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| Concerts | Recordings |
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| Recordings |
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| Bach: Cello Suites (2007) – Harmonia Mundi HMC 901970.71 |
| "Queyras, playing a modern instrument (although he's also an experienced period player), eschews asceticism in this music, seeing Bach's 'intellect and his concern for architecture' as creating 'an exhilarating life force'. His tone is lusher than Isserlis's, the recorded sound more resonant, and the manner more consistently outgoing." |
| Michael Dervan, The Irish Times, 1st February 2008 |
| "Of all Bach's major solo pieces, the cello suites perhaps allow the interpreter more latitude than any others, and Queyras takes full advantage of that in his tonal variation, wide dynamic range and expressive nuances. Compared with Steven Isserlis's recent accounts on Hyperion, for instance, Queyras is much more interventionist, less inclined to allow the music to speak for itself. But what he does add to the printed text is often very exciting: sometimes he pushes the tempos to extremes, whether to generate more excitement or to squeeze out the maximum amount of expressive juice. Yet his liberties never seem wilful, because he maintains a steady tempo in the most ornate passages, or those in which Bach pushes cello technique beyond its normal limits. Queyras is always in command of what he does, and how he wants this elusive music to speak." |
| **** Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 1st February 2008 |
| "One of a cellist's supreme challenges is met with exceptional artistry by Jean-Guihen Queyras, who brings his trademark sensibility and interpretative strengths to the six solo suites by Bach. Courtly restraint in the slow sarabandes is contrasted with the more bucolic vigour of the famous gigue in the Third Suite, but there is an overriding sense that Queyras appreciates the crucial architectural and expressive perspective of this music. With no hankering after effect for its own sake, he uses his glorious 1696 Gioffredo Cappa instrument and his own intelligence to convey the organic shape of these extraordinary masterpieces, shrewdly delineating the harmonic framework and gracing the melodic lines and rhythms with subtle, natural inflections. On the fascinating DVD about the making of the recording, Queyras speaks of the suites as an 'anthology of inventions' in terms of harmony, rhythm and technique; elsewhere he talks about their 'exhilarating life force'. These are defining qualities of this outstanding set." |
| Geoffrey Norris , Daily Telegraph, 26th January 2008 |
| "In a promotional DVD accompanying this release Jean-Guihen Queyras cites the abundance of excellent Bach Cello Suites cycles on the market as one reason he waited until 2007 to commit his interpretations to disc. Queyras needn't have worried, for his playing is never less than beautiful, eloquent, and thoroughly world-class. It fuses the most apparent characteristics distinguishing certain memorable editions: Schiff's shapely melodic parsing, Pergamenschikov's infectious feeling for the dance, Bylsma's period-performance innovations, and Tortelier's purity of tone. Queyras possesses an all-encompassing, supple, and effortless technique equal to Truls Mørk's, yet he avoids the latter's arch and self-conscious tendencies. In fact, the array of colours and articulations Queyras obtains always bypass the instrument en route to the music. The Sixth Suite is a good example. Because the work's notoriously high-lying tessitura poses no problems for Queyras, he can sustain the Sarabande with whispering deliberation or, by contrast, make the Gavottes lighter and more bracing than usual. The latter also applies to the E-flat suite's Gigue and the C major's zesty Bourées. In Queyras' hands, each Suite's opening Prelude amounts to a master class in how to intelligently scale dynamics and inflect a basic pulse with a sense of proportion and controlled freedom, such as in the D minor Prelude's insidious build. An ideal church acoustic and Cécile Lenoir's sensitive engineering make Queyras' Bach all the more recommendable." |
| *Artistic Quality 10, Sound Quality 10* Jed Distler, Classics Today |
| "there's an open-minded expressiveness that sounds not as though it results from an attempt at extra-musical interpretation or understanding but, quite simply, a heartfelt reaction to the music itself. Recorded in March 2007 at the church of St. Cyriak in Sulzburg, the acoustic is slightly reverberant but not distractlingly so. In fact it serves to emphasise the glorious sound Queyras gets out of his cello, a rich and sweet sounding instrument by Gioffredo Cappa from 1696 (it comes into its own, particularly, in the more expansive sixth suite). The top is expressive and honeyed, the lower range rich and fruity. Comparing these performances with those of Isserlis, it strikes the listener as a far more physical and sensual experience, rather than a more overtly intellectual one; although Hyperion's sound for Isserlis is beyond reproach, he is given a drier acoustic… It says something about the recording that I constantly had to discipline myself not simply to get seduced by the the sheer beauty of the cello playing. That's not to say, though, that there isn't ample evidence of a keen musical intelligence at play, just that it seems - in my view, correctly - to have been subordinated to musical requirements." |
| ***** Hugo Shirley, Musical Criticism, January 2008 |
| Schubert: Arpeggione (2006) - Harmonia Mundi HMC 901930 |
