REVIEWS
"Bach's Second Partita was presented in a serene, clear and sober style, with meticulous care taken with the attacks and phrasing...the implacable whirlwind of the finale of Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata was sensational. Here was one of the greatest moments of the Festival... In the Viennese Carnival, Collins exploited all the facets of Schumann's pianistic writing, his humour, the mixture of virile energy and poetic fantasy.... A dream recital.. a breathtaking pianist".
Jean-Jacques Scherrer, Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, September 11th 2008
"Though the 40-minute concerto is a little long-winded, it came across well thanks to the passionate advocacy of the young Irish pianist Finghin Collins. Kenneth Montgomery, the Ulster Orchestra’s principal conductor, matched him with warm, stylish accompaniments."
John Allison, Sunday Telegraph, August 17th 2008
"The young Dublin-born pianist Finghin Collins gave a performance of his compatriot's concerto that released the intense white heat of its inspiration. In the first, almost ludicrously Rachmaninovian, movement, Collins's crystalline accompanying figures and octaves had just the measure of Stanford's recreative homage: both panache and poetry sang out. The harp of Erin seemed to be sounding in the slow movement, and the finale was boisterous with a distinctively Irish brogue. Could this be the start of an overdue rehabilitation of this fascinatingly bilingual work?"
Hilary Finch, The Times, August 11th 2008
"Finghin Collins, bright of tone and secure of technique, was careful not to ‘display’ the opening arpeggios, the piano accompanying the orchestra, and where the two forces melodically or rhythmically combined, he was extremely sensitive in applying respectful dynamics.
Where his interpretation came into its own was in the slow movement, with Kenneth Montgomery, making his first Proms appearance for 31 years, making it a graceful aria. The spread piano chords of the theme were nicely voiced by Collins, and at times the delicate textures resembled a Fauré impromptu rather than the slow movement of a Romantic piano concerto. This was redressed in the punchy finale, with keen definition to Stanford’s easily memorable theme and an emphatic, well-received conclusion."
Ben Hogwood, classicalsource.com, August 2008
"Finghin Collins' beautifully structured, transparent piano playing was the real delight of the performance".
Andrew Clements, The Guardian, August 9th 2008
"What wasn’t in doubt, though, was Collins’s lovely singing tone and his lyricism in the rivulets of melody and broken chords of the slow movement."
Matthew Rye, The Daily Telegraph, August 8th 2008
"Finghin Collins dispatched the prolific figuration [in Stanford's Piano Concerto No. 2] with effortless control, while orchestral blends were impressively realised."
Barry Millington, The Evening Standard, August 8th 2008
"..he played the piano parts of Schubert songs with impeccable sensitivity. .. The Voglers played this always astonishing piece [Brahms' Piano Quintet] with spacious flexibility and enormous power. Collins was with them all the way, in the quiet subtleties as well as in its quasi-symphonic range of rhetoric."
Martin Adams, The Irish Times, May 7th 2008
"Together with Finghin Collins they [the Callino Quartet] created an elegiac magic with Schnittke's Piano Quintet that almost moved me to tears. Collins was at his brilliant best in this. I did not believe it was possible to play as quietly and insistently musically as he did when suggesting Time ticking away, as the composer struggles with the idea of death being present in life."
Declan Townsend, The Irish Examiner, March 27th 2008
"Finghin Collins in the second [Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2] was freer in delivery and fuller in tone, with his climactic delivery sometimes sounding like an unstoppable force of nature. There was an attractive fluidity in quieter moments, too, and a sense of musical rightness in every gesture. Orchestra and conductor were with him every step of the way in this highly impressive performance"
Michael Dervan, The Irish Times, February 25th 2008
"The first concert in the new season featured the pianist Finghin Collins in works by Schumann, Berg and Beethoven. Collins is an admirable force in Irish musical life, not just for his thrilling performances at home and abroad, and the range of his commitments to various bodies - he is artistic director of New Ross's piano festival, musician in residence in South County Dublin, artist in residence in Waterford IT, but because of his outstanding support in all areas of Irish music life. Collins has been a force for what appears a considerable time, yet it is just nine years since he hit the headlines when he won the Clara Haskil International Competition in Switzerland. During his career his dynamic talent and self-belief have always been obvious, but now, as he enters what are considered the prime years of a pianist's career, he has acquired an authority born not of acclaim but of hard-earned achievement. Those lucky enough to be in the Hugh Lane for the opening concert of the gallery's centenary year are unlikely to forget Collins's magnificent performance of Beethoven's titanic Appassionata sonata. For all I know, even the crowd in Manet's adjacent masterpiece, La Musique aux Tuileries, may have joined in the cheers when Collins thundered out those final tempestuous chords that drive the work to its frenzied finale. A case of one masterpiece appreciating another?"
Dick O'Riordan, Sunday Business Post, January 20th 2008
"Finghin and Dearbhla Collins were the soloists in the 14-year-old Mendelssohn's Two-Piano Concerto in E. The two Collinses negotiated its rapid scales with ease as well as with the kind of effortless-seeming co-ordination that seems to be the preserve of siblings in a medium where simply getting everything together is notoriously difficult."
Michael Dervan, The Irish Times, January 15th 2008
"The former winner of the Clara Haskil Competition, one of the most noble distinctions in the field, had set for himself a conclusive combination of works. All of the works united tradition with innovation in their different ways - something which the 30-year-old Irishman emphasised from the start in Haydn's F minor variations: Thus he playfully demonstrated the contrast between simple forms and their breakdown, while underlining Haydn's chromatic risk-taking with phrasing whose freedom (a freedom he also allowed himself in the pedalling) was convincing. ... ...he transformed Beethoven's F minor Sonata ("Appassionata") into a bravura act of strength. Here it was especially clear that he doesn't at all shy away from the risk of favouring his own original and wilful verve over technical perfection at times. But this was exactly what made Finghin so credible and appealing at this concert."
Daniel Ender, Der Standard, Austria, January 10th 2008
"Collins brought out Beethoven's almost polarised contrasts between the opening's quiet, darkened expectancy and its dramatic outbursts. As he had done in each of the later movements of the Schumann, Collins introduced new air in a flowing account of the central movement's theme and variations. He then deployed his best-placed power-playing of the concert, pursuing Beethoven's gradual build-up to a thrilling, tumultuous conclusion with one final, monumental unloosening of all his passion and facility."
Michael Dungan, The Irish Times, January 8th 2008
