently and gave way to some explosive moments, an andante which presaged so much, and a finale which was as much as fanfare as it was a brilliant showpiece.
Both soloist and the RLPO evidently relished the occasion and gave their all - and no section can be excused for lacking effort.
In many ways, the same was true of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. It felt as though it started fast, breathless, almost. Yet Petrenko managed to extract some extremely sensuous orchestral tones: Rachmaninov himself was no mean orchestrator, Petrenko almost felt as though he was his heir on this occasion. True, the "big variation" could have had more drama, but that was a small price to pay for an interpretation which proved considerable insight on the part of both conductor and orchestra..
Traffic jams notwith-standing...

A joyous break from the norm
CBSO 'Russian Night'  * * * * *

CBSO/Oramo

Symphony Hall Birmingham

Birmingham Post, March, 16.2007
By Christopher Morley

The strings turned lustrous for Rachmaninov's too rarely-heard First Piano Concerto, complementing an account of the solo part from Simon Trpceski which looked back to Chopin in the delicacy of its articulation. Melodies were picked out almost vocally by this amazing pianist, with decorative tracery balanced with the graciousness of lace. Yet, where called-for, there was plenty of chordal power too, in this committed, persuasive collaboration between soloist and Oramo's orchestra.
Too many contributions to praise here: just a wonderful, joyous performance.

Philharmonia Orchestra/Volkov
The Guardian, March, 10.2007

By Andrew Clements

....Then for something completely different, Simon Trpceski was the soloist in Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody. Trpceski is already a real favourite with London audiences - his smiling, relaxed platform manner must have something to do with that, but it is largely due surely to his astonishingly pianism, which manages at the same time to be brilliant without being flashy and vivid without a trace of attention-seeking. He really is a star.

Trpceski, RTE NSO/Eddins NCH

Irish Times

By Michael Dervan

There was no lack of grip in Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski's Third Concerto.
His playing was bright and alert and virtuosic enough to make playfully light of the music's technical demands. It's not often you get to hear this sometimes cheeky, sometimes sentimental, work played with such effortless insouciance.

Smooth as ivory on the ivories

Rocky Mountain News, January, 20. 2007
By Marc Shulgold

Pianos must love Simon Trpceski.
While many a keyboard soloist resorts to pounding away on the black-and-whites, the Macedonian pianist caresses the keys - gliding effortlessly over them.
Such kindness will not go unrewarded, as Friday's ecstatic Colorado Symphony audience can attest.
His piano happily responding with shimmering, transparent sounds, Trpceski (pronounced Terp-CHESS-kee) returned to Boettcher Hall in a triumphant reading of Saint-Saens' Second Concerto.
With a smiling Jeffrey Kahane presiding over the CSO, this joyous work unfolded with a naturalness that masked the gargantuan difficulties of the piece.
Yes, there are big, loud passages, including the requisite thundering double-octaves - yet the soloist made them seem musical.
There is, in his virtuosic approach, an understated muscularity, if there is such a thing. And, when the music bubbles with good feelings (as in the transparent, Mendelssohnian Second Movement), the soloist can bring out the childlike simplicity of the music. In the blistering Tarantella-like Finale, the temptation to knock 'em dead with speed was resisted, resulting in a romp that never spun out of control.
It was the sort of playing that draws instantaneous standing ovations. Which it did on Friday, leading Kahane to sit his soloist down for a solo encore, an obscure Waltz in A minor by Chopin.

Trpceski's elan makes for dazzling piano performance
Ottawa Citizen , January, 12. 2007

By Richard Todd
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What do you get when you combine a Danish conductor, a Macedonian pianist and a Canadian orchestra? Oh yes, throw in three popular works by French and Czech composers.
You get a lovely evening of music, and that's what the audience for this week's pair of National Arts Centre Orchestra concerts heard in Southam Hall Wednesday and yesterday.
Conductor Thomas Dausgaard opened the program with one of the seminal and most popular of musical masterpieces, Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune.
Dausgaard's interpretation was interesting, if a little overwrought. The orchestra played it well and the many solos were delicious, particularly flutist Joanna G'froerer's.
Pianist Simon Trpceski joined Dausgaard and the orchestra in a brilliant, razzle-dazzle performance of the St. Saens Piano Concerto no. 2 in G minor, op. 22.
Razzle-dazzle is the only way this concerto really works. Some pianists decline to learn it, claiming that it contains too many notes and too little music.
Never mind, it's a fun piece, particularly when it's executed with someone of Trpceski's imagination and digital dexterity. In fact, it's a real romp. Though he's only 27, he found lots of music where more experienced pianists find only notes.
It's not that he mined the score to depths it doesn't possess; just that he was sensitive to every instance of beauty it affords. He wasn't stinting with the melodramatic element either, but he always stayed well on the safe side of bombast.Although the even cleanness of his playing was evident throughout, it was particularly pleasing in the second movement with its many figures and runs. Its delicate perfection was rewarded with a bit of inter-movement applause.
The finale, the movement everyone waits for, was suitably fiery and dashing, but also wonderfully proportioned.
This really is a pianist's concerto. The orchestra did very nicely when the composer gave them something to do. Dausgaard co-ordinated everything nicely.
After the concerto Trpceski played an encore, Mendelssohn's Gondolier, one of the Songs Without Words.
Wednesday's performance was received warmly by an audience of about 1,500.

Best of 2006
Daily Telegraph, December, 23. 2006

By Geoffrey Norris
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...But the year's Shostakovich high spot for me was the visceral Netherlands Opera production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, given in Amsterdam with a flawless cast, headed by Eva-Maria Westbroek as Katerina, and with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Jansons. As a respite from the moral squalor, Marin Alsop (the first woman to conduct a Concertgebouw concert) on the next night gave a programme of lighter Shostakovich, showing that it can benefit from being taken seriously, an approach shared by Simon Trpceski in a rhythmically brilliant, expressively refined performance of the First Piano Concerto.

Seen and Heard

LSO, December, 2006

By Geoff Diggins   

I have not heard the Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski before, but on tonight's showing he is certainly a pianist I shall be interested in for future concerts. He launched into the passacaglia opening solo prelude to the Saint-Saens Second Piano Concerto( in G minor) with complete assurance, producing great range and lucidity of tone.so appropriate in this work which is, in part, a kind of tribute to Bach ( with Mozart, Saint-Saens most admired Bach as a master  composer from the past.) It is good to hear this thoroughly well composed and inventive concerto, which, like other works by Saint- Saens, are little played in concert now... Overall Pappano's accompaniment was quite competent. The Second movement Allegro Scherzando (once of encore fame) was given great brio and lilt by Trpceski... Trpceski played a real presto in the exhilarating final. This was very much the soloist's performance, from the whirlwind arpeggios of the opening section, to the wild tarantella which initiates the coda (really amazing piano playing and composing!)

After the Saint-Saens Piano Concerto (before the interval) Trpceski played, as an encore, Mendelssohn's delightful 'Venetian Boat Song' from his 'Songs without Words' Op. 19 No 6. Again a rare sense of pianistic nuance and gentle lilted rhythm.

Power with a touch of gossamer
Daily Telegraph, December, 19. 2006
By Geoffrey Norris

The panache of Liszt, the solemnity of Bach and the exuberance of an Italian tarantella are all held together with Gallic finesse in Saint-Saëns's Second Piano Concerto, and it was the appreciation of this spirited diversity of musical character contained within a taut, balanced structural plan that distinguished Simon Trpceski's outstanding performance with the London Symphony Orchestra under Antonio Pappano.

Fluency and sensibility coalesced here to a remarkable degree. Trpceski had the power of technique to make the opening Bach-like fantasia truly arresting, and possessed the deftness of touch to play the scherzo with the lightness of gossamer. Bravura and energy were there in abundance to negotiate the concerto's virtuoso demands, and the finale's tarantella fused a sense of wildness without ever for a moment losing rhythmic control or architectural shape.
The key facet with Trpceski is that his technical prowess and brilliance are always at the service of a perceptive mind. You get the impression - indeed, you know from hearing him play - that an interpretation has been thoroughly thought through, that its idiom has been absorbed, its perspective firmly established and its palette of tonal colours carefully considered.

Coupled with those qualities, his imagination, spontaneity and stylistic astuteness here brought freshness and zest to the Saint-Saëns, with lyrical warmth and dazzling effervescence held in perfect equipoise. One of Mendelssohn's gentle Songs without Words made an ideal contrast for the encore, while serving as a reminder that it was Mendelssohn more than any other composer who was the model for the Saint-Saëns concerto's scherzo.

The orchestra and Pappano were as one with Trpceski in the concerto, and brought a compelling directness and passion to the other two works in the programme.

The Guardian, December, 20. 2006

By Tim Ashley  

A superb performance can sometimes make a second-rate piece sound like one of the greatest things you've ever heard. This, certainly, was the case when Simon Trpceski and Antonio Pappano tackled Saint-Saëns' Second Piano Concerto, a work of tremendous spirit, though no masterpiece.
Written at speed in 1868, it can easily seem derivative, its three movements glancing in the direction of Bach, Mendelssohn and Liszt respectively. As with much of Saint-Saëns' music, one's usual reaction is to admire its proficiency rather than be awed by a sense of its brilliance.
This performance, however, was stunning. Trpceski's playing combined technical dexterity with a mixture of interpretative weight and impish wit. The Bach-like cadenza with which the work opens hovered between irony and genuine homage, while the scherzo's trio swung briefly towards a demotic cabaret vulgarity that pre-empts Poulenc. Pappano was similarly at his best here, alternately mirroring Trpceski's delight with theatrical gestures then seemingly calling him to order at those moments when Saint-Saëns reins in the pianist.

Evening Standard, December, 18. 2006

By Barry Millington

Between the Russian items came Saint-Saens's Second Piano Concerto. In the first movement the soloist, Simon Trpceski, dazzled with his handling of the often predictable virtuosity, transfiguring the banal into magical Chopinesque filigree. The second movement is an irreverent subversion of the Mendelssohnian scherzo, and Trpceski and Pappano alike played up the French operetta interludes for all they were worth.

Returning to the elfin style for the movement's throw-away conclusion, however, they drew delighted gasps and a spontaneous round of applause from a capacity audience. With talents like these in the wings, the LSO clearly has more golden times ahead.

London Symphony Orchestra

Barbican Hall, London
Financial Times, December, 20. 2006
By Richard Fairman

For light relief, the Tchaikovsky was followed by Saint-Saëns's Piano Concerto No 2. This once favourite concerto gives the pianist's fingers a thorough workout while leaving everybody's brains on stand-by. Simon Trpceski cantered through it with a sense of humour, while also giving the impression there was real music concealed beneath the notes.

San Francisco Symphony, Ashkenazy
San Francisco Chronicle, December, 1. 2006

By Joshua Kozman

....The Rachmaninoff got a nimble performance with Simon Trpceski as the soloist. Trpceski raced convincingly around the keyboard and certainly had no difficulty with the score's technical challenges... the expansively lyrical 18th variation -- the whole point of this piece, as far as some of us are concerned -- fully blossomed.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Washington Post, November, 2006

...It is hard to imagine anyone's fingers moving faster or more accurately than his...at the expense of phrasing, clarity and the composer's signature growling sonority.(Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody)
His encore, Brahms's luminous Intermezzo in A, confirmed Trpceski's tendency to play on the surface of the keys, although here the musical line was perfectly etched

Hot night at the BSO
Baltimore Sun, November, 2006

By Tim Smith

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's day-after-Thanksgiving performance was quite a bargain. In addition to a pair of Russian warhorses, there was room for a recent work by American composer Kevin Puts. And guest pianist Simon Trpceski threw in an encore by a fellow Macedonian.
Trpceski's account of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini had a wonderful spontaneity and much more dynamic nuance than usually encountered. The pianist, smoothly partnered by Harth-Bedoya, seemed intent on tapping into the music, not just going for a pyrotechnic ride. A stellar performance. Trpceski's encore: a folk dance-inspired piece of Prokofiev-like percussiveness by Zivoyin Glisic.

