REVIEWS
"The programme went ahead unchanged, with Finghin Collins stepping into the breach. It’s no tall order to take on Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto at short notice, although Collins did have the advantage of having played the piece at the end of February, with the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast. In the event, there was not a hint of the behind-the-scenes disruption in the actual music-making. Collins is a player of unusual sang-froid. He doesn’t usually flinch under pressure, and even the exceptional demands of Brahms’s Second Concerto didn’t appear to faze him. Collins delivered the grandeur and warmth of the first and third movements, the grit of the second and the graceful lightness of the finale as if it were all second nature to him. And Mandeal wove the orchestral texture around and underneath him with perceptive skill."
Michael Dervan, The Irish Times, April 20th 2010
"With just a day's notice our own virtuoso, Finghin Collins, steps into the considerable breach to scale the symphonic heights of Brahms’s massive 2nd Piano Concerto. Gently reflective, Collins’s opening is exceptionally expressive but soon a powerfully dramatic force plunges him into the maelstrom of Brahms’s pressing momentum. The result is magnificent. But this is a concerto of contrast. Delicately rippling murmurs are swallowed by gigantically broad and sweeping phrases. Both facets find Collins matching elegance with grandeur. He also ensures that, whatever the density of Brahms’s texture, the composer’s sensitive melodic lines maintain their appeal.... In the flowing Andante... Collins traces the cantabile contours with deeply musical stylishness. ...Truly master of his art in this totally compelling performance, Collins reveals these varied aspects through perceptive intelligence and pianistic brilliance."
Pat O'Kelly, Irish Independent, April 19th 2010
"The young Dublin pianist Finghin Collins made his London Proms debut last year with the Ulster Orchestra, and this fine partnership continued in the Ulster Hall on Friday night. This time they combined in Brahms' massive Piano Concerto No 2 which again demonstrated the close rapport between the pianist and the orchestra, under the direction of its Principal Conductor Kenneth Montgomery. Finghin Collins was equal to the technical and emotional demands of the differing moods of this concerto, with its power and sensitivity delicately balanced throughout.... This was an evening where the soloist, the orchestra and also the conductor were on top of their form."
Alf McCreary, Belfast Telegraph, February 27th 2010
"The Irish pianist Finghin Collins surprises with a virtuosic keyboard thunderstorm in the style of a keyboard lion. He even swings his arms and clenches his fist, to fire himself up."
Monika Lanzendörfer, Mannheimer Morgen, February 1st 2010
"Finghin Collins has long been the most successful Irish pianist of his generation.. Collins presents himself as a warm-hearted romantic. There's a beguiling easi-ness to his delivery, as if nothing is really demanding or challenging to him. He always gives the impression of being in command of what he does....In Schumann's carnivalesque Faschingsschwank aus Wien, he enabled the music to burst with explosive energy and to linger languishingly in pools of tenderness. This was definitely a carnival to celebrate."
Michael Dervan, The Irish Times, February 1st 2010
"Now enjoying international acclaim, Dublin-born pianist Finghin Collins is at the National Concert Hall as part of its Celebrity Recital Series. His inclusion in the star-studded roster is both fitting and deserved. His strongly German programme this week has Bach and Brahms separated by Schumann. As his albums on the Claves label demonstrate, Collins has developed a sensitive affinity with the latter’s romanticism.
But he begins with Bach’s Second Partita where his playing is tremendously robust with the composer’s counterpoint possessing definitive clarity. Collins’ choice of tempi gives the music a bracing air and a wonderful feeling of vitality. At the same time there is inherent discipline beneath the pianist’s spontaneity.
The three Op 117 Intermezzi represent the mature Brahms. The lament-cum-cradle-song nature of the First is beautifully expressive. Its cantabile lines breathe resignation and consolation. The Second exchanges serenity for agitation but Collins also provides control in the calmer central section.In less understanding hands the sombre quality of the Third Intermezzo could become tediously fragmented. Here its natural, if occasionally obscure, flow is realised through exquisitely soft pianism.
Finghin Collins brings tremendous flair to the relative unfamiliarity of Schumann’s Six Op 4 Intermezzi and the more popular Op 26 ‘Faschingsschwank aus Wien’. There is terrific momentum in Finghin Collins’ interpretation and the diffuse and musically loquacious Intermezzi are carefully kept in check. In the final one Collins divulges an amusing hint of the circus and music hall. The ‘Faschingsschwank’ is superbly colourful and adroitly flamboyant to suit its expansive phrases. The Finale bursts with wild excitement and Collins’ bravura performance is a riot of virtuosity."
Pat O'Kelly, Irish Independent, January 29th 2010
"The Irish pianist made a tremendous impression with Mozart's A major concerto. Collins approached his part in a light, free and inspired manner, with sparkling virtuosity and a clear predilection for expressive phrasing, connecting seamlessly with the orchestra's part right the way through. He flooded the magical work with the light of his unfettered tone and found a meaning for every nuance: a staccato was here a laugh and there a hop, every run had a sense of direction... It was absolute bliss when Collins played the first of Brahms' Intermezzi Opus 117 as an encore: very slow, very tender, the melody perfectly phrased in the middle hand - a dream in E flat major, glimmering like moonlight..."
Ute van der Sanden, Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, January 21st 2010
