Anthony Marwood – Press

“…his playing was impeccable, including an impressive, flashy cadenza of his own devising…”

“Marwood and the SLSO gave it an energetic performance…”

“The slow movement was almost teasingly tonal as Marwood pursued the poignant and, although the finale set off with lively, dancing rhythms, it was the serenity of the violinist’s high register line that caught its soul.”

“…Marwood delivered a visceral, riveting performance of the concerto.”

“…his leadership from center stage produced a rich program featuring two contemporary works and a lovely rendition of Dvorak’s cheerful Serenade for Strings in E Major.”

” Marwood – a player of warmth and understated charm – turned out to be an ideal interpreter.”

“…the passionate playing of Marwood, whose throbbing vibrato and florid style brought off this sensuous music. “

“Marwood is now a master both of the civilised turn of phrase and the eruptions…”

“Great Anthony Marwood soared to the heavens here with refulgent tone…”

“Far more substantial is Anthony Marwood’s intelligent reading of the sultry Violin Concerto. The work usually leaves me cold, but this taut performance is a keeper, especially in the long closing movement where the reprise of music from the concerto’s opening is devastatingly effective. The coda’s fireworks are sensational.”

“Marwood is the incisive, poetic soloist in Walton’s Violin Concerto… …an exhilarating disc”

“Filled with kaleidoscopic color, exhilarating tempos and the impudent sarcasm with which Prokofiev loves to veil even his most tender utterances, it was a performance as perceptive as it was brilliant.”

“With delicacy and tact, this winged Beethoven is touched especially by Marwood’s impressive level of grace, and is understood in very personal cadences.”

“Marwood’s refinement and detail suffused Debussy’s late, classicized Violin Sonata, which, like the ‘Rhapsodie‘, dramatically punctuates mostly ruminative music, turning over and considering aphoristic bits of lyricism.”

“Marwood‘s playing – both here and in the Debussy Violin Sonata that came later – was a marvelous blend of tenderness and steely determination; he dispatched Schubert‘s bursts of heroism and Debussy‘s flights of fantasy with equal alertness.”

“The impeccable violinist Anthony Marwood, for whom the piece was written, confers on the third movement such intensity at such a wide range of dynamics that he seems to breathe with the players.”

“This is a lithe, spiky, rhythmical performance, bristling with satire in the Shostakovich style….there is extra spontaneity here that helps give this music a welcome lift.”

“When Mr. Marwood and Mr. Isserlis took up that theme, their sound was focused yet spectral and haunting. This refreshingly unvoluptuous take on the piece continued in the incisive, spiky account of the macabre, scherzolike second movement and the almost medieval austerity the players brought to the subdued and inexorably slow Passacaille. While the finale had the requisite whirlwind energy, the crunchy, incisive playing never allowed the music to sound flashy.”

“Warm and lyrical live performances add up to one of the best modern recordings of the Sonatas.”