Simon Trpceski's fragrant musical bouquet
Globe and Mail, Toronto, November, 2. 2006

by KEN WINTERS
 

The Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski, 27, brought strikingly individual gifts and a firm, intelligent approach to a variously fragrant bouquet of the 19th- and early 20th-century repertoires on Tuesday night at Jane Mallett Theatre, launching Music Toronto's piano series.
A neat, sober young man, businesslike in demeanour, Trpceski did not encourage clapping between numbers in a set, or waste time rushing off stage between sets. After the first set Tuesday - the three Intermezzi, Op. 117 and the second Intermezzo from Op. 118 of Brahms - he bowed twice and sat straight back down at the piano to begin the second set - the three tone poems that make up Debussy's second book of Images.
There was much to admire in the difference-in-kind between his Brahms and his Debussy, though his strict sense of musical fundamentals was apparent in each. He was particularly aware of the importance of the bass, from which all harmonic activity radiates, and of the resulting sonority upon which all patterns of discourse depend. He was also very firm, perhaps at times too firm, about the rhythmic structure of each piece, which underpins the momentums, tensions and perspectives of its music.
These fundamental values were in place in everything Trpceski played.
He was less secure when it came to subtleties of style and idiom, though unlike many young whiz-bangs with prodigious techniques who tend to paint everything with the same finger-happy brand of pianism, he was at pains to show the real differences between Brahms and Debussy, Scriabin and Chopin.
His Brahms intermezzi could have used more lilt, more of the mature composer's ease and sense of play, yet he attended to them very beautifully as sonic organisms, appreciating the interior detail of the harmony, following the narrative line sensitively as it passed down through Brahms's finely dove-tailed progressions. The thoughtful discourse of the E-flat Intermezzo, the lovely rhythmic eccentricity of the bass line in the C-sharp one (both from Op. 117) and the handling of the exquisite duet at the centre of the a-major one (from Op. 118), with its soft, alleviating succession of chords, marked this as serious Brahms playing.
The Debussy came from a completely and, in Trpceski's performances, identifiably different sound world. The first - Cloches à travers les feuilles (Bells passing leaves) - was the most successful, with its long pedals and suspended sonorities through which, however, Debussy's delicate melodic fragments sounded clearly. The second - Et la lune descend - was a bit fussy by comparison, though still well in hand.
The third - Poissons d'or - brilliantly executed...
After intermission, Scriabin's effusive Second Sonata staked out still another sound world - rhapsodic hyperbole in the first movement, a breathless perpetual motion in the second - and Trpceski met both head on.... Trpceski took the Third(Scherzo by Chopin) at a blistering tempo but brought it off, I thought, in fine style, making it sound, more than usual, like a scherzo: darting, fearless, witty...the audience demanded and got four encores...
Trpceski is an impressive and uncommon young artist.

A fine night of soft light
Classical music critic

Toronto Star, November, 1. 2006

By John Terauds  

"Less is more" has to be one of the most underrated slogans in our culture. We say it often enough, but it's rare to see it realized - in any form.
So young Macedonian-born pianist Simon Trpceski came along last night to the Jane Mallett Theatre to give the Music Toronto audience a clear lesson in achieving this elusive ideal.
The 27-year-old's program was focused on less than a century of music, spanning Frédéric Chopin to Claude Debussy, with some late Johannes Brahms and early Alexander Scriabin to fill the 19th century middle ground.
The pieces ranged from deeply introspective to showy and virtuosic. But by sheer force of will and a prodigious keyboard technique, he distilled each piece down to its essentials.
The result, played on a bare stage, had a simple purity more powerful than the flash and noise of a large concerto performed with a symphony orchestra. Lovers of piano music will remember this as one of the great recitals of the season.
Trpceski started off with the most difficult task, taking on the technically least demanding pieces - four Intermezzos from Op. 117 and 118, composed by Brahms in his cranky old age. These are delicate, harmonically saturated pieces that can lose momentum in the wrong hands.
In recent seasons at Music Toronto, both Stephen Hough and Lucille Chung failed to bring these pieces to life. But with an unaffected air and a light touch, Trpceski shone soft light through these gossamer creations.
He took the same approach to three pieces from Claude Debussy's second book of Images, turning ordinary notes into gently shimmering cascades of colour, finally building up to the rollicking, occasionally jazzy "Poissons d'or."
His playing was so perfect that it took an effort to remember to breathe while listening.
More rambunctious was the Sonata No. 2 by Scriabin and two Scherzos by Chopin. But even here, Trpceski cleverly brought us back to the intimacy of Brahms to counterbalance the showoff-ish passages.
He made the link between a slogan and unaffected beauty.

Copenhagen

Berlingske Tidende, October, 7. 2006

And in fact the first part of the evening could easily have turned out just as bad...
Saint-Saëns' piano concerto number two has definitely known better days. Not even the excellent program descriptions tried to hide this fact. "A wonderful mixture of pretty themes and sparkling notes up and down the keyboard." But, why play it then?
Oh yeah. With Macedonian Simon Trpceski at the keyboard it became a little more than just pretty and sparkling. It also became a little dangerous. A display of finger-breaking virtuosity and neck-breaking deeds...
Too bad Trpceski was followed so brutally by the band behind him - it doesn't normally sound like that. The Macedonian's two encores thus ended up being the evening's best. Like timeless moments of dry and elaborate beauty. Sometimes that happens.

Copenhagen

Politiken, October, 7. 2006

Young pianist seduces with a magical performance of Saint-Saëns' playful virtuosity

Even though a young Macedonian piano soloist was the only real novelty, this Thursday's concert was distinguished by anything but mainstream.
Meanwhile, Simon Trpceski made sure that the piece, which many people would probably have thought of as the least important of the evening, that is Camille Saint-Saëns' 2nd piano concerto, became the most memorable of the evening. The exceptionally sympathetic musician hit the nail on the head with a performance full of playful virtuosity, thus bringing out that notorious French charm and elegance.
Trpceski does not lack strength, when it is required, but he also proved the most enchanting easiness and untroubled trills that one has ever heard, in a most joyful and exuberant paraphrasing. (Just imagine hearing him play Scarlatti one day!) In the calm opening, he first and foremost showed a splendid talent for a vocally and subtly nuanced mastery of the melody, and after having put the audience in awe with his irresistible brilliance, it was the sensitively intimate that he chose to emphasize with his encores: two very simple, melancholy-tinted waltzes in the manner of Mozart and Chopin respectively. Were they his own pastiche? 

Copenhagen

October, 7. 2006

By Kristeligd Dagblad

After that, it was Macedonian Simon Trpceski's turn on stage, playing Saint-Saëns' 2nd piano concerto. A highly entertaining piece that mixes serious and popular tones in a way that has made many puritans frown. One is almost tempted to say that Saint-Saëns was a post-modernist, even before the term was invented.  Simon Trpceski, with his clear and energetic and brilliant play, was a real find for the solo part. After the second movement, which in the ears of the Danes sounds like a parody of Lange-Müller, random laughs were heard among the audience.

Copenhagen

Piano soloist: Simon Trpceski

Jyllandsposten, October, 8. 2006

* * * *

On the other hand, it cannot be denied that it is once again time for French Camille Saint-Saëns' brilliant, well-toured and first and foremost unworried music. At least judging by the way young Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski played his 2nd piano concert from 1868, which was but a pure display of exuberance and joy of the art.

A Perfect Full Stop for HKPO Season

Chinese Daily

It was the second night performance of Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto with HKPO and Simon Trpceski last Saturday (July 8), and it was also the last concert of HKPO Season.

I am not sure about the impact of air-con failure on the night's performance, but the first night (Jul 7), was a great success. As the finale concert of the HKPO Season, the concert, together with the concerts of last week and 2 weeks before, all 3 programmes formed a 3-week Tchaikovsky Festival (Note: A Portrait of Tchaikovsky according to us), it was just like a lovely conclusion of the Season. The finale concert played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 and Symphony No.6, it demonstrated the standard of the Orchestra was keep rising up.

 Trpceski played the well-known Piano Concerto No.1 with ease. The first movement, however,showed close connection with the Orchestra and conductor. The tone was not overwhelmingly passionate, but beautifully flowing which was reflected in the dance-like passage. A point worth mentioning was the performance of the Principal Flute, outstanding, which interlocked a glamorous introduction with the piano and cello.

BBC Music Magazine, July, 2006

Trpcheski has every gift to make the 1931 revision work of the Rachmaninov Piano sonata No.2. He plays with delicate poetry, glorious sound and, above all, shares the composer's own ability to make the music sound almost improvised.


Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
The Daily Telegraph, June, 14. 2006

By Geoffrey Norris

Simon Trpceski, soloist in the piano concerto, capped the concert with an exhilarating blend of rhythmic brilliance and expressive finesse.

Amsterdam

Volkskrant, June, 10. 2006

De Macedonische pianist Simon Trpceski betoonde zich een even atletisch als fijnzinnig musicus

..atletic and subtle,at the same time..

Amsterdam

NRC Handelsblad, June, 9. 2006

Simon Trpceski maakte aan de piano veel furore met zijn frenetieke  en vurige virtuositeit

..frenetic and fiery virtuosity..

Classical Music Critic

Toronto Star, May, 5. 2006
By John Terauds

"In this, his first date with the symphony, he made a great impression.

The slow movement of the Tchaikovsky quotes a French ditty that, translated, means, "We must amuse ourselves and laugh." It was in this spirit that Trpceski attacked the piece. He wrapped the two-handed pyrotechnics in the light-hearted spirit of a good romp, which freshened up this over-programmed concerto.

The gifted Macedonian returned the enthusiastic ovation with a technically challenging modern Macedonian piece based on folk tunes."

Charlotte Observer , April, 30. 2006

Were any Western ears rattled? The familiar strains of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 must have soothed them...  The young Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski brought Tchaikovsky muscle, precision and -- in the finale -- abandon worthy of a Cossack.

Technique underscored by understanding
The Seattle Times, January, 26. 2006
Seattle Times music critic
By Melinda Bargreen
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The usual criticism levied at young pianists is that they may have great technique, but they don't quite know what to do with it yet.
No one would ever say that about 26-year-old Simon Trpceski, who returned Tuesday to the President's Piano Series, where he stunned a delighted audience in 2004. Trpceski is a pianist with strong musical ideas, as well as mightily dexterous digits, and again he gave his Meany Theater audience plenty to admire - and plenty to think about.
The opening set was perhaps the most unusual traversal of Brahms Intermezzi in the 25 years of the President's Piano Series. Trpceski opened the Op. 117, No. 1 with such perfectly controlled, exquisite softness that it sounded as if Brahms were airborne. This piece and the three that followed were deeply, delicately introspective, in pianissimo performances that made you listen. Some might argue for more passion and less air, but Trpceski nonetheless made a most convincing case for doing it his way.
The Book I of Debussy's "Images" opened with a "Reflections in the Water" that was wholly picturesque and beautifully rendered. Here is a pianist who really gets to the heart of the Impressionist style, one who can make the textures shimmer. Trpceski also proved adept at rendering the changes of color in the mercurial Scriabin Piano Sonata No. 2.
He attacked the Chopin Scherzo No. 1 in B Minor as if going for a new land-speed record. Details of touch and articulation, the illuminating of inner voices and the thrilling cascades of notes made the reading exceptional. This Scherzo and its successor, the Scherzo No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, are works of considerable difficulty, but Trpceski's technique is so preternaturally clean that the entire program could have been issued as a recording with almost no sonic airbrushing.
A rousing ovation brought four encores, with the third a sly nod to what the pianist called "the clear sky tonight in Seattle": Debussy's translucent "Clair de lune." Finally, it was time to say good night, and Trpceski sent everyone off with a chuckle at the final encore, the Brahms Lullaby.

