Rolf Lindblom
REVIEWS
Liszt vol II
“Rolf Lindblom is an outstanding pianist, a musician of the highest artistry. He has superb technique, but also performs with powerful expression and insightful interpretations. His Liszt, in particular, is brilliant – not only does he meet all the formidable technical challenges with ease, but he brings to Liszt a deep poetic sensibility that captures all the subtlety of Liszt’s music, which too often is overlooked in other performances. Rolf Lindblom’s pianism and musicianship are of a world-class caliber – powerful, poetic and passionate, and he brings to his performances uniquely beautiful insights and understanding, breathing new life into a vast repertoire of great works.” Nick Peros, Phoenix Classical
Franz Liszt is now regarded as a respectable pioneer. Rolf Lindblom is one of his prophets. Rolf Lindblom leaves the ornate finesses aside. Instead he makes his interpretations of Liszt’s work succinctly. Fresh air instead of romantic perfume. The waters of Au bord d’une source don’t ripple, they flow. The bells of Genéve chime. The serious acts are taken on with austerity and authority: Vallée d’Obermann is broadly performed, giving the audience time for reflection. Au Lac de Wallenstadt offers us a venture without any sort of idyll. The storm (Orage) rages – Lindblom doesn’t lay any soft fingers in between. This is sympathetic.
Highlight: Vallée d’Obermann - in the hugely contorted, sound abundant image of nature, an external and internal landscape is created.
Carlhåkan Larsén Opus
Liszt vol. I
"Liszt was not only a great bewitching virtuoso but also a thoughtful sensible interpreter at the keyboard, where noble melodies were important ingredients. The music puts both interpreter and instrument to the test with deepness, as well as sonority and dynamic diversity.
Lindblom finds, without loosing attitude and control, the way through emotional storms and pining. He as an ear for both the stability and the roaring”.
Opus Carlhåkan Larsén
”Expressive interpretations, sensitive, introverted, sometimes dreamy, sometimes stormy. Lindblom is a pianist who knows how to take out the dynamic turns”.
Norran Mikael Bengtsson
Schumann
”So simple- and so difficult. An insight to simplicity is something only a few have truly understood”
Mikael Strömberg HiFi
”Rolf Lindblom’s sensitive piano playing brings pleasure. It has much to do with the sound he brings out, the pedaling and an unprecedented appropriation.”
P-G Bergfors GP
Beethoven
”He articulates and phrases the music in a way that allows it to breath- enough for it to be a living Beethoven”
Leif Aare
”The recording and performance are perfect”
Winston Ma, Taiwan
”*The meditative lyrical adagio in the Pathetique sonata has received the most beautiful formation you can imagine, the much-quoted introduction to the Moonlight Sonata is a new luster. The concluding allegro to the Appassionata constitutes a vital conclusion.”
Bengt Nyquist, Hi Fi & Musik
Brecht, Torsten Föllinger
”This disk is a hole-in-one for Torsten Föllinger. Musically, acoustically, interpretatively. The arrangement is accredited to Rolf Lindblom, who also got it spot on”
Ulla-Britt Edberg SvD
Poulenc
”Maybe because he began his career as a jazz pianist, it seems that Rolf Linblom addresses these oeuvres with a liberty, a spontaneity or relaxation that I assume Poulenc would really have liked. Rolf Lindblom perfectly understood it and brilliantly knows how to transmit its message without pretention, but essentially like a living art”
Maurice Roy, Diapason
”Rolf Lindblom plays with an almost nonchalant technical mastery. It’s the small, careful, prepared details inserted into the whole that make the result brilliant. Rolf Lindblom finds himself in the enviable situation that of being able to, with intelligence and fantasy, extract the charm and life of these rarely played notes. Birgitta Huldt. SvD
Sonny Wallentin.
”At the grand piano we have Rolf Lindblom, an accompanier who knows the art of playing both with and against the soloist. It is undoubtedly very much thanks to him that the impression of the CD’s content became so monolithic and musically exciting.”
Bengt Nyquist, Hi Fi Musik
Hallin sjunger Hallin.
”Rolf Lindblom at the grand piano is a splendid accompanier with a strong feeling for the material he has in front of himself.
P-G Bergfors GP
Quietude
”Rolf Lindblom is a pianist who even in the past showed his strong feeling for music in this mood, reflective, meditative, dreamy music. The content of this CD is pure psychotherapy. For stress releasing use. P-G Bergfors. GP
Bach
"He plays deft and elegant, so that the intricate patterns and the voices feel like lovely games, and the music floats forward, smiling and without weight."
Stig Jacobson, HIFI
Pentatyk
”Hilding Rosenberg’s five courses ”Suite for piano” from 1924 could have been composed for Rolf Lindblom”
Leif Aare DN
”It is an excellent documentation of Swedish piano music. Rolf Lindblom has entered the composers’ different styles without erasing his personal nature”
Ulla-Britt Edberg SvD
Gershwin
”The main attraction is of course ”Rhapsody in blue”, a virtuous and elegant piece played with great virtuosity and elegance. Lindblom’s background as a jazz pianist enables him to give Gershwin the righteous conduct”
Per Mortensen DN
Margareta Hallin Lieder
”Strauss-Mahler” ”Rolf Lindblom’s creative, articulate and horoughly beautiful piano playing”
Leif Aare Musik
Gershwin by Lindblom
It is an impressionistic, “instantaneous” keyboard art that is imaginative”
Erik Näslund SvD
Winterreise
”Shortly said, this is the only Winterreise which can be compared to Fischer Dieskaus."
Leif Aare DN
The Way Lindblom plays would have made Schubert faint from happiness if he had heard the masterpiece. Intelligent, restrained but hardly submissive and yet supportive and guiding he playfully brings out his polyphonic complicated tones. It is as least as much fun to follow his piano playing as it is to enjoy the splendid singing. For splendid and mature it is indeed.
Bengt Nyqvist, HiFi Musik
Tubin
”The great, remarkable piano sonata from 1950 is a central Swedish piano piece with great spiritual insurrection. One can only congratulate Rolf Lindblom to a deeply felt interpretation. The same can be said about the four folk songs.”
Stig Jacobsson, Hi Fi Musik
Water chestnuts.
”Lindblom has written all the melodies, easy listenings and diversified creations. ”Just a blue melody” is a bright blues where L glanced at Peterson, while ”Tempo di valse” refers rather to Evans. Lindblom has no technical problems and always plays rhythmically. It is a well-sharpened piano trio that’s completely in the jazz tradition.”
Sven Boija Orkester Journalen
Wiklund
”It is a true pleasure to enjoy the fresh and airy piano sound which vividly reproduces Rolf Lindblom’s delicate playing art”
Carl-Gunnar Åhlen SvD