| "The aristocratic duo of Queyras and Tharaud give a subtle, serious performance, unusually wide in its range of expression and colour. … Enjoy the duo’s wonderfully imaginative performances, whether in the eerie, evanescent Webern miniatures or Berg’s unique mix of yearning Romanticism and Expressionist violence." |
| The Daily Telegraph, January 2007 |
| "In chamber music, I was impressed by cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and pianist Alexandre Tharaud’s imaginative recital of Schubert, Webern and Berg (HMC901930)." |
| Anna Picard, The Best Discs of 2006, The Independent, 31st December 2006 |
| "…arrestingly effective. The short pieces come and go like gusts of wind; Webern hangs in space, Berg swirls tempestuously. But most interesting is Schubert’s Sonatina, with grave formality in the first movement, Mozartian elegance in the second, and gravity in the vivace finaly. All beautifully played." |
| Sound ***** Performance ***** BBC Music Magazine, December 2006 |
| "Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata, generally viewed as an enchantingly sunny work, reveals an underlying anguish in the hands of this much-recorded French duo... The transcription of Schubert’s straightforward violin Sonatine is entirely successful…The pieces by fellow-Viennese composers Berg and Webern reveal the duo’s attention to every nuance of expression – only enhanced by the disc’s sparklingly clear recorded sound. They have the ability to create a feeling of absolute stillness and serenity…" |
| The Strad, December 2006 |
| "Romance seems to be the watchword in this accomplished duo’s treatment of Schubert, though the album also includes works by Berg and Webern which act as something of a counterweight. Queyras and Tharaud blend beautifully in a most enjoyable disc." |
| *Gramophone Editor’s Choice* James Inverne, Gramophone, December 2006 |
| "The idea of placing Schubert alongside more recent Viennese music is most imaginative, and the Webern pieces, played with magnificent control of dynamics, tone-colour and line, are effectively firmed by song arrangements, taking us, after the expansive Arpeggione, into a more intimate environment…. And to follow the Berg’s dark denouement with the rapt solemnity of Nacht und Träume is masterstroke of programme planning." |
| Gramophone, December 2006 |
| "Queyras’s honeyed tone is breathtaking, while Tharaud’s accompaniment is a model of delicacy and thoughtfulness. A ravishing recital." |
| The Independent on Sunday, October 2006 |
| "Jean-Guihen Queyras, a fine cellist, begins here with a distinctive, thoughtful account of Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata (1824) with the pianist Alexandre Tharaud. Everything about the reading is unhurried, so even the flowing passages seem weightier than they often do. And if the players show themselves capable of endearing straighforwardness, in Webern’s microscopic 3 Little Pieces, Op 11, and Berg’s 4 Pieces, Op 5, they combine a necessary exactitude of execution with an intuitive feel for contrasting dramatic styles that serves both composers perfectly." |
| **** The Sunday Times, October 2006 |
| "…the French cello and piano duo of Jean-Guihen Queyras and Alexandre Tharaud play it with just the right kind of rangy, loose-limbed lyricism. They've also found a fascinating programmatic setting for it…This endlessly fascinating, highly imaginative disc amounts to much more than the sum of its parts." |
| The Irish Times, December 2006 |
| DVORÁK Cello Concerto; Trio No. 4 "Dumky" - Harmonia Mundi-HMC 901867(CD) Isabelle Faust (violin); Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello); Alexander Melnikov (piano). The Prague Philharmonia, Jirí Belohlávek |
| "What a joy to encounter cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras in Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, where every phrase sings or sparkles." |
| The Independent – 25 October 2005, ***** |
| "Given the excellent recording quality, I would certainly cite this as one of the finest recordings ever made of this well-worn concerto." |
| The Strad Selection – November 2005 |
| "Jean-Guihen Queyras gives a ravishing and inspired account of this supreme concerto… I rate this among the best versions of the work on disk." |
| The Sunday Telegraph – 13 November 2005 |
| "a performance that is at once exhilaratingly fresh and warmly responsive to the music's mix of autumnal glow and vernal passion." |
| Classical CD of the Week, The Daily Telegraph – 22 October 2005 |
| "Glorious" |
| Classic FM Magazine – December 2005 |
| "The clarity and bite of the cellist is most refreshing, with consistently clean attack. Perhaps even more remarkable is his imagination in phrasing melodic writing, subtly individual yet never self-conscious, and as in the Trio he adopts a daringly wide dynamic range with pianissimi that have you catching your breath." |
| The Gramophone – November 2005 |
| "superb: involved, passionate and always infectious. The accompanying performance of the Dumky Trio is completely captivating; indeed their rendition of the four middle movements is among the finest available." |
| BBC Music Magazine – November 2005 |
| "glorious, and so different from the numerous others available that it more than justifies the inevitable duplication. Jean-Guihen Queyras is a supremely gifted performer seemingly incapable of making an unattractive noise…" |
| Classics Today – 31 October 2005 |
| Haydn - Cello Concertos Hob.VIIb: 1 & 2 in C & D major, Monn - Cello Concerto in G minor- 2004 - Harmonia Mundi 901816 |