SLOVENSKI DEBI MLADOG MAKEDONSKOG PIJANISTA SIMONA TRPCESKOG U MARIBORU

Mocni virtuoz i senzibilni tumac glazbe

Novi List, Zagreb

Bosiljka Peric Kempf 

   Trpceski, cini se, svojim virtuozitetom nije impresioniran, a jos manje opterecen. Njegova suverena tehnika toliko pristaje glazbi samoj koliko i ruci savrseno skrojena rukavica: ispunjava svrhu i gotovo je neprimjetna. 
Narodni dom u Mariboru 27. je sijecnja u dvorani Union, u sklopu Komornog ciklusa, predstavio danas jednu od neosporno najzanimljivijih pijanistickih osobnosti mlade generacije. Rijec je o makedonskom pijanistu Simonu Trpceskom, koji s nepunih dvadeset i sedam godina ima iza sebe vec cvrsto trasiranu medunarodnu karijeru.
    Za posljednjih pet godina i nakon nekoliko osvojenih prestiznih internacionalnih nagrada, posebice nakon osvajanja »Young Artists Award«, koju mu je 2003. dodijelilo londonsko Kraljevsko filharmonijsko drustvo, Simon Trpceski u velikom uzletu krece prema vrhu svjetskih pijanistickih rejting lista. Njegova medunarodna karijera pocinje zapravo vec nakon izvanrednog debija u londonskom Wigmor Hallu 2001, koji mu definitivno osigurava poziciju posljednjih godina vjerojatno najomiljenijeg mladog pijanista u Velikoj Britaniji. 
   

Dobro balansiran program

    Slovenski debi Simona Trpceskog potaknuo je stoga razumljivo iznimno veliki interes mariborske publike. Dobar balans atraktivnog programa uspostavljen je izmedu intimistickih intoniranih klavirskih minijatura Johannesa Brahmsa (Intermezzi u Es-duru, b-molu i cis-molu op.117, te dva intermezza op. 118) i impresionistickih skica Claudea Debussyja (prva serija Slika za klavir, sa skladbama Odrazi u vodi, Hommage a Rameau I. stavak), te sonate u gis-molu Aleksadra Skrjabina i dva najpoznatija scherza Frédérica Chopina (h-mol i b-mol).
    Vec od Brahmsovih intermezza, sanjarsko introvertiranih, s tek mjestimice snazno pasionantnim nijansama, Simon Trpceski dao je naslutiti dvije bitne znacajke svoje pijanisticke osobnosti: duboku sabranost i intuitivno poniranje u bit glazbe. Bio je to produhovljeni, tonski zagasiti, tek s povremenim bljeskovima duboke emotivnosti osjencani Brahms, obuzdan i vrlo stedljivih gradacija (Intermezzo op.18, br 2).
    Sto je program vise odmicao, svijest o pijanistickoj snazi Simona Trpceskog postajala je sve ocitija. Kao uostalom i svijest o kvaliteti njegovih tehnickih mogucnosti koje su - zacudno za pijanista njegovih mladih godina - uvijek u funkciji glazbenog sadrzaja. Trpceski posjeduje, moglo bi se gotovo reci, richterovsku cvrstinu virtuoziteta. No on sam, cini se, svojim virtuozitetom nije impresioniran, a jos manje opterecen.
   

Dvojnost umjetnicke prirode

   U Debussyjevim »Slikama«, jos vise u fantasticnoj viziji Druge sonate u gis-molu Aleksandra Skrjabina, pogotovo pak u gotovo deromantiziranim, a ipak s toliko istinskog osjecaja interpretiranim scherzima u h-molu i b-molu Frédérica Chopina, suverena tehnika Simona Trpceskog toliko pristaje glazbi samoj, koliko ruci savrseno skrojena rukavica: ispunjava svrhu i gotovo je neprimjetna.
    U fantazmagoricnim brzim pasazama (pocetak Scherza u h-molu), u divno vodenim linijama delikatnih melodija, u potcrtavanju bogatog i slojevitog Chopinova harmonijskog sloga, Simon Trpceski s dubokim je razumijevanjem isticao vaznost svakog detalja i tkao poeticne niti svoje interpretacije. Bez osobitog poriva za ekstrovertnim i bravuroznim, njegov se pijanisticki izricaj otkrio u dvojnosti njegove umjetnicke prirode: mocni virtuoz i duboko muzikalni, senzibilni tumac u Simonu Trpceskom spojeni su u apsolutno fascinantnu umjetnicku licnost.

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Recital at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
as part of South Bank's International Piano Series
Shostakovich Piano Concerto no.1/London Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir Jurowski
The Daily Telegraph, December, 2005
By Geoffrey Norris

Fantasy was a fundamental facet of Simon Trpceski's exquisite piano recital on a Sunday afternoon, and it  manifested itself in a variety of ways.

This was a cunningly devised programme, drawing parallels of mood between the Brahms and Debussy pieces in its outer sections, and releasing the full volatile impulse of Skryabin's Second Sonata at its centre. It is for his searching interpretations of such full-blooded Russian music that Trpceski has earned particular praise in the past, and this one of Skryabin combined virtuosity, concentration and febrile force. But the recital also showed that he is equally capable of holding an audience spellbound with playing of hushed, intense introspection.

To start a recital with Brahms's Three Intermezzos Op 117 and the A-major Intermezzo Op 118 No 2 demands exceptional composure, even more so when, as in Trpceski's case, the music is taken at a  more measured pace than usual and the range of dynamics is softer. But what an impressive, absorbing opening it made, drawing the mind ineluctably into the reflective, private world of late Brahms, its pensive, wistful ideas expressed with gentleness and discreet  flights of caprice.

Trpceski's art here was a rare one, in that the playing was entirely focused and yet conveyed an almost unearthly sense of musical ideas that are essentially ambiguous and fugitive. It was in that respect that a link was forged with the two books of Debussy Images. Here the piano was iridescent, the music strongly characterised, but with a shimmering atmosphere in which fragments and wisps of  texture were fascinatingly illuminated as if one were experiencing an ever-shifting pattern of fleeting apparitions.

Two days earlier, Trpceski, with Paul Beniston lithe in the solo trumpet part, had appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Shostakovich's First Piano Concerto that was stunning, not merely because of its technical acumen but also because of perception of the music's paradoxes was so keen. Trpceski realised that there was no point in remaining po-faced as the finale's ragtime capers gathered steam, and he evidently enjoyed every minute of it.

Shostakovich Piano Concerto no.1/London Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir Jurowski
The Independent, December, 2005
By Robert Maycock

..As for humour, Shostakovich was your man this time, outcomposing Haydn in his Concerto for Piano and Trumpet with its alternation of the wry and the satirical. Thanks to the soloists even more than the orchestra, it was the performance of the evening, if not the month. Simon Trpceski, the pianist, made his name with Rachmaninov, but he has impressed just as much with the wit and flair of Saint-Saëns, and for Shostakovich the two traits just about added up to perfection.

He showed an identification with the music's essence that made it sound as though it was spontaneously coming into existence as you listened.

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Recital at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
As part of South Bank's International Piano Series
George Hall
The Guardian, December, 4. 2005

The latest recital in the South Bank's International Piano Series, by the young Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski, showed a reflective sensibility at work. Trpceski began with a group of Brahms's Intermezzos. Intimate works published just a few years before the composer's death, they need a carefully selected palette of tonal colours to achieve their full effect, and Trpceski's approach was finely matched to this end.

The first of the three Intermezzos, Op 117, based on a Scottish lullaby, was voiced with infinite skill and delicacy, with a sense of perspective between its tender melody and the encircling harmony immaculately realised. Trpceski's ability to separate out the strands of Brahms's intricate textures was just as impressive in the remaining two and in the second Intermezzo from the Six Piano Pieces Op 118.

.Once again Trpceski's feeling for pianistic colour was apparent throughout its (Skryabin's Second Sonata) volatile changes of mood, inspired, according to the composer, by the motions of the sea.

Trpceski's second half comprised the two sets of Debussy's Images, which suited him best of all. But it was not only in the slower and more atmospheric pieces that he showed the subtlety of his ear: there was a brittle brilliance to the Hommage à Rameau, whose reimagining of Harpsichord textures on a modern piano were purveyed with absolute assurance.

New York Philharmonic Debut

New York Times , October, 2005

The Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski made his Philharmonic debut on the second half of the program...He cruised through the Rachmaninoff's punishingly difficult Third Concerto with technique to spare...his sound was rich and full and it should be said that his agile and fleet-fingered account thrilled larger portions of the audience.

Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra

Hollywood Bowl

LA Times, July, 2005

By Daniel Cariega

The Philharmonic also excelled in the power and delicate stretches of Gallic lyricism of Ravel's Concerto in G, in which the multi-gifted soloist was Simon Trpceski, having a Bowl debut at merely 25 years of age. The pianist from Macedonia commanded the work's many facets with ease and insouciance, an effortless technique, considerable charm and a bracing sense of articulation. All the pianistic fireworks were controlled, and Trpceski's slow movement held the listener in rapt concentration.

Recital at Wigmore Hall, London
The Times, June, 27. 2005
By Richard Morrison

On a blisteringly hot day I imagined the Wigmore would be, at best, half-full and half- attentive for a Radio 3 lunchtime concert. Clearly I had reckoned without the Trpceski effect. The Macedonian pianist may still be in his mid- twenties, and not much more than five years into his career. But discerning music-lovers already revere him, and they packed the place to the rafters.
Rightly so. Trpceski has, literally at his fingertips, a magical combination of power and poetry, sense and sensibility. It's that last quality, particularly, that marks him out from the other young lions of the keyboard. He may conjure extraordinary audacities - supplying an amazing climax to Rachmaninov's song-transcription Daisies, for instance, where he brushed up the keys like a silk scarf dusting a glockenspiel, then left the harmonics shimmering in a half-pedal before resolving the unanswered question with the most delicate of final touches. But nothing is ever done for sensation's sake. Though often mustering rich, cascading sonorities, Trpceski is far more often intimate and nuanced than barnstorming and rhetorical.
Here he divided his energies between Chopin and Rachmaninov. The opening Chopin Polonaise (F sharp, Op 44) had a few untidy splashes in its epic moments, but it seemed that Trpceski was disconcerted by a squeaky piano stool - which, indeed, continued to emit strange whimpers through the recital.
No matter; he quickly displayed the compelling hallmarks of his style: light but devastatingly punchy octaves; well delineated rhythms (he can pounce on chords with a drum-like vigour when he chooses); a gossamer touch in lyrical episodes; and an impeccable ear for internal balance. One hears warhorses such as Chopin's B Minor Scherzo and Rachmaninov's B flat Prelude reduced so often to near- incomprehensible ivory-pummelling that Trpceski's performances seemed like the lifting of a dense fog from a half-remembered landscape.
Yet there is nothing contrived about his concern for clarity. The Rachmaninov Prelude, especially, was like a big bang of energy, miraculously sustained over three minutes.
Most bewitching of all, however, is his natural gift for paragraphing the music: giving shape and meaning to long, complex passages by varying the flow and dynamics with what seems to be complete spontaneity. So many young soloists tie themselves in psychological knots trying too hard to express emotion - or rather, to fake it. Trpceski is the real deal. A pianistic talent in a thousand.

The Independent, March, 2005
By Keith Potter

Simon Trpceski seems to be playing Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto the length and breadth of the land. His helter-skelter, yet alertly nuanced, reading, vividly projected with uncommon - indeed uncanny - clarity, had orchestra and audience on the edge of their seats. The BSO players and Alsop managed to keep up with him in the lethal first movement, doing rather better than the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the Barbican a few weeks ago.

Prokofiev Piano Concerto no.3
March 2005

Birmingham Post, February, 2005
By Christopher Morley

...The remarkable young pianist Simon Trpceski, who has just signed an exclusive recording contract with EMI, preceded his performance of Grieg's Piano Concerto by announcing he was dedicating it as a birthday present to his agent, and then pausing, apparently in prayerful contemplation, before launching into a mercurial opening.
Surprisingly Lisztian flights of digital exuberance in this reading were delivered with great clarity, and Trpceski's tensile grip gave much-needed continuity to music which can open appear bitty.
Trpceski's encore, was a haunting account of the Air from Grieg's Holberg Suite.

Grieg Piano Concerto
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Birmingham Alive, February,  02. 2005
By Andy Mabbett

Although the CBSO's handling of Bartok's Dance Suite and Dvorak's underrated Sixth Symphony were up to their usual high standard, there can be no doubt that this show was stolen by guest pianist Simon Trpceski, a brilliantly talented young Macedonian.
He won the audience over twice - firstly, by modestly begging our leave to dedicate his performance to his agent on her birthday, and, more importantly for us, by playing Grieg's folk-inspired A Minor Concerto as though his life depended on it, with passion, yet showing heartfelt delicacy.

