Eve Egoyan Selected Recent Quotes
Egoyan’s take on new works is stunning…her clear, uncompromising taste was much in evidence in the choice of repertoire…Egoyan’s remarkable playing balanced that delicacy with intense focus, holding all in a net…the spaces in between the notes were still charged with presence…I even found myself confusing sound with touch…so convincingly had Egoyan restitched our reference points.
- Globe and Mail, 2007
A compelling recital by a remarkable communicator and cheerleader.”
- The Wire, 2006
Eve Egoyan’s pianism has strengths in abundance, fully justifying Michael Finnissy’s testimony that ‘she illuminates the music she plays; an alchemy, authenticity and fearlessness’.”
- International Piano Magazine, 2006
Egoyan is the kind of pianist who excites the listener because of the total involvement she displays with whatever music she perform…Egoyan’s playing seems to meld with the piano. She is one with her instrument and at the same time she is one with the music. Hers is an extraordinary talent that concentrates almost exclusively on modern composers, especially living composers. She brings them to our attention as few other pianists manage to do. These composers produce works that for the most part appear inaccessible to the listener, but that changes when Egoyan performs their compositions. They suddenly lose their seeming distance from our musical experience, our suroundings, from our usual perception of what is music. They become accessible…Egoyan, whose sensitive touch makes all four pieces take on their own life, surprises with her forcefulness when required. It is startling, yet refreshing, and she captures these moments to perfection.”
- Lancette Journal of the Arts, 2006
Such a diversity of approaches enables Egoyan to display the rich variety and depth of her performance technique. The works demand virtuosity of extremely different sorts. In some cases, it is the capacity to play music with fast, complex passages. In others, it may involve the ability to sustain extraordinary delicacy and quiet over a long span. Many shadings in between these extremes are explored as well. In all cases, the pianist shows herself a sensitive listener as well as performer, having obviously internalized the works so that she can perform them almost as if they were her own.”
- Fanfare, 2005
The stripped down nature of Wu draws the listener’s attention to every subtle nuance of Egoyan’s playing. It abundantly clear why she’s sought after by composers from around the world, you can feel the passion that went into every note of the recording…Egoyan’s carefully restrained playing brings a sense of awe-inspiring beauty to the piece, proving that you can often achieve the best results by taking a simple approach to music.”
- Sceneandheard.ca, 2005
Egoyan is a visionary musician and pianist who is forging a new path for contemporary solo piano music…She has an exceptional command of the piano and a completely solid understanding of the music. Most remarkably, she has a unique ability to interact with and engage the audience, taking them places one never would have dreamed were accessible through music.”
- The Kitchener-Waterloo Record, 2005
Egoyan made the time pass so quickly because she held our attention so perfectly. She played the work with an intensity that was seductive… Egoyan is the kind of committed, bold artist of every composer’s dreams.- Globe and Mail, March 2002
Egoyan, so at home in a challenging aesthetic, performs it with the same integrity and intensity that a mystic brings to her prayers.- Globe and Mail, October 2001
...A player of incredible, often very quiet intensity, Egoyan´s capacity for fine-hair nuance was put to the ultimate test.- The Wire, June 2001
Eve Egoyan brought an ideal mix of lyricism and rhythmic vitality to the work, producing a nice shape and clarity in even the most demanding passages- SFCV.org, Contemporary Music Review, March 2001
It was clear that this is an extraordinarily lucid, penetrating pianist, with exquisite touch, total accuracy... she´s a joy to watch and listen to, in short.- UW Gazette, February 2001
Pianist Eve Egoyan is a composer´s dream. The largeness of her spirit informs everything she plays with its sensitivity to the tiniest nuance, and her perceptive ability to make strange and unheard-of detail fit together in the most convincing way. Her technique is astonishingly supple in its fusion of warm, radiant tone with the utmost degree of virtuosity. What makes Egoyan an artist to die for is her devotion to new music. She specializes in the unfamiliar, but plays it so revealingly we come away from her recitals still wondering at the poetry she reveals in what can sound desiccated and dull... Her mind is all quicksilver in its lightness and leaping alertness... brilliantly clear and perceptive.- Halifax Chronicle-Herald, November 1999
A performer whose powers of listening cast a hypnotic spell over her audiences, opening their ears and hearts... What’s Egoyan´s secret? Meticulous preparation. Discerning choice of repertoire-she only plays music she loves... An innate love for piano sonorities and texture. Abundant technique that never advertises itself. A passionate desire to get under the skin of the music she plays... and Egoyan´s magical quality of listening... it all adds up to a trustworthiness:... your chances of having your time wasted at an Egoyan recital are very slim indeed... Egoyan´s strong sense of program design deserves special mention... Her recitals take the listener through a journey that offers a pleasure and sense of discovery comparable to four-star gastronomy.- National Post, 1999
[Eve Egoyan] draws out intense, difficult beauty... in the hands of a committed interpreter such as Eve Egoyan, [the music] becomes a pathway to the unconscious... The intensity of Egoyan´s focus pulled the listener into a claustrophobic inner world, holding us within a net of promise that evaporated only as the final notes died away.
- The Globe and Mail, 15 January 1996