| "In well-upholstered, modern-instrument performances, even by the likes of Du Pré and Rostropovich, Haydn’s D Major Cello Concerto can be a lumbering bore. Not here, though…The young French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras refreshes this over-familiar music with his clean, resinous tone, delicacy of colour and supple, lyrical phrasing. He conjures magical pianissimo shadings in the adagio, and tears gleefully into the potentially tedious bravura passages in the finale…If you want these concertos on period instruments, look no further." |
| The Saturday Telegraph – 17 July 2004 |
| "It’s difficult to know what to admire more about that. Cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras is wonderfully agile and super-articulate at that breakneck speed. All right, the lighter 18th century bow helps, but the same time there’s that rounded, full tone – not what one immediately associates with ‘period’ string playing. That’s the finale of Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major – a stunning performance, of what is perhaps the finest all Haydn’s instrumental concertos. But Queyras is just as convincing in the more easy-going D major Concerto. The expression is so vivid, and again there are plenty of opportunities for Queyras to display that extraordinary agility. Music than can sound a trifle sedate here springs to life. It all adds up to a very repeatable disc." |
| BBC Radio 3 – CD Review - 10 July 2004 |
| "One of a generation of players for whom gut strings are merely another colour to explore, cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras makes a seamless transition to Classical style. With the bright, intelligent sweep of Freiburg Baroque’s glorious sound behind him, Queyras gives a lovely account of both Haydn concert: clean and soft and supple in the slow movements. Georg Matthias Monn’s G minor concerto is, if anything, even finer. Perfect listening for an early summer morning and another reminder of Freiburg Baroque’s absolute fluency in Haydn’s orchestral writing." |
| The Independent - 16 May 2004**** |
| Dutilleux - Tout un Monde lointain - 2002 - Arte Nova 74321 92813 2 |
| "...Jean-Guihen's commitment to Dutilleux's cello concerto Tout un monde lointain determines a memorable interpretation of the piece which combines calligraphic expression with poetic inspiration." |
| Le Monde - 1 February 2003 |
| Kodály, Veress, Kurtág - works for cello - 2001 - Harmonia Mundi 901735 |
| "Jean-Guihen Queyras infuses all this technically demanding music with ardent expressiveness and dazzling rhythmic drive. He has an alert, vibrant tone which seems at first to steer him clear of sentiment, but the final track reveals a player with plenty of heart as well... Altogether an intelligently laid-out disc, with interesting repertoire and magnificent playing and recording." |
| BBC Music Magazine - March 2002 Performance***** Sound***** |
| "...Jean-Guihen Queyras' performances are as impassioned and committed as technically mellifluous. He is sensitive to the tiniest inflection, playing with a lightness and clarity that fits hand in glove with the music's essential spirit." |
| The Strad - April 2002 |
| "Today, listening to the same piece performed by Jean-Guihen Queyras, I have again the feeling that another era in the history of cello playing is opening up....Queyras plays Kodály's sonata, and in particular the last movement, with an intensity and a powerful furore which verges on madness. Only one word: Magnificent!" |
| The Record Geijutsu - April 2002 |
| "Jean-Guihen Queyras has already been hailed for his 'unparalleled' interpretation of the work and listening to this superbly engineered recording you can easily hear why. In sum, this is a good Op. 8 [Kodály], witty, stylish, and for the most part extremely polished... All this music makes considerable demands on Queyras, who rises to each challenge with confidence and formidable skill." |
| Gramophone - February 2002 |
| "This CD offers one of the best renditions of Kodály's great Sonata for Solo Cello. Queyras plays the many technical tours de force with enviable flexibility and lets his beautiful instrument shimmer with passion... The result is an impressive programme, a classic example of how a stimulating cello recital should be built up. And a release which very clearly brings to light the unsuspected relationship between these three composers." |
| Luister - January 2002 |
| "… a very pure timbre, a transparent sonority, fascinating contrasts of tension and relief, a broad range of nuances, and inexhaustible resources of intensity and expressivity..." |
| Diapason - December 2001 |
| Britten - Suites for Solo Cello - 1998 - Harmonia Mundi 911670 |
| "…led, as far as complete cycles are concerned, by the outstanding Jean-Guihen Queyras." |
| BBC Music Magazine – June 2004 |
| "...Queyras has such a sense of phrase that the slower speeds do not normally sound unconvincing, and his playing - technically superb - has an impressive consistency of style." |
| Gramophone - January 1999 |
| "Jean-Guihen Queyras meets their challenge with lucid, expressive playing. His 17th-century Milanese cello doubtless adds to the welcome Gallic lightness of gesture and timbre. He is equally secure in grasping the firm harmonic craftsmanship of the First Suite's 'Canto primo' as in drawing a unity from the mosaic pattern of the Third. The fugue, a miracle of suggesting many voices, is delivered without blemish, a tribute to Queyras' playing as a whole." |
| BBC Music Magazine - December 1998 Performance**** Sound**** |