There's not really a lot else to say - his performance was completely and utterly outstanding, from start to finish.

BBC Symphony Orchestra/Tadaaki Otaka
Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto
Barbican, London

The Times, Februari, 2005
By Richard Morrison

...Still, what followed was worth anyone's ticket money (or licence fee): a scintillating performance of Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto - mercurial and witty one moment; ardent and lyrical the next; mesmerising everywhere - by the young Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski. And he then played a magical encore: the Prelude and Pajdushka, partly a toccata and partly a jangling folk-dance, by his older compatriot and teacher, Zivoin Glishic. Music to which the ears and heart said "yes" rather than NO (the name of the piece by Richard Barrett which opened the programme).
 

BBC Symphony Orchestra/Tadaaki Otaka
Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto
Barbican, London

The Daily Telegraph, Februari, 2005
By Geoffrey Norris

...Luckily, Simon Trpceski raised the temperature with an electrifying performance of Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto and of his encore, Zivoin Glishic's Prelude and Pajdushka. In the concerto, he challenged the orchestra to keep up with his dash and audacity - and, for the most part, it did - but the nub of this interpretation was its sheer musicality, summoning up the music's potent blend of brilliance, lyricism, lucidity and wit with compelling subtlety, maturity and rhythmic élan. Suddenly, the evening's doldrums were forgotten, and there was something to go home and feel good about.

San Francisco Classical Music Voice, December, 2004
By Jerry Kuderna

Saint-Saens' 2nd Piano Concerto was aptly paired with Printemps and showed the road more traveled which the young Debussy did not take. It is a rabble-rouser, but so masterfully orchestrated that Ravel claimed to have learned everything from it. It got a dazzling performance from the magistral young Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski, who appeared for the first time with the symphony. Equipped with plenty of technique and a wide range of color, he had a way of integrating his sound with the orchestra that gave me a new interest in this warhorse. His performance in Prokofiev's Third Concerto last year with the Santa Rosa Symphony displayed his abilities in the virtuoso concerto repertoire.

The Daily Telegraph October, 07. 2004
By Matthew Rye

..Peter Jablonsky gave a somewhat cool account of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini - crisp and thoughtful rather than bubbling and surging. In many respects, Simon Trpceski's Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto displayed the opposite characteristics: this was a performance full of urgency and dazzling virtuosity, tempered by just the right level of echt-Russian melancholy and lyrical warmth and injecting renewed vigour into this tired old warhorse. It has been said before, but with both Sokhiev and Trpceski in their mid-twenties, the musical future is surely in the hands of the young.

Philharmonia Orchestra
With Tugan Sokhiev
Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto
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The Evening Standard, October, 06. 2004
By Nick Kimberley

(Sokhiev) was at his best shaping the accompaniment for Simon Trpceski, whose performance of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto had a maturity that belied his 25 years.
Trpceski has the firepower Tchaikovsky demanded, and there were moments when he seemed intent on punishing the piano, particularly in its lower register. At the end of the first movement, he pulled out a handkerchief and mopped, not only his brow, but also the piano keys, as if they, too, were sweating.
But Trpceski is no barnstormer. Throughout, there was a palpable sense of conversation with the orchestra, even if, as Tchaikovsky intended, it was rather one-sided. In the cadenzas, Trpceski's note-placement and strongly accented rhythms had me thinking, incongruously, of Thelonious Monk. The eye contact between soloist and conductor was born not of tentativeness, but of each paying close attention to the other: not always the case in this well-worn concerto.

The Guardian, July, 30. 2004
By Tom Service

...But it was Simon Trpceski's performance of Saint-Saëns's Second Piano Concerto that was the highlight of the programme. His dazzling technique breathed new life into this over-familiar warhorse, making the scherzo a shimmering, fleet-footed dance, and the finale an impassioned, energetic romp.

The Independent, July, 30. 2004
By Robert Maycock

People will be auctioning tickets for Simon Trpceski soon. His spectacular debuts in the last few months at the Barbican and now the Proms didn't sell out, but it's only afterwards that word really gets around. As well as a piano technique equal to extremes of both power and delicacy, his playing wrestles with the untamed beast of artistic expression and sometimes makes it behave itself all too well. Showing up with a concerto by the ultra-civilised Saint-Saëns looked like a decision to do just that. But with Trpceski you never know when he'll let the beast loose. A moody, severe, even angry opening switched gracefully to an interlude of deft, quiet fantasy, and then the big build-up began. Everything went smoothly, then Trpceski produced a thunderous left-hand accent, out of the blue and right out of proportion, and the whole process went into overdrive. The rest of the movement raged and sorrowed, and gave the obsessive lingering over a theme borrowed from the composer's favourite pupil, Fauré, a perfectly believable air of lost love, as tragic as Tchaikovsky.
The scherzo was so light and fleet that you could hear the audience holding its collective breath. Trpceski didn't quite know what to do with the clumsy tune that interrupts at times: he marked its arrival and then charged on, impatient to get it out of the way. There was a breakneck finale, perfectly nuanced; then a featherweight, introspective encore, Rachmaninov's Daisies .
Otherwise, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with its long-time conductor Joseph Swensen, matched the soloist for dash and ardour, and in a programme notable for the quantity of high-adrenalin, fast music showed itself adept in ensemble and balance.

The Times, July, 29. 2004
By Hilary Finch

Two significant debuts distinguished this Prom. First, the season's continuing Bohemian rhapsody prompted what was, extraordinarily, the first Proms performance of Dvorák's Czech Suite. And then, the 25-year-old Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski, in the first flush of youthful brilliance, made a perfectly timed, perfectly cast debut with Saint-Saën's Second Piano Concerto. However delectable the playing of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Joseph Swensen - and their opening Dvorák displayed at once the supple and sophisticated ensemble of this band - it was without doubt Trpceski who filled and thrilled the hall. His virtuosity is delightfully ego-free. It's as though everything is being done out of sheer joy - both in the musical fun of the composer's fantasy, and in the sheer beauty with which Trpceski is able to magic what is essentially a percussion instrument into a variegated palette of tones and voices.
The piano is its own curtain-raiser in this G minor Concerto. And that doom-laden key colours its improvisatory opening with dark tints if melodrama which Trpceski conjured into a most delicately shaped soliloquy. Vacillating dizzily between hushed undertones and flamboyant bravura, this movement became in his hands a glorious triumph of manner over matter.
Trpceski's own triumph was in the central scherzo: few pianists can create such a moth-wing flutter of fingerwork while freeing each note to sing its way forward. Trpceski's coy sidestep into the galumphing second theme was a tour de force of timing.
And, in his tarantella of a finale, he swept every orchestral soloist up with him to delight in his devilish dance.

The Financial Times, July, 29. 2004
By Richard Fairman

Saint-Saëns's Piano Concerto No 2 used to be a Proms' favourite in the first half of the 20 th century (35 performances, no less, by 1962).
Its charms have faded since then, like so much of Saint-Saens, but the inspiring Simon Trpceski could not have made a better case for it, scampering up and down the keyboard with a fair dash of insouciance, while teasing out every passing moment of lyricism. The old crowd-pleaser drew quite a roar.

Proms: Superb Saint-Saens
The Daily Telegraph, July, 28. 2004

By Geoffrey Norris

The year 2004 is not a round-figure anniversary for Saint-Saens; nor can he be fitted into any of this season's Proms themes.
But no excuse was needed for programming last night's brilliant performance of his Second Piano Concerto by the young Macedonian pianist, Simon Trpceski. This is a work slightly on the fringes of fashion these days, but it is one for which Trpceski makes the strongest possible case, relishing its romantic glow and delighting in its dynamism. He brought it right back to the forefront.
It was characteristic of him, however, that the performance was not a pretext for purposeless display. There was consistency of well-honed thought here, a feel for style, a finesse in the way he shaped phrases and deftly negotiated the whirlwind piano writing.
Nor was it a one-man show, because Trpceski also appreciated the piano's role within its orchestral context, yielding to soloists in the Scottish Chamber Orchestra when they had priority in the texture and, with the conductor Joseph Swensen, forging a coherent instrumental picture. In temperament, the concerto shifts between opposite poles of Bach and burlesque.
The opening resembles a Baroque fantasia; the finale is a vigorous tarantella. But this performance, sensitive to mood and musical character, drew the diverse facets together in a compelling kaleidoscope of ideas, beautifully offset here by the quiet reflectiveness of Trpceski's solo Rachmaninov encore.
Trpceski has been gathering international plaudits ever since his first Wigmore Hall recital three years ago, and this Proms debut was a further mark of his maturity and inspiration.

reviews the SCO conducted by Swensen at the Albert Hall.

The Evening Standard, July, 28. 2004  
By Stephen Pettitt

For his first ever Prom, the 25-year-old Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski chose to play Saint-Saëns' Second Piano Concerto, an appealing if unfashionable work, cleverly written and satisfyingly shaped.
A big first movement, which opens with all the gravitas of a solemn Bach organ prelude before metamorphosing into an exercise in grandiose Lisztian rhetoric, is followed by two fast movements, one a featherlight scherzo, the other a ferocious, even faster, moto perpetuo. But although the concerto is undoubtedly a severe test of technique, it's not a piece that requires a pianist to think too deeply. One cannot imagine Brendel or Uchida bothering themselves with it.
Bother himself with it Trpceski most certainly had, however, for his was a beautifully gauged, artful performance. Besides getting the notes right, his main challenge was to achieve that certain Gallic suavity. He succeeded. The opening movement was imposing, serious and melodramatic without being pompous. In the scampering Allegro scherzando second movement his touch had an uncanny precision and his sound was, as always, clean and precise. And the finale proved a breathtaking exhibition of pianistic athleticism, hurtling heedless of hazard towards its end. The excellent Scottish Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of Principal Conductor Joseph Swensen, needed to be on its toes, and was.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Royal Albert Hall, London 
By Robert Matthew Walker

The much-admired young Macedonian-born pianist Simon Trpceski joined orchestra and conductor for his Proms debut in Saint-Saëns's Second Concerto in G minor. Trpceski was in sparkling form and was excellently accompanied, revealing virtually every imaginative master-stroke in which the concerto abounds with a display of sheer virtuosity that at times was breathtaking.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra/Jeffrey Kahane

Saint-Saens - Piano Concerto no.2

Los Angeles Times, May, 15. 2004 

By Chris Pasles

One has grown wary - and weary - of the hype surrounding the latest young piano hotshot, but Trpceski is the real thing, an artist who plays the music, not the audience.
His vehicle was Saint-Saëns' Second Piano Concerto, a work not exactly at the top of the list of favorite showoff concertos, but, as was quickly apparent, formidably difficult and meaty enough to warrant serious attention.
Trpceski didn't throw his head back, seeking inspiration from high above. He didn't rock back and forth or sway from side to side, carried away on waves of overdramatized feeling. His upper torso was surprisingly quiet. He leaned slightly into the keyboard. The action seemed to come mostly from his forearms and lyrical, spidery fingers, each of which created vertical space for the tone to expand into leisurely.
But don't be deceived. There was plenty of power and energy, dazzling speed and intricacy of finger work and kaleidoscopic variety of color as he skimmed over the keyboard with the frictionless ease of an ice skater. In the early arpeggios of the first movement, he seemed to discover an altogether second instrument consisting of pure bell tones when the left hand crossed over into the heights of the Fazioli grand.
It may be wildly premature to say, but someday people may speak of the distinctive Trpceski touch with the same reverence they reserve for their short list of great pianists.

Philharmonia Orchestra /Mikko Franck

Grieg's Piano Concerto

The Times, May, 06. 2004

By John Allison

Two twentysomethings dominated this Philharmonia Orchestra concert: the Finnish conductor Mikko Franck and the Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski.
But age was not an issue in their strikingly mature performances. Indeed, few pianists of any generation today play with more dazzling musicality and greater insight than Trpceski. Others may be hyped, but he measures up to all the praise he receives.
. He made the old warhorse sound newly interesting, with crystalline flurries that were as fresh as a Norwegian spring torrent. But this was not only about bravura display: right from the famous opening statement he played with rare authority, ensuring that every chord was balanced and every note had its proper weight. He built up the big cadenza masterfully.
Completely at ease with the instrument, Trpceski traced delicate lines in a poetic and poised slow movement, and in the finale unleashed formidable power.

