What the critics say

 

»Everything is marked by highly clear and yet pliable articulation which breathes life into the music. A rejuvenating outlook on Bach’s music and a pleasure to hear.« Classical Music Sentinel by Jean-Yves Duperron, March 2020

»Her feeling for timbres and poetry, as well as her art of revealing contrapuntal developments, are impressive.« Pizzicato/Norbert Tischer, 20.4.2020

»Al met al fraai gerealiseerd en bovendien uitstekend opgenomen!« opusklassiek by Aart van der Wal, April 2020
 

With a superlative performance and excellent recording set in a perfect acoustic, this is an unexpected and rather delicious discovery which will keep its freshness and beckon with vibrant cheer each time your eyes sweep across those well-stocked CD shelves. Music Web, January 2017

“The Linos Ensemble plays the Sextet in G major op. 58 and the Septet op. 132 in A major with the splendidly extrovert Konstanze Eickhorst on the piano. Both works are covert piano concertos on the scale of chamber music. Konstanze Eickhorst’s playing is both brilliant and full of twinkling humour.” FONO FORUM, January 2015

“Each and every time I’ve come back to these recordings over the past few weeks, I’ve found new things to listen for, new aspects of the music which I had not always heard. Through and through there is a sense of rightness with this recording—it is a quality that is difficult to put into words, but one that one feels when listening to these performances. Though this is my very first exposure to Eickhorst’s art, it will most certainly not be my last.” Scott Norriega, Fanfare, 7/8 2013

“Derrière le titre Mozart en mineur se cache, au fil d’un programme de piano seul ingénieux plus de sens qu’il n’y paraît au premier abord, et l’occasion d’une réflexion sur le génie propre de Mozart dans la révélation d’une intimité qui aurait dû, selon les codes de la bienséance, échapper à toute exposition publique.” Classique-Info-disc.com, September 2012

“… it would be invidious to single out any one player yet I do feel that pianist Konstanze Eickhorst needs more than a mention in dispatches. She carries the main weight of the argument and is both a very sensitive accompanist and a strong and domineering soloist when required. She has a magical tone in the more dreamy sections, beautifully captured by the CPO engineers and the whole group plays as if this is some of the greatest music ever penned.” MusicWeb, Dezember 2009

“Once again Konstanze Eickhorst is at the keyboard. In the players of the Linos Ensemble she has found a degree of commitment equal to her own. The sound they produce is both full-bodied and brilliant, their phrasing is eloquent, and the recording has a convincing dynamic impetus and balance.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 9 May 2009

“The Linos Ensemble now has another outstanding recording to its credit.” www.klassik.com, May 2009

“L’excellent Ensemble Linos lève le voile sur deux pièces révélatrices de Francis Poulenc, dont l’atmosphère par moments nostalgique et sombre apporte un contraste avec les mélodies charmantes et les traits volubiles et presque clownesques qui peuplent les mouvements rapides. … Tous les instruments se donnent la réplique à l’aide d’une panoplie de thèmes nostalgiques et de trucages sonores particulièrement réussis. Un tour de force d’équilibre que le Linos Ensemble signe avec brio.” pizzicato, 10/2007

“Konstanze Eickhorst making the most of her concerto-style opportunities to shine in Ries’s intricate and genial piano parts. Warmly recommended.” International Record Review, 10/2005

“With its flamboyant-heroic piano part and the enemble of violin, viola, cello, double bass, clarinet, horn and bassoon playing an orchestral role, this work is a genuine solo concerto; its opening recalling Beethoven’s Emporer concerto. The Linos-Ensemble play with polish and plenty of dynamic contrast.” Sunday Times, 21/8/2005

“Konstanze Eickhorst is a wonderful guide through these variations. Rather than wow us with brilliant technical displays, she uses an ample tonal palette to illuminate the realtionship of each to the theme. … Eickhorst plays these sensitively, using rubato that seems to develop naturally – it’s never intrusive: on the contrary, it helps to focus the ear on what is essential in the music. Eickhorst is a very effective champion of these pieces …” American Record Guide, May/June 2004

“A ces oeuvres, il fallait une interprète qui, elle aussi, réunirait le brillant de la virtuosité et le raffinement d’une musicalité éprouvée. A cet égard, Louise Farrenc ne pouvait être mieux servie que par la pianiste Konstanze Eickhorst.” Le Monde de la Musique, 4/2004

“Konstanze Eickhorst obviously believes in this music, and plays it as such.” International Record Review, 4/2004

“Konstanze Eickhorst, a Clara Haskil Competition winner who has previously recorded Farrenc’s piano quintets and also Clara Schumann piano music for CPO, has dear sympathy with the material and takes it sometimes considerable technical challenges in her stride. … her eloquent and sensitive shaping of Farrenc’s beautiful Op. 49 Nocturne redeems any excess of enthusiasm elsewhere.” BBC Music Magazine 4/2004

“Konstanze Eickhorst poursuit son exploration de l’oeuvre de la compositrice – on se souvient des beaux Quintettes avec piano et contrebasse. Elle maîtrise parfaitement la technique de ce répertoire eigeant; son jeu est virtuose, brillant, expressif, mais sans ostentation.” Diapason, 3/2004

“The Piano quintet owes more to Reinecke’s other great Leipzig exemplar, Schumann, and is harmonically wider ranging. … His excellence as a pianist was widely attested (he even made some piano rolls in old age), and one can believe this from the nature of the writing, to which Konstanze Eickhorst rises with infectious enthusiasm. …” Gramophone, 6/2002

“The Piano Quintet – an acknowledged masterpiece among Reinecke aficionados – goes a step further, its mysterious, tonally ambiguous opening showing that the lessons of Wagner and even of early Schoenberg had been fully assimilated. The Linos ensemble gives this fine music all the care it deserves in ist passionate, clean performances.” BBC Music Magazine, 7/2002

“L’Ensemble Linos les joue avec la verve et le brio nécessaires, piano volubile et cordes généreuses, parvenant même à leur conférer par moments des élans schumanniens …” Diapason, 6/2002

“Las versiones del Linos-Ensemble, son, por lo general, muy elocuentes y equilibradas, con un sentido del fraseo y una cohesión admirables, y hacen que este álbum un excelente punto de partida para conocer la producción camerística de un compositor a tener en mayor consideración y aprecio.” CD Compact, 7-8/2002

” … On this excellently produced CPO recording the Linos Ensemble does its utmost to represent these works as music deserving to be heard. … Being a virtuoso pianist himself, Fesca produced pieces that are in effect piano concertos in miniature, so there’s plenty of showy passagework …” Classics Today, 11/2001

” … Almost entirely unrepresented on disc, it’s helpful to have some examples of Fesca’s music available, and these capable accounts of his two Septets from the Linos Ensemble make out an unexpectedly strong case for these neglected works. …” BBC Music Magazine, 1/2002

” … The music itself is a delight – constantly inventive, melodically generous, rhythmically alert, good-natured and outward-going, full of feeling nonetheless. … I am delighted to have discovered them, particularly since the Linos Ensemble give them such sparkling performances.” Fanfare, 5-6/2002