Photo: David Thompson - EMI Classics

Stephen Kovacevich, piano

“It had music greater than any one performance can be. Yet Kovacevich's performances were so self-effacing and faithful to the music that you came away believing you had heard its essence, not just another interpretation. This also was a rare encounter with an artist in maturity who recently had surpassed himself in the work that had made his reputation as a youth. So in several ways the recital was unusual, moving, memorable…. Control that sounded effortless brought some of the fastest, clearest and most delicate playing. Power was held in reserve. When steam did build up and got discharged, as in later, faster variations and the great broken-off fugue, the effect was of tremendous energy flung, like fireballs by a catapult. Still, the impression overall was of naturalness eventually achieving radiance. ”

Chicago Tribune, February 2010

'In a period when Beethoven interpretation has become fairly standardized, Kovacevich remains a free spirit, making a profoundly personal response to the music and playing in an improvisatory style, which fits descriptions of how Beethoven performed his own music.'
Boston Globe - Beethoven's Emperor Concerto

'Here was a pianist who truly did play Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata as though it were a first performance... the way he kept this fabulously risk-taking music on the edge of playability - my 21st-century ears had never appreciated the full audacity of the fugal finale - and us on the edge of our seats, was an index of his moral rather than his physical courage.'
Sunday Times - Beethoven's Hammerklavier

Stephen Kovacevich recordings on EMI Classics