Philharmonia Orchestra /Mikko Franck

 Grieg's Piano Concerto

The Evening Standard, May, 06. 2004

By Stephen Pettitt

Trpceski is no showman, so we are suffered none of the exaggerated gestures, physical or musical, that some of his peers like to cultivate in their quest for stardom. Instead, this deeply engaging reading revealed an artist who thinks carefully about the placement, balance and quality of each and every sound.
The power of his singing tone in the first movement cadenza refuted a passing suspicion that this performance was heading for understatement. He'd simply been more willing than most to keep decorative, accompanimental passages in their decorative accompanimental place.
The slow movement had an unfussy eloquence, there were abundant, joyful colours in the finale, and throughout the work Trpceski's certitude of technique and vision hugely impressed.

Simon Trpceski/Bridgewater Hall
April, 19. 2004, Halle

Manchester Evening News

Manchester music live reviews

By Philip Radcliffe

AN exceptionally talented young pianist made a remarkable debut with the Hallé last night, generating roars of approval and a standing ovation.
Simon Trpceski, a 24-year-old from Macedonia, showed why he has won so many international prizes. And he shared his moment of glory with another impressive Hallé debutant, the Japanese conductor, Kazushi Ono. To see the two of them spontaneously hug each other at the end of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto was heartwarming evidence of their own exhilaration.
Even the members of the orchestra applauded. Trpceski is an exciting player. He combines intensity with integrity, passion with precision. He seems to revel in the exhausting demands of the piece, moving easily from stroking the keys in the slow movement to hammering them at speed in the finale. Yet while waiting for his entries, he appears relaxed, surveying orchestra and audience, carefully folding and unfolding the handkerchief he uses to mop his forehead.
And the Hallé's popular Opus One series again fulfilled its mission of introducing us to outstanding new talent.

Breathing new life into Tchaikovsky's old warhorse

Bournemouth SO/Marin Alsop

Lighthouse, Poole

The Daily Telegraph, April, 02. 2004

By Geoffrey Norris

It was fairly predictable that the combination of Marin Alsop, Simon Trpceski and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra would have an exhilarating outcome, but the spontaneous combustion generated by their performance of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto was of such scorching power that it gave a whole new meaning to the word dynamism. Forget any notions of letting this much-loved and much-played warhorse just rest on its laurels and rely on its popularity. Here was a performance that took the concerto by the scruff of the neck, shook it vigorously and made one appreciate what a jolly good piece of music it is.
The reasons for pre-concert optimism were founded on Alsop's proven capacity to cast new light on even the most familiar repertoire, and on Trpceski's ability to harness dazzling virtuosity with sound thinking about musical proportion, style and expression. While the concerto's lyricism was allowed to make its impact in the central movement, he is not a pianist to be drawn into sentimentality. There was a tender simplicity here that exactly mirrored Tchaikovsky's andante semplice marking and was all the more telling for being clear-eyed. Moreover, the colour spectrum was broadened by instrumental solos that were of like feeling for line and eloquence.
There was a galvanising sense throughout the concerto that all were working towards a common purpose. The synergy in the outer movements was explosive. Trpceski's impetus had the uncanny effect of making the first movement seem broad yet taut, his refusal to indulge in the potentially soupy moments giving the music a profile of freshness, his dance-like lightness in the finale sounding at once lithe yet in complete control. There was originality and electricity here in equal measure, a fusion of physicality and sensitivity that really made one sit up and take stock.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Marin Alsop

Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto no.1

Poole, March, 31. 2004

By John Allison

Anyone who thinks that life in Poole is terminally sedate should have been here. There was enough action in this latest programme from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and its principal conductor, Marin Alsop, to fill several concerts. All three works gave her a chance to display her special strengths, and when in Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto these were combined with the phenomenal pianism of Simon Trpceski the results left the audience's collective jaw on the floor.
It must be a long time since any pianist has managed to sound at once so exciting and so musical in Tchaikovsky's old warhorse.
But then this young Macedonian player has rare musical integrity and stunning technique, a mixture that allowed him to bring bracing attack and plenty of lyrical poetry to the performance. You have to see Trpceski at the instrument to realise that few pianists look more naturally comfortable at the keyboard than he does.
For all its wonderful tunes, Tchaikovsky's first movement is a ramshackle old construction that cries out for structure. But that didn't matter here, for this performance took shape as an exciting dialogue between pianist and orchestra. Alsop conducted with brisk sweep, getting real punch from the orchestra, and Trpceski countered with brilliant and apparently effortless virtuosity. The remaining two movements are much tighter, but still they sounded more arresting than usual: the slow movement's glistening delicacy gave way to a dancing finale in which one really felt the presence of the fiery Ukrainian song on which it is based.
After Trpceski's dazzling flourish at the end, he came back with a melancholy tribute to the last day of the month, with March as his encore from Tchaikovsky's The Seasons .

Daily Camera, March, 4. 2004

By Kelly Dean Hansen

The CU Artist series has established a tradition of programming a solo recital by a renowned pianist on an annual basis. Jon Nakamatsu, Yefim Bronfman, Olga Kern, and Stanislaw Ioudenitch have all graced the Macky stage in recent years. Without exception, these performances have been transcendent experiences, and the pianists have always presented incredibly difficult programs that left audiences in awe.
Simon Trpceski, a young man from Macedonia, continued and added to this tradition of transcendence, and he did it with an added twist: his entire program consisted of 20th century pieces. Granted, the second half of the program was devoted to works by Sergei Rachmaninoff, who was writing in a romantic idiom well into the 1930s, but the pieces chosen were among the composer's most challenging and satisfying.
The first half of the program opened with Stravinsky's finger-twisting Four etudes, and continued with the Valses Nobles et Sentimentales by Maurice Ravel. This modern set of dances was probably the most dissonant and progressive work on the program, but the audience responded enthusiastically. Busoni's Sonatina after Bizet's Carmen preceded the intermission, delighting with its reworking of the familiar melodies from that opera.
Trpceski presented all of these challenging works with an intensity that still managed to project an aura of effortlessness. This trend only continued in the Rachmaninoff works on the program's second half. Two of the composer's preludes, one virtuosic, one lyrical, provided an effective opening, while the composer's piano transcription of the Scherzo from Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream was both delightful and exhilarating.
The concluding work was also the weightiest. Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Sonata has never been as passionately loved as his concertos or his Second Symphony, but the work is one of his finest. Trpceski presented the tighter revised 1931 edition of the score in a performance that solidified the aforementioned excellence that has become almost a given with solo piano concerts in the Artist Series. The bell-like climax of the first movement, the haltingly lyrical melody that recurs throughout the sonata, and especially the final peroration confirmed that Trpceski is more than worthy of standing aside the great names that have preceded him here.
The Rachmaninoff Sonata drew the crowd to its feet instantaneously, with demands for an encore. Trpceski responded by playing the "Boulder premiere" of an exciting piece by a composer from his native Macedonia. When the audience still had not had enough, he indulged them with Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee. The program was full of modern works, but it was also full of passion, melody, and extreme virtuosity. With last month's equally tremendous program from the Academy of St.-Martin-in-the-Fields, the CU College of Music has brought two evenings of world-class entertainment to Boulder within the space of three weeks.
Trpceski's performance concludes the classical portion of this year's Artist Series. The College of Music presents Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, the second installment of the CU Opera Season, on March 12.

Young pianist puts new spin on old-style music recital

The Kansas City Star

By Paul Horsley 

Simon Trpceski is a young pianist steeped in the "old school."
His recital on Saturday capitalized both on his youthfully prodigious technique and on the kind of structural logic that piano recitals used to have in the early 20th century.
This first of the Harriman Arts Program's free "Discovery Concerts" introduced a developing artist of great promise to a Folly Theater audience of young people, families and a few regular classical-heads.
It was an ideal way to begin such a series, for it was everything a piano recital should be. It had favorites, some solid but less-familiar fare and a couple of oddities. It had a beginning, a middle and an end. The pianist didn't leave the stage between pieces.
Trpceski's pianism, too, contained much of the grand artistry of the "Russian school." (The Macedonian native studies with a prominent Russian teacher.) This made Stravinsky's Etudes, Op. 7, particularly compelling. This 24-year-old's remarkable control of touch lent transparence to the E-minor, rhythmic fire to the D-major and high tension to the F-sharp minor.
Likewise a sort of bright electricity of touch gave the transcription of Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Scherzo and almost Bachian logic. Trpceski delivered a clean rendering of Rachmaninoff's Second Sonata that had a sense of personality.
Trpceski's slow moments were often his most rewarding, particularly Rachmaninoff's D-major Prelude (Op. 23, No. 4), whose flowerlike melody arose from a perfect sense of leisure and clarity. The Bach-Siloti Prelude in B-minor, the second of two encores, was potently mesmerizing.
Also notable was the gently virtuosic "Preludium-Pajduska," written especially for Trpceski by his compatriot Zivoin Glishic and played as an encore. Like Trpceski's playing, this solidly crafted composition spoke well of the determined sophistication of Macedonia's musical heritage.

Toronto Star, March, 5. 2004

By John Lehr

The lament for past maestros never dies. "Ah, Horowitz! Ah, Heifetz!! We will never see their like again!" But we shouldn't be so pessimistic. Given the wonderful young virtuosos competing with each other for places on our concert programs, we are now very likely to hear artists as good or better than past greats. The lament should be that opportunities for them to be heard are diminishing rather than multiplying.
This week Torontonians had a chance to hear two young artists of exceptional talent. Last Wednesday, Russian violinist Ilya Gringolts made his debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with his teacher Itzhak Perlman conducting. And last Tuesday, the Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski made his GTA debut in a Music Toronto recital.
At the age of 21, Gringolts has already recorded a number of critically acclaimed CDs and has been lauded for his exquisite tone and dazzling technique. He performed Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major on Wednesday with a fine-spun, silvery tone that distinguished the solo part from the orchestra at all dynamic levels. He played with great finesse and attentiveness to the most minute details, but temperamentally he seemed mis-matched with Mozart.
Mozart's moving comedy became a set of aristocratic dances. His lyricism and playfulness turned into laconic elegance and high-stepping impetus.
Gringolts' teacher might have been partly responsible for this. Perlman led the orchestra in a well-behaved accompaniment for his star pupil. But there was little interplay or creative tension with the soloist.
Perlman is a master violinist, but, on the evidence of this concert, he is still a journeyman conductor. The orchestra played well for him in Mozart's overture to Don Giovanni and in Schubert's massive 9th symphony. But these performances were reminiscent of familiar works heard many times before. They did not present them anew.
Trpceski, in his recital, did show new things in familiar works. Listening to his reading of Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales was like seeing a famous old painting again after it had been cleaned: its darkened colours restored, its hidden forms revealed. The dense textures of Rachmaninoff's second piano sonata, also, which congeal into a dark mass for most pianists, dispersed into rich colours and layered voices. Its disparate forms fit together with vigorous musical logic.
At the age of 24, this pianist has the maturity to develop a fresh, detailed and comprehensive concept of a work and the technical wizardry to realize that concept completely in performance. And among the works he showed us was indeed something totally new. His first encore was Prelude and Pajdushka written for him by one of his teachers in Skopje, Zivoin Glishich. Judging by this, Glishich is a composer we would like to hear more from. Save your laments. An incomparable new maestro is here. Trpceski's recital was recorded for future broadcast on CBC Radio Two.

