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| Concerts | Recordings |
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| Concerts |
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| Budapest Festival Orchestra, Iván Fischer - Dvorák Cello Concerto Concertgebouw Amsterdam – 26 March 2008 |
| Queyras is the saving angel – Replacement of Wispelwey impresses deeply "Fischer and Queyras had never worked together before and there was hardly any time to rehearse Dvorák’s masterpiece, but none of this was noticable. On the contrary. The performance became a triumph of listening and telepathic music making by soloist, orchestra and conductor. Afterwards the public, which had witnessed a miracle, deservedly cheered Queyras, the saving angel." |
| Erik Voermans, Het Parool, March 2008 |
| Cheering reactions after cello concerto "Pieter Wispelwey had bad luck. He was to play the cello concerto by Dvorák, but cancelled during the morning due to flu. The young French master Jean-Guihen Queyras appeared available. He arrived at the end of the day in Amsterdam and after a brief rehearsal flew onto the stage and triumphed. His effortless playing was entirely focused on the inner side of Dvorák’s music, whereby he found Fischer as a loyal companion at his side. Here spoke the intention of chamber music, presented with a wide view … … This Bruckner light received a lukewarm applause which sharply contrasted with the cheering reactions after the cello concerto. And yet we would not have wanted to miss a single note. Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra showed a disarming openness and sincerity. To experience this is in any case refreshing." |
| Thiemo Wind, De Telegraaf, March 2008 |
| "Take for example the very well-known cello concerto of Antonín Dvorák. Pieter Wispelwey was programmed as soloist, but due to illness he needed to cancel. Fischer and Wispelwey made a CD recording of this concerto last year. For the solo part a worthy replacement was found in the French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, who, just like Fischer, is also a musician for whom the composition comes first. A magical cello concerto was heard on Wednesday, with Fischer and Queyras as refined kindred spirits. Naturally Dvorák sounded melancholy where it had to, sang the cello lyrically its melodies and competed as always with the orchestra and its members. Just like Fischer Queyras took time for his phrasing, his sound was not big in a show-off way but was finely nuanced, listening to Fischer’s movements – and so a conversation between two poets developed." |
| Anthony Fiumara, Trouw, March 2008 |
| Liedertafel Tilburg, The Netherlands |
| "Cello strings like laser beams for master cellist Queyras ... A musician of breeding who feels at home with contemporary music as well as with the classical repertoire... In Tilburg, Queyras was accompanied by his old friend, the pianist Alexandre Tharaud, another young French musician who conquered the classical music market with his stormy hands. ... the duo literally transports us in Francis Poulenc’s brilliant ‘Cellosonate’. Over a rich carpet of piano notes Queyras’ cello sings as never heard before. A gratifying highlight in the rich history of the Liedertafel." |
| Mark van de Voort, Brabants Dagblad, 4th April 2007 |
| Elverum Music Festival |
| "This was one of the greatest opening concerts in the history of the festival…Yesterday evening we learned to love Haydn’s Concerto in C-major Concerto, thanks to Jean-Guihen Queyras and his playing…We loved his energetic style from the first bar. This was a top class soloist who was a great intermediary. His playing was so relaxed… In the calm music he found excitement and power and he was given room to strike in the difficult technical challenges which he handled wonderfully…" |
| Bodvar Lotsberg, Ostlendingen, August 2006 |
| "The balance between orchestra and soloist was perfect, and with an unbelievable technique and dedication Queyras presented the solo cadenzas with sincerity and confidence… Haydn is one of the classical masters in all that includes rules of form. But the musicians were able to release passion in the third movement, although in a controlled way… The music was well received by the enthusiastic audience who gave Queyras a standing ovation and would not give in until they were presented with an encore, a movement from Haydn’s 13th Symphony…" |
| Marit Elise Lyngstad, Hamar Arbeiderblad, August 2006 |
| CBSO/Knussen – John Woolrich’s cello concerto – Aldeburgh Festival – Snape Maltings Hall – 17 June 2006 |
| "In John Woolrich’s 1998 cello concerto…, and the ways-in which the solo cello (played here with vivid commitment by Jean-Guihen Queyras)…." |
| The Guardian, June 2006 |
| The Music Room, Halifax, Canada |
| "He appears to hear a wide array of timbres in each tone, and by means of impeccably accurate intonation and a sure instinct for where each note fits into a line, he pains with sound… It was a remarkably cogent performance." |
| The Chronicle Herald – 24 November 2005 |
| Vancouver Playhouse, Vancouver, Canada, with Alexandre Tharaud |