Irish Examiner, January, 29. 2004
By Michael Dungan

SIMON TRPCESKI is a young lion. The Macedonian pianist, who made his Republic of Ireland debut on Sunday night in the National Concert Hall Celebrity Recital Series, has sent UK critics scurrying for superlatives since his Wigmore Hall debut in 2001, one even suggesting that he is the new Evgeny Kissin.
At 24 he is about the average age of the competitors in the 2003 AXA Dublin International Piano Competition. And, since he played the Rachmaninov Piano Sonata No.2 which was so beloved among competitors last year, it is hard not to compare him with those pianists of his own vintage.
In terms of pure technical com mand at the keyboard he is streets ahead, appearing entirely at ease with Rachmaninov's virtuosic demands for agility, power and control. But so much for fireworks. What really struck in this performance was the sense he made of the music, notably the jolting changes of mood and perspective which seemed so often to be beyond his contemporaries at the RDS last year.
If he occasionally tended towards over-staring the emergence of thematic content, unmasking the tunes aS it Were, the testifa "was a revelation in terms of the movement's structure and sense. It is music which rages and abates between tumult and quiet reflection, and Trpceski was equal to both moods and to the swings which connect them.
He dared to take the gentle, contemplative second movement slower than any in the AXA competition. But it was never too slow. He revealed here a genuine tenderness of heart to balance the youthful panache and technical fire power which returned with a vengeance in the flying finale.
He concluded the first half with Scriabin's 12-minute, single-movement Sonata No. 5. It was composed in 1907, just six years before the Rachmaninov, but sounds as though Scriabin could hardly have come from the same planet as Rachmaninov, never mind the same country. It is weird music. Trpceski persuasively preserved this weirdness while at the same time again giving meaning and purpose to all Scriabin's frantic energy which was interspersed with pas sages of an almost voluptuous character. Prokofiev's Sonata No. 6, composed in 1940, is the first of his so-called War Trilogy. Whether or not you agree with commentators who dispute this title on the grounds that Russia did not enter the war until 1941, this is music of darker substance than any in the rest of the programme. It afforded Trpceski the chance to reveal yet another dimension within the range and astonishing facility of his musician ship.

Daily Telegraph, February, 03. 2004
By Geoffrey Norris

This recital by Simon Trpceski, given before a capacity audience, showed that his strengths as a pianist depend not merely on an indomitable technique but on firmly argued processes of thought underlying his interpretations.
The programme was a challenging one of three Russian sonatas, by Rachmaninov, Skryabin and Prokofiev, followed by a trio of encores: Prokofiev's Scherzo humoristique Op 12 No 9, a new Prelude and Pajdushka written specially for Trpceski by the Macedonian composer Zivoin Glisic, and Rachmaninov's transcription of Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumble Bee.
There were masses of notes and hoards of chords here, but the quality that made them at once digestible and illuminating was essentially the one of musical characterisation.
Rachmaninov's Second Sonata, with which the recital began, was a particular case in point. It can be argued that Rachmaninov never quite got this sonata right, either in his original version of 1913 or in the shortened, rewritten form of 1931. Both versions, in their different ways, are difficult to come to terms with emotionally and pose knotty structural problems.
Vladimir Horowitz, seeking to solve them, famously used to play a hybrid of the two, but Trpceski, performing the revised score, cunningly papered over the joins and gave an impression of architectural cohesion. At the base of the performance lay a clarity in Rachmaninov's intricate contrapuntal writing, coupled with a range of colour to help define the music's phrasing and shape. There was physical weight to Trpecski's playing, but the tone remained pure.
In addition, there was a passionate view of the music's temperament, in general governed by a consistency of interpretative idea and a resonance in the great chordal chimes that from time to time dominate the texture. Not for nothing is the sonata an exact contemporary of Rachmaninov's choral symphony The Bells.In short, there was understanding of style and period, a sense of the storm and stress that the black dots on the page harbour and of trying to get under Rachmaninov's skin. In the volatile realms of Skryabin's Fifth Sonata, with its leaping, evanescent ideas, and in the disquiet of Prokofiev's Sixth, Trpecski's crystallisation of idiom and expressive intent was equally credible.
And the encores,finger-breaking they might have been, but they came across with the concentration and refreshing vigour that are among Trpceski's hallmarks.

Seattle Times, February, 2004

By Melinda Bargreen

Last season, when the young Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski arrived in Benaroya Hall to play with the Seattle Symphony, music lovers were agog at the finest sets of digits to wander into our purview in quite some time.
That judgment was more than confirmed by Trpceski's first Seattle recital, Wednesday's outing at the President's Piano Series. A genuine wunderkind, Trpceski at 24 is really a marvel: heart-stopping technique, and a sense of exhilaration and zest that keeps listeners near the edge of their seats all evening. Trpceski (pronounced Trp-chesky, with a rolled "r") plays incredibly cleanly, even in the most challenging passages, but he also plays with a remarkable panache and elegance.
The young pianist made his mark right away in the rarely-played "Four Studies" of Stravinsky - mercurial pieces that emerged in brilliant fits and starts, exploding into riffs of dazzling dexterity.
Later on, the Scherzo from Mendelssohn's "Midsummer Night's Dream" (in the Rachmaninoff transcription) emerged with just the right touch, a lighter-than-air evenness that seemed to make the music float right out of the Steinway. Rippling, spectacular cascades of notes decorated the familiar "Carmen" themes in Busoni's Sonatina No. 6 ("Chamber Fantasy after Bizet's 'Carmen' ").
Some of the evening's most exciting moments came in the second half, devoted entirely to Rachmaninoff. The thorny Piano Sonata No. 2, gorgeous but structurally problematic, found Trpceski at his explosive, cataclysmic best. He's an ideal Rachmaninoff interpreter, with the technical facility to make everything look easy, and the temperament to deal with the composer's impassioned romanticism.
The two Preludes (B-Flat Major and D Major) were terrific, especially the latter, with its dreamy lyricism; these performances can stand with such great interpreters as Vladimir Ashkenazy, which is saying a good deal. . The enthusiastic ovations drew three encores from this exuberant player: a new Prelude and Pajdushka written specially for Trpceski by the Macedonian composer Zivoin Glisic; Rachmaninoff's transcription of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee", and finally Prokofiev's "Scherzo humoristique," Op. 12, No. 9.

Pianist Trpceski: breathtaking brilliance and passion

Sydney Symphony

The Sun Herald, August, 17. 2003
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...Completing this romantic program was Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto no.3,with the young Macedonian,Simon Trpceski,taking on the formidable solo made so famous by the movie Shine.A couple of stumbles did not in any way faze Trpceski,who maintained self-possession and understated control.His was the most gentle of touches,as if coaxing the piano to speak for itself,and even fiery cascade of octaves in the final movement seemed inevitable,rather than foolhardy.
Trpceski's technique is impressive,and his searching interpretation recasts the piano soloist not as a courageous hero but as an impassioned philosopher.

Sydney Symphony

Sydney Morning Herald, August, 15. 2003
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...In the first half,the young Macedonian pianist,Simon Trpceski.showed an equal care for melodic shape in the opening of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto before unleashing a performance of power and seriousness.Trpceski is sure and commanding,unfolding this epic yet reflective virtuosic narrative with brilliance and fine musical instincts.He is an outstanding player of enormous promise.

West Australian Symphony
West Australian Today, August, 12. 2003

Prokofiev's Piano Concerto no.1 lasts little more than 15 minutes but few pianists have the chops to negotiate this tough obstacle course.Like some Macedonian Caesar,however,Simon Trpceski,on his first visit to Perth,came,saw and conquered in a magnificent feat of imaginative musicianship.
I was frankly stunned, not only by Trpceski's total command of the keyboard but his ability to reveal the essence of the young Prokofiev's most poetic ideas.It was a balanced interpretation that marks him out as a youthful musician of depth as well as a virtuoso in the grand manner.Further evidence of the breadth of his musical accomplishments came in an encore offered in response to a rapturous,prolonged ovation:Glisic's Praeludium and Pajdushka,the latter based on a Macedonian folk dance and informed by exothic rhytms that drew yet more roars of applause.

Rachmaninov Concerto no.3/Melbourne Symphony
The Age, August, 5. 2003

Trpceski gave a measured and finely spun version of the Shine Concerto,taking the highground when necessary,but forging more of a partnership with the orchestra than most interpreters do.His technique is firm and unfussed,no signs of the tempestuous or flashy.The only place where the young Macedonian musician showed sufficient fire in the climaxes came in the cadenza during the opening Allegro.

Seen & Heard, London
June, 2003

Saint-Saens Second Piano Concerto is a work with which Simon Trpceski is becoming increasingly identified in this country - only a month or so ago he gave a performance of it with the Scottish Chamber orchestra, one of almost incandescent fury in the outer movements. If this performance, under Alexander Lazarev and the Philharmonia Orchestra, was both more weighty, and at times more ponderous, it still conveyed this pianist's gift for enthralling the listener with the most expressive legato. The opening andante, for example, so evocative of the middle movement of Beethoven's Emperor concerto, produced superbly poetic playing, notably at the top end of the keyboard where Trpceski relies on a firm, but sonorous, edge to his finger placement.
He is equally miraculous in the bass register - the opening toccata, for example, had a thrilling range and depth of tone. What continues to impress with this pianist though is his technique - octaves were as well placed as you will ever hear in this concerto and he played the cadenza with effortless virtuosity.... it was a gripping journey through a concerto which in the
right hands can sound less trivial than it often is.

Philharmonia Orchestra, London
Times, June, 2003

It is not long since the young Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski first appeared in this country, but already he is a name with a big following. One of the BBC's New Generation Artists and a winner of the Young Artist category at this year's Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, here he drew a full Festival Hall. Deservedly so: from the moment he launched into Saint-Saëns's Piano Concerto No 2 in G minor he reminded us of what refined pianism is all about.
Saint-Saëns's well-loved concerto may have become a little unfashionable lately, but in a performance like this it is irresistible. Trpceski's uncannily mature approach was evident right from the start, where in the reflective solo passages he applied weight and brilliance in equal measure. Every note seemed perfectly placed; though nothing was left to chance, the effect remained spontaneous. There was delicacy and, eventually, fire too, thanks to the support of the conductor Alexander Lazarev, who built up the first movement impressively.
Even in the work's slighter moments, when nothing was really happening to advance the musical argument, Trpceski and Lazarev made it sound as if there was. The central movement had swagger, and the pianist's light touch in the scurrying passages contrasted with the tight rhythmic spring he brought to the finale. Here is a musician who looks set to dominate the pianistic world for a long time to come.

Into the beating heart of music at the hands of a vital performer
Daily Telegraph, April, 29. 2003

The case for bringing Saint-Saens' music to greater recognition was considerably strengthened by Simon Trpceski's incredibly fresh, expansive and vital performance of the Second Piano Concerto.
Trpceski has been making larger and larger waves in the music world since his debut recital at the Wigmore Hall two years ago. Last November he appeared in Glasgow with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra as a very last-minute stand-in for Boris Berezovsky and gave a performance of Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto that gripped with its energy and intelligence.
Trpceski could make one sit up and listen with splendid technique alone, but his artistry forces one away from marvelling at display, drawing one entirely into the inner workings and the beating heart of the music.
His intentions for the Saint-Saens were laid out in the opening of the first movement, whose evolution from Bachian prelude to thunderous chords was effected with tremendous energy. It was his mission statement for the whole performance.
The second concerto needs to gather a head of steam as it progresses, without feeling as though it is hurtling to its final destination. Trpceski achieved that by almost imperceptible shifts in pace within each movement but with ever-greater textural contrasts. There was fire in the belly of his interpretation that flickered in the dark recesses of the Andante, crackled under the Scherzo and set the final tarantella alight.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Inverness Courier, April, 29. 2003

It would have been well nigh impossible to leave the theather without feeling that we had just heard a real star in the making after the young Macedonian piano virtuoso Simon Trpceski made his Inverness debut....He produced a dazzling performance of Saint-Saens's unorthodox Piano Concerto no.2,full of drama and musical fireworks.It was not simply a matter of remarkable virtuosity,however,although he had that in plentiful supply.His playing was also deeply poetic and totally attentive to the finer moods and nuances of the music.If he dispatched the composer's virtuoso passage work in explosive fashion,he was equally alive to the wit and charm in Saint Saens's music,notably in the second movement.the overall performance was precisely judged by both soloist and orchestra...they brought out the full effect of the accelerationg momentum of the concerto's three progressively faster movements in a captivating performance.Trpceski responded to several rousing ovations with an equally breathtaking encore,a masterly account of Mendelssohn's Etude in A minor.Remember Trpceski's name-I suspect we will be hearing a lot more of it.

Glasgow Herald, April, 28. 2003
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The Orchestra and Principal Conductor,Joseph Swensen were joined by the young Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski in a performance of Saint -Saens Piano Concerto no.2...This piece is immensely good fun,both to play and listen to-judging by this performance.Trpceski's muscular playing was well suited to the opening slow movement,stylistically a curious blend of Bach and heady romanticism.In the ensuing movements,however he revealed an astonishingly light,nimble touch,fingers flying through the scherzo and even faster presto that followed.The orchestra were with him at every step.

Daily Telegraph, February, 7. 2003

There was a large crowd for Trpceski's lunchtime recital, and the man in front of me had travelled all the way down to Manchester from Scotland especially to hear it. The journey was surely worth it. Anybody who has been following Trpceski closely over the past few years will have heard him do Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales and the three pieces from Stravinsky's Petrushka before. But the fascination, far from being dimmed, was actually enhanced here, because Trpceski is forever finding new colours, new impulses, new ways of vitalising the music. The work I had not heard him do before was Liszt's first Mephisto Waltz, which was fabulous. Trpceski's technique can easily cope with the music's diabolical virtuosity, but, much more than that, his structural discernment invested the music with architectural coherence, and his sheer musicianship drew him towards subtleties that vividly illuminated the drama.

Simon Trpceski/Bridgewater Hall
Manchester online reviews, February, 7. 2003

The Orchestra and Principal Conductor,Joseph Swensen were joined by the young Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski in a performance of Saint -Saens Piano Concerto no.2...This piece is immensely good fun,both to play and listen to-judging by this performance.Trpceski's muscular playing was well suited to the opening slow movement,stylistically a curious blend of Bach and heady romanticism.In the ensuing movements,however he revealed an astonishingly light,nimble touch,fingers flying through the scherzo and even faster presto that followed.The orchestra were with him at every step.

Liverpool Echo, January, 1.6 2003

Trpceski's Liverpool debut(in Rachmaninov's Concerto no.2) did show a soloist who was more than all show....Such subtlety in the central slow movement-almost Mozartian in its delicacy-is unusual to find in a work where generally clamour meets glamour....

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Lancashire Evening Post, January, 2003

Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski is one of the rising stars of the recital circuit winning awards and excellent reviews.....
But he could not have had a more tumultuous applause as the one he received at the Guild Hall after his soulful,expressive rendition of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto no.2.....
Trpceski set the mood for the orchestra from the off with his deft touch in the opening chords through the rippling arpeggios of the Moderato and subtle control in the beautiful,central Adagio.The final movement with swelling strings and overtly Russian melody had the audience stamping their feet,a reception which was rewarded with a short but dazzling solo encore.

Passion of youth meets mature skills in symphony program

Seattle Times music critic

By Melinda Bargreen

One of the things that always makes the concertgoer's heart beat faster is the thrill of discovery, and the current Seattle Symphony Orchestra program is a thrill a minute.
The two prime movers in this program, which opened Thursday night, are both youngsters: Dutch conductor Lawrence Renes (born in 1970) and Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski (born in 1979). Their music making was full of youthful effervescence and passion, but their skills were fully mature - and they seemed to light a fire under the orchestra, which turned out some inspired playing in the all-Russian program.
Rachmaninoff's well-loved, well-worn Piano Concerto No. 2 was dusted off, shined up and polished to a brilliant sheen in the hands of Trpceski, an international prizewinner who has already launched a most promising career on several continents.
This is a young man whose name we're all going to have to learn to spell, because we'll almost certainly be seeing (and hearing) considerably more of him. (Trpceski is approximately pronounced "terp-CHESS-key.")
He plays with an almost astonishing clarity and accuracy, with a big, expansive technique and plenty of firepower. Nothing is overdone or exaggerated, but intensity and honesty radiate from every line of his playing. Trpceski couldn't have had a more supportive conductor; Renes coaxed the orchestra on with curling, enfolding gestures of his hands, preserving remarkable balances with the soloist and never overpowering him.
The effect on the audience was electric: a roaring, standing ovation that drew the soloist back again and again for repeated curtain calls. Finally Trpceski obliged with an encore, a transcription of the "Chinese Dance" from Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker."

The Guardian, November, 8. 2002
By Tom Service

Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski is only in his early 20s, but he is already attempting some remarkably daunting works. He ended his Wigmore Hall programme with Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka, the composer's sadistically virtuosic transcription of numbers from the orchestral score. Trpceski played the pieces as if they were no more demanding than an elementary technical exercise; yet what was more impressive was the way he depicted the expressive character of each movement. He created a cavalcade of characters in the final Shrovetide Fair, as individual rhythms and dances emerged from the texture. It was as if he were a film director controlling a crowd scene, cutting from one section of the drama to another.
Trpceski found a dazzling range of colours even in Stravinsky's densest piano writing, transforming the piano into a virtual orchestra. He needed the same alchemical skills in Grieg's Holberg Suite and Ravel's Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, both pieces that are more familiar in orchestral versions. The subtlety of his playing meant that the piano was no poor substitute for the orchestra. In fact, he revealed a contrapuntal energy in the fast movements of the Holberg Suite, and found a limpid clarity in Air, the long fourth movement in the sequence. His performance of the Ravel was equally convincing.
But his ability to sculpt large-scale musical structures was best revealed in his performance of Brahms's Variations on a Theme of Schumann. The piece - an elaborate homage to Robert and Clara Schumann, who sponsored Brahms's early career - builds a vast edifice from the simplicity of a Schumann melody. Trpceski showed off the work's compositional and technical brilliance, as the variations veered from extrovert drama to meditation. The piece was composed after Schumann had been admitted to the asylum where he would eventually die. In Trpceski's performance, the final variation had a tragic intensity, as the theme dissolved into a sequence of halting, unconnected fragments.

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Vassily Sinaisky

The Glasgow Herald, November, 10. 2002

By Michael Tumelty

It would take a lot to upstage a good performance of Tchaikovsky's last symphony, the Pathetique, but it almost happened last night during the final concert of the BBC SSO's survey of the great Russian composer's symphonies. Almost.
Preceding the symphony was the performance of another thoroughgoing masterpiece, Prokofiev's glittering Third Piano Concerto. At the very end of the week, scheduled pianist Boris Berezovsky took ill. The BBC scoured the planet for a pianist who could play the piece, had played it recently enough to have it at his fingertips, and who was available.
Late on Friday they found one. He was playing it in Belgrade that night. Trouble was, he was still in Belgrade on Saturday night, giving a solo recital.
Simon Trpceski, a BBC Radio 3 Young. Instead, he flew to dreich Glasgow, had one run-through of the concerto Generation Artist, was looking forward to last night off at home in Macedonia with the SSO and conductor Vassily Sinaisky, came on to a big crowd, and tore the place apart with a sensational account of the Prokofiev.
It had such energy, immediacy, danger, spontaneity, and the sheer exhilaration that ignites one in a hundred live performances that it was electrifying; and what an ovation he received for it.

Simon Trpceski

Wigmore Hall 

Daily Telegraph, November, 08. 2002
By Geoffrey Norris

IF it is becoming commonplace to have to search for superlatives in describing Simon Trpceski's performances, the reason lies in piano-playing of extraordinary prowess, personality and expressive perception.
Ever since he first made his mark here two years ago, he has been creating huge waves both in this country and abroad, and it was a real joy to see the public's recognition of his phenomenal talent underlined by a full house for this week's recital of Grieg, Brahms, Ravel and Stravinsky.
The truly gratifying thing about Trpceski is that, while he brims with confidence and maturity, his is an artistry that does not stand still. By which I mean that his interpretative temperament is a continually evolving one, and that, at the age of 23, he is forever looking to the music to spark new ideas and insights.
His playing of Brahms's Variations on a Theme of Schumann was a case in point. Earlier this year, he included them in his recital programmes at the Bath and Brighton Festivals, where his performances already testified to a fertile imagination. This week, that was still the case, but it was also possible to detect a more profoundly reflective slant on the quieter moments, a telling use of muted tonal colours that alerted the ear even more to the strangeness of the music as it dissolves and expires towards the end. Such things are signs of a musician who not only possesses something exceptional in terms of panache and technique, but also has the intellectual inquisitiveness to animate the music and probe deep into its heart.
A fusion of physical power, delicate filigree and supple rhythmic propulsion made Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales into a wondrous whirl of activity, heady with atmosphere and seething with passion. Clarity and buoyancy brought a neo-classical crispness to Grieg's Holberg Suite, and, as in the Brahms, there were fascinating new things in Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka. The Stravinsky features on Trpceski's debut EMI disc, but it has acquired an even tauter impulse since then, coupled with a dramatic scope that is almost visual in its dynamism.
After his indomitable virtuosity in the Stravinsky, it was typical of Trpceski's sensibility that he should cool the fevered temperature with three restrained encores - Liszt's transcription of Schubert's Gretchen am Spinnrade, a Bach/Siloti Preludium and Mendelssohn's Study in A minor - setting the seal on a recital of terrific, absorbing musicianship.

Guardian, April, 29. 2002

The fire with which the young Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski plays also seems to be inextinguishable. An incredibly fluent technique allowed him to make light of the difficulties of Saint-Saens's Second Piano Concerto. More significantly, it helped underline the accumulative tension of the work, whose movements go against convention by adopting progressively faster speeds. The grace of the Bachian opening is succeeded by a mischievous central scherzo, and the phenomenal speed at which Trpceski took the final Tarantella suggested the wild frenzy of a dance with death better than any more cautious musician.

Bath International Music Festival
Daily Telegraph, April, 2002

The Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski continues his ascent into the firmament and, in an outstanding recital of Brahms's Schumann Variations, Chopin's B flat minor Sonata and theThird and Fourth Scherzos, demonstrated once again the fertile imagination and musicianship that lie behind his phenomenal technique.

Daily Telegraph, April, 26. 2002

A tumultuous ovation greeted Simon Trpceski's performance of Saint-Saens's Second Piano Concerto in this first of three concerts with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra,and there was every reason why should be so.Apart from anything else,it was gratifying to watch a pianist going into battle so fearlessly with the Poole Arts Centre's notoriously recalcitrant piano,and emerging not just the victor but also with the honour of apparently being the possesor of the gift of alchemy.
The young Macedonian has been making great waves in this country since his London debut at the Wigmore Hall last year,and there was a genuine thrill here in hearing him so fluent in Saint Saens's fiendish writing,covering the keyboard with great swathes of arpeggios and articulating the music's lavish decoration with such a deft touch.This was a display of impressive pianistic command.

Seen and Heard, February, 18. 2002

S & H Recital Review
By Marc Bridle

Brahms: Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel Op. 24Liszt: 2 Schubert Song Arrangements, Die Forelle & StandchenChopin: Scherzo No. 3 in C sharp minor Op. 39 & Scherzo No. 4 in E major Op. 54
Very rarely does a critic run out of superlatives to describe a musician but in the case of 22 year old Simon Trpceski we are in danger of doing so. The brilliance of his last recital at the Wigmore Hall, in a programme of Schumann, Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, was transparent. If anything, this tougher programme was an even finer achievement, the range greater, the pianism on a level of sublimity unmatched by more established pianists who have played at the Wigmore this year (Kempf and Schiff amongst them). He dazzles critics and audiences alike and this packed recital is demonstration of his formidable artistic skills.Throughout the entire hour he played I was constantly impressed by the clarity of his phrasing. Not one note seemed muffled or stressed, the range of his dynamics from the most minimal pianissimo to the most overwhelming forte balanced with a perfection that was astonishing. That he also achieved quite stunning use of colour and tone added to the impression of a pianist whose range seems unquestionably mature for one so young. Brahms' Handel Variations, in the wrong hands, can sound idiosyncratic but Mr Trpceski balanced the trajectory of virtuosity and poetry with equal distinction. The athleticism of his pianism, nowhere more liberating than in the closing fugue, never threatened the development of the gentler variations, such as numbers 11,12 and 21, and his use of rubato was reined in sufficiently to allow for a natural breath to appear between the notes. In part, this was due to an instinctive grasp of rhythm on Mr Trpceski's part which allowed each of the figurations to gather an individuality of phrasing. The element of contrast was high, with even the most delicate finger-work overlaid with a total variation of colour. His Liszt displayed similar virtues, Standchen in particular having an exquisite tenderness and poetry. The beauty of tone seduced the ear, so passionate was the playing, so refined the sense of touch. Die Forelle was simply a fabulous performance, literally dripping with the widest spectrum of colour. Mr Trpceski turned the keyboard into a shimmering freshwater river, his fingers touching the keys as if each were a separate palette spreading paint across a canvas. This was subjective, imagistic pianism that was as inspired as it was miraculous. Both Chopin Scherzi were in their own ways brilliant miniatures, No. 3 delivered with powerful tone and a sustained sense of sombreness, No. 4 with a much lighter use of colour. Again, there was a dreamlike quality to the phrasing.This was once again an enormously impressive recital confirming that Simon Trpceski is a formidable talent.