| "Elegance is the duo’s keyword. Queyras’s tone is silky, focused yet sweet, not particularly large but with beautifully graduated dynamics… The cello’s great range of colour added new intensity to these already painfully expressive pieces [Alban Berg’s Four Pieces, Op.5]… Here everything was integrated [Foulenc’s Sonata]: the exquisite lux of the Cavatine, the swagger of the Ballabile, the theatricality of the finale, and the overall underpinning of classicism redefined – all in meticulous balance." |
| The Vancouver Sun – 23 November 2005 |
| Risor Festival at Zankel Hall – Leif Ove Andsnes invites…., New York, May 2005 |
| "In the three elusive movements of Janacek's "Pohadka" ("Fairy Tale"), for cello and piano, recurring riffs and quizzical fragments convey a sense of radical discontinuity. Yet as played by Mr. Andsnes and the rhapsodic French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, the music seemed strangely inevitable." |
| The New York Times – 9 May 2005 |
| With Concerto Köln |
| Perleman Theater, Philadelphia, PA |
| "The Schumann concerto was more viable than usual. Written in broad strokes that leap widely over the solo cellist's fingerboard, the achingly lyrical piece is a nest of balance problems, often solved by sheer musical urgency. That wasn't such an imperative with the inventive young soloist, Jean-Guihen Queyras, who had less competition from Concerto Köln's gentler sound and was sped along with more pointed, accompanying rhythms. Queyras' instrument had both gut and steel strings, all the better to blend with the orchestra when necessary and to step out in front when not. The usual feverish heroics weren't missed." |
| Philadelphia Inquirer - 16 March 2004 |
| Mechanics Hall, Worcester MA |
| "Solo cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras joined Concerto Köln for a lyrical reading of Schumann's Cello Concerto. Capturing the music's ardor while still outlining its structure, Queyras demonstrated why Schumann's masterwork became the Romantic model for subsequent concerted works for cello. In the process, he imbued the concert with an introspection distinctly German. After a spacious opening Allegro, he tossed off the middle movement with spiffy double stops and delighted in the witty finale." |
| Sunday Telegram, Worcester MA - 14 March 2004 |
| Opéra-Théâtre d'Avignon |
| "Considered one of the best cellists of his generation, Jean-Guihen Queyras fully justified his reputation. The sincerity of his expression, the intelligence of his playing, as well as the beauty and depth of the sonorities that he has the power to extract from his instrument have placed his interpretation of Shostakovich's First Concerto for Cello and Orchestra at an extraordinary level." |
| La Provence - 20 January 2003 |
| Sumida Triphony Hall, Tokyo |
| "His programme, as well as every detail of the performance, left the audience full of ideas. He is a cellist of striking individuality who exploits a totally new music." |
| Ongaku Gendai - January 2003 |
| "The extreme delicacy of Queyras' performance, which was linked with a heavenly openness, entirely dominated the large space of the concert hall....The most impressive oeuvre in this evening was Stroppa's 'Ay, there's the rub'... The composer piles up unique and original sounds, such as trills on different harmonics, and creates a sound-world just like an elaborate holography. It was indeed a precious experience for me to listen to this music as performed by Queyras." |
| The Asahi Shimbun - 27 November 2002 |
| Concert Hall, Zagreb |
| "The most interesting part of the evening was Dutilleux's piece which was performed for the first time in Croatia. The performance of Jean-Guihen Queyras possessed a series of brilliantly balanced intensities and articulations, executed by carefully formed and focused sound, thus defining the spaces of the interpretative whole of the piece, as well as those of the audience's reception." |
| Vjesnik - 11 November 2002 |
| La Folle Journée, Nantes |
| "The explosive applause which congratulated the cellist JGQ, after the last note fell, is a proof of this tension, this attention that took the audience in front of a heart-to-heart shining with grace, jubilation and joy. Janos Starker has a successor!" |
| Le Monde - 28 January 2002 |
| Oxford Chamber Music Festival |
| "Luckily Jean-Guihen Queyras (one of the real revelations of the festival) saved the day with an intensely realised performance of Britten's Third Cello Suite." |
| The Independent - 09 July 2001 |
| Concertgebouw, Amsterdam |
| "That Queyras can be counted amongst an elite group of extraordinary cellists he has proved with an unparalleled interpretation of Kodály's Sonata for solo cello....not one phrase of Kodály's soul searching remained untouched. As a result of this piece, Queyras quite rightly carries the 'quality-control' label of the European Concert Hall." |
| De Volkskrant - 21 May 1999 |
| Wigmore Hall |
| "From the powerful opening of Debussy's Sonata, Queyras seemed an ideal custodian of this work, his lyrical playing enabling him to capture the ever-changing moods" |
| The Strad - April 1999 |
| South Bank |
| "The brilliant verve of Jean-Guihen Queyras in the [Debussy] cello sonata marked him instantly as a performer we want to hear again and again." |
| Financial Times - 16 May 1996 |