A fine touch
New Straits Times, January, 2002

Kuala Lumpur

AFTER all that has been said about the young Macedonian pianist, what was left was the test of the pudding, so to speak, in Kuala Lumpur.
For the weekend performance at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas, from Jan 25 to 27, Simon Trpceski picked the Prokofiev Concerto No.3 itself, the one he performed at the controversial World Piano Competition in London in 2000.
Accompanying him was the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) under the baton of guest conductor Kazushi Ono from Japan.
Elements of 20th century classical music, the big productions, the glorious emotion and passion are all embodied in the concertos and works of such composers of the period, including Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, and from American Copland, from British Walton, Vaughan Williams and Britten.
So the expectations were high for Trpceski's performance of Prokofiev's Third Piano concerto, then. And when this writer attended the concert on Jan 26 it was already the second night's performance of the work with the MPO.
Even by Prokofiev's standards, this concerto is his most popular by far, and the only one which he committed to record as a pianist, thus it was going to bring a familiar ring to any classical enthusiast.
Trpceski didn't disappoint. His fine touch was evident right from the start when he attacked the piano (if attack is the right word) with solid controlled strength after the clarinet and string introduction in the first movement Andante and Allegro.
Trpceski was supremely confident throughout the whole movement , almost as if it was him, and not conductor Ono, who literally took the orchestra through the paces of the movement and not get muddled with it.
Some extremely accurate parallel chord work at the end of the movement was the definite mark of a technician not to be trifled with: just the right amount of flair without being over-flamboyant was employed . and the sound was glorious indeed.
As such, while the applause at the end of the first movement may well not be the "in thing" to do in a classical concert, it was still deserved in this case.
In the concerto's second movement, Trpceski was once again solid in his rendition of Theme and Variations, bringing out the passion and feeling needed for the variations to sound interesting and not boring.
For the third movement, Trpceski swept in with more of his fine touch. Not too quick and not too slow and again giving good balance between strength and the more delicate sections of the Allegro ma non troppo. And the fitting sweeping climactic ending was a good flourishing finish.
Two encores followed and the crowd was definitely won over.
The man is still learning indeed, and if that is learning at this stage, what more can we expect when his playing matures even further over the years?

Seen & Heard, August, 2001
By Marc Bridle

The young Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski first came to my attention during his performance of Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto in the finals of the World Piano Competition last year. A fiery and passionate performance it caught the imagination of the audience - if not the judges who only awarded him second place (yet I have heard nothing of the prize winners placed either side of him). More than a year later his Wigmore Hall debut proved an auspicious occasion - his artistry and understanding, whether in Schumann or Prokofiev, revealing a pianist who has developed into an artist of outstanding promise. He is one of the few young pianists now before the public it will be worth trekking hundreds of miles to hear - and it would not surprise me if he develops the same iconic status of a Kissin. He already has a large cult following in his own country. His programme of German romanticism and Russian splendour revealed two facets to Trpceski's pianism. On the one hand we had the poetic brilliance of the Fantasiestucke Op.12 (which included a simply fabulous reading of the Fabel episode); on the other, we had breathtaking virtuosity and titanic rawness in a brilliant performance of Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata. His Schumann is direct to the point of angularity but the swathes of warmth which he generated from subtle peddling and delicate finger-work were as inevitably coloured as a prism. The Etudes symphonique Op. 13 displayed inwardness and passion in abundance along with the cleanest articulation. There was absolutely no Puritanism to this playing - simply liberated ecstasy and an effortless virtuosity which Trpceski put fully at the service of the music.
The second half of this recital was pure Russian fare. Tchaikovsky's Concert Suite from the Nutcracker (arranged by Pletnev) again showed Trpceski to possess a magical touch - moments such as the Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy and the Russian and Chinese Tea Dances had feather-light touch and delicate phrasing. The Intermezzo inspired Trpceski to moments of ecstatic lyricism, which almost suggested harp-like textures. His performance of Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata was a stunning achievement - incandescent in its phrasing, thrilling in its panache and electrifying in its delivery. The pianism was bold, full-toned, expressive and articulated with a fabulously clean technique. Never did the thrilling percussiveness of this work seem to overwhelm the potent lyricism (in fact it was as near perfectly blended as I can ever remember in the concert hall). The Precipitato, with its cluster harmonies and demonic sounding thunder from the lower register, was shattering. It was the most spellbinding performance I have heard of this sonata.
I can't recall a Wigmore Hall audience responding so positively during a debut recital - the roar at the end of the Prokofiev being indicative of just how special this recital had been. Encores by Stravinsky, Bach and Chopin followed, all delivered with thrilling elan. This was an unforgettable event which shows a new challenger has entered the ranks of the Piano heaven. It can't be long before he reigns there almost alone and unchallenged.

Financial Times, July, 4. 2001

By Stephen Pettitt
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This was a good old-fashioned London debut, of a kind that has become too rare. The Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski won second prize at the World Piano Competition in London last year, and such has been the interest since that a full Wigmore Hall, a clutch of record company executives vying for his signature and the BBC's microphones greeted his recital...... (Fantasiestucke)His touch is both solid and sonorous, and there are none of the untidy splashes one usually expects in live concerts..... These gifts were put to even more effective use in the same composer's demanding Etudes symphoniques, Op. 13...... With unselfconscious enjoyment, he invested every moment in Mikhail Pletnev's dazzling transcription of movements - not the accepted Suite - from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker with imagination and spontaneity....... Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata, Op. 83, a wartime work, reflects the dark brutality of the world from which it came. Trpceski, fired by the music's potent energies yet sensitive also to its poetic aspects, built carefully to the incessantly savage poundings of its percussive finale. It was both exhilarating and disturbing, so that we needed the carefree encores - including a delightfully naughty version of Bach's G major Prelude (impossibly fast) and Fugue (impossibly throwaway) from Book I of the 48 - to help return us to a world of reason. A star, one suspects, is born.

Meanwhile, Alfred Brendel, 70 this year, is a star of the keyboard approaching the opposite end of his career......

Simon Trpceski

Wigmore Hall, London

The Daily Telegraph, June, 19. 2001

By Geoffrey Norris

WHILE it was not exactly a surprise that the young Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski should play so brilliantly at this London recital debut, those who filled the Wigmore Hall to hear him might well look back on the event in a few years' time and realise that it was a defining moment in his career.
There was, as my companion remarked, an unusual sense of excitement and occasion animating the auditorium, a buzz such as you seldom experience these days for a debut. And at the end it was equally uncommon to hear the normally restrained Wigmore audience burst into spontaneous cheers. Three encores - Stravinsky, Bach and Chopin - set the seal on a recital that, by any standards, was one of remarkable imagination and pianistic prowess.
Trpceski, who was the subject of a feature on these pages last week, chose a programme that balanced German Romanticism with works from the Russian repertoire. Schumann's Fantasiestucke and Etudes symphoniques in the first half identified many of those qualities that make Trpceski's playing at once so individual and yet so true to the music. For one thing, he has a wonderful ear for the tonal colours of the keyboard, using the shading of dynamics to enliven the textures and elucidate their subtle interweaving of thematic strands.
For another, he has distinct ideas about characterisation, taking his cue from the individual titles of the Fantasiestucke or the implied switches of mood in the variations of the Etudes symphoniques to crystallise them with absolute clarity of vision and intent.
Just as important, he sees these pieces not as a series of independent picture studies, but as a gallery with a structured layout of contrasts and relationships. There was a natural flow of ideas here, a real sense that, within his wide variety of expression, the musical momentum was secure, the broad scope understood. All these aspects came to the fore just as impressively in Mikhail Pletnev's transcription of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker and Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata. The visceral energy of the Prokofiev brought the house down; the Tchaikovsky induced gasps of wonderment at the sheer wizardry and panache. But it is not simply that Trpceski has a phenomenal technique. Crucially, he has the innate musical intelligence to know how to apply it and, at the same time, can convey such joy in doing so.

The Independent, June, 29. 2001

By Adrian Jack

Trpceski is a born performer-he obviously loves playing for an audience,he has natural grace at the keyboard and a direct,friendly personality.It is no reflection on his playing throughout a solid programme,immaculately prepared,if his encores revealed,perhaps,something more personal about his character as a pianist.The first was a bravura,helter-skelter study by Stravinsky,thrown off gracefully.Then the G-major Prelude and Fuge from Book Two of Bach's "48",dispatched so swiftly and delicately,it sounded like a pair of late Romantic studies.And last,a pensive little Chopin Mazurka,which showed off his fine control of the most delicate shades of "piano"....
Yet Schumann's eight "Fantasiestucke" ,op.12,presented him with more subtle and searching challenges.Trpceski played all the pieces remarkably straight.... ......there was a refreshing honesty,simplicity and warmth in his approach.
He also gave a fine account of Schumann's "Etudes symphoniques",relaxing gently in the theme,not squeezing the first three too hard,then keeping momentum from the brusque,march-like fourth Etude straight, into the fifth,which he skipped through fearlessly,making it a real scherzo.The neo-Baroque flourishes of the eighth Etude were splendid in their stern dignity,and the interweaving voices of the 11th precisely balanced,yet perfectly natural-sounding over the trembling accompaniment........ The second half was all Russian,beginning with the suite Mikhail Pletnev arranged from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker.Pletnev plays it with a razor-sharp touch and high-camp wizardry-so personally as to be inimitable.Trpceski is a much warmer player and did the seven pieces quite perfectly,if less sensationally.
Nor,in Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata,did he chill one's innards as some have done.But he played with terrific aplomb,and brought out the bleakness of the central section of the middle movement in a way that sticks in the mind.We'll be hearing lots more of him.

The Daily Telegraph, December, 31. 2000
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"New star of the Classical music of 2001.The London recital debut of the 21 year old Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski is eagerly anticipated;Wigmore Hall,Wednesday June 27-clear the diary.Audience alike were bowled over by his viscerally exciting performance of Prokofiev's Third Concerto in the finals of the World Piano Competition in London last April.Those who followed his progress throughout the competition,and who have heard him since,will have been struck by the sensitive imagination,strong personality and the gripping vitality of his playing.The Schumann,Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev works in his recital suit him ideally.A name to watch"

"The Independent"

"... astonishingly imaginative account of Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata as well as passionate rendition of Chopin's Funeral March Sonata ...an infectious sense of physical enjoyment in Prokofiev's Third Concerto."

"The Times"

"... such a virtuosity of both technique and immagination ... the best fingers of the evening, the most sensitive ears,the most character. He's the maverick. I'm keenest to hear again."

"The Daily Telegraph"

"... technical prowess combined with immense reserves of wit, ardour and sheer youthful panache."

"Seen & Heard"

"International Piano Quarterly"

"...Simon Trpceski, a razor-sharp 'Horowitz' of hugely likeable personality whose Ginastera (American Preludes) was a staggering display of glassy ferocity, muscular arrogance and smouldering darkness, and whose Chopin 'Marche Funebre' showed a pace and experience bred of the real thing."
".Trpceski follows, seizing Prokofiev Three by the throat for a show-stopping performance of blood-racing Eastern European temperament and trapeze-wire pianistics as good as you'll ever hear. Standing ovation."

"La Lettre du Musicien"

Toulouse, France

"...Simon Trpceski displayed a real passion into the four Scherzi by Chopin....Ginastera's 12 American Preludes were delivered with a rare vigour.These brief,incisive pieces invite a performance full of panache-and this they duly received...an intelligent and stylish interpretation...Prokofiev's Sonata No.7 captured the whole audience,charming,playful and impetuous,but always profound.Although he is just 21 years old,the ferocious and arrogant young pianist did not hesitate to take the music by the scruff of the neck,displaying a rich personality.