This is a remarkable set of recordings which act as a further tribute to the composer’s wonderfully fertile imagination and to the ability of these Concertos to inspire a very wide range of responses from performers.
musicweb-international.com
With her rich strokes and sound imagination, Ragna Schirmer could not have conjured up a more compelling proof of Handel’s timelessness than this cornucopia of fascinating listening experiences.
Concerti
Whether Handel chirps, murmurs, or swings – Ragna Schirmer and her combatants invite the audience to a new, fresh kind of listening – which is exactly what should happen to ‘early’ music.
Audio
Wonderful musical enjoyment!
Fono Forum
… a well-made experiment.
Morgenpost am Sonntag
Three CDs paint an exciting picture of 21st century Handel reception – painted by musicians with enthusiasm and attention to detail. No matter in which version – every listener will discover “their” Handel.
NDR Kultur, CD of the week
This is crazy in a good sense. It is an ingenious tribute to the great composer, whose whole range is tested by Ragna Schirmer to the top of her bent in this unique project.
Brigitte
Great fun, which transfers to the listener…Like all musicians on these three CDs, the jazz combo shows greatest professionalism – even on the Hammond organ, you can still hear Ragna Schirmer’s great love for the master from Halle.
MDR Figaro, CD of the week
On 1 November, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung dedicated a whole page of their feature section to Ragna Schirmer and her new Handel album “Concertos“, appreciating the pianist’s artistic integrity and her great merit of having revived and communicated these rarely heard and overwhelmingly diverse organ concerts.
She brings them to light in a stylistically diverse, always authentic and never boring fashion. This is an awesome project – courageous, funny, and artistically substantial. Those who love Handel – just like Ragna Schirmer – get their money worth.
BR Klassik
Ragna Schirmer elicits previously unimagined sound cascades from the grand piano. After the break, the whole concert church is rocking – when Handel is jazzed. The composer – who we could refer to as a pop musician of his time – would surely have loved this completely new interpretation of his works. The New Brandenburg audience thanked charming pianist Ragna Schirmer and her musicians with standing ovations.
Nordkurier
Far away from putting on a show as a romantic keyboard lioness, she fathomed the works‘ scopes for interpretation in a subtle way and rich in contrast. She carefully advanced – and conquered.
Thanks to her subtle striking technique and articulation, Ragna Schirmer succeeds in linking the qualities of the harpsichord with the strengths of the grand piano. This results in a phenomenally clear and sensual sound, opening up new, diverse and complex worlds of expression with Handel’s and Bach’s works – not least due to the free play of ornamentation, which for Ragna Schirmer is not only an ornament but a vital ingredient.
Südwest Presse, Reutlinger Nachrichten
Just like multi-coloured butterflies, Ragna Schirmer elicited diverse sound colours from her grand piano.
Osterburger Volksstimme
Ragna Schirmer entlockt dem Flügel Tonkaskaden, die schier unfassbar erscheinen. So richtig gerockt wird die Konzertkirche dann aber nach der Pause – wenn Händel gejazzt wird. Diese völlig neue Sicht auf seine Werke hätte dem Komponisten, den wir heute als Popkünstler seiner Zeit bezeichnen würden, wohl gefallen. Mit stehenden Ovationen bedankt sich das Neubrandenburger Publikum bei der zauberhaften Pianistin Ragna Schirmer und ihren Musikern.
Nordkurier
Expressive and passionate
Altmark Zeitung
Ragna Schirmer plays in an exciting way and fascinates. Whether subtle piano, energetic forte or trilling like a bird – every sound by Schirmer makes an impression.
volksfreund.de
The quiet, impressionistic variations were especially fascinating – they showed that there is another, more beautiful, and meditative “Schumann World” beyond the swaggering power usually displayed in this work.
Kölner Stadtanzeiger
Schirmer‘s nuanced, subtle way of playing illuminates piano writing between sensitive bravura and energetic noblesse, all while emphasising her own subtle accents and volatile sound moments – a subtle Beethoven interpreter.
Neue Westfälische
Ravel’s piano concert in G major becomes an exciting journey to the twenties in Schirmer’s hands. Her flexibility regarding the attentive orchestra was proof of her total musical and mental mastering of this cheerful and brilliant work.
Thüringische Landeszeitung
Schirmer‘s subtly shining sound comes in many shades; she proceeds attacca to the final movement, beaming with exuberance, harmoniously flowing, in which the pianist and the orchestra pass the motives to one another in a virtuous way. (Beethoven Piano Concert No. 3)
Neue Westfälische
She knew how to differentiate between austerity in counterpoints, seductive singability, great theatrical performance and internalised depth.
Thüringische Landeszeitung
Pianist Ragna Schirmer fit perfectly in the style of the evening with her confident interpretation of the relatively unknown concert (Mendelssohn, Piano Concert Nr. 2); she balanced impeccably between poetry (wide-spanning melodies in tightly meshed piano movement) and structure (such as the morphogenetic prelude of three repetitive quavers). Her compliance with the deceleration of the pulsating wind players at the end of the second movement was sensitive and perfectly executed.
Kölner Stadtanzeiger
Schirmer‘s powerful virtuosity
Kölnische Rundschau, Christoph Zimmermann
Mendelssohn‘s second piano concert, played by Ragna Schirmer with a noble, almost discreet sound, thus seamlessly following Marriner’s stylistic Classicism. (with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields)
Rheinische Post
This is the Handel cycle to acquire if you desire these works on piano.
The Gramophone
Such a sense of rich enterprise and inclusiveness is a delight from start to finish. (Haydn)
The Gramophone
Ragna Schirmer’s pianistic dignity is magnificent. She proves to think creatively. (…)The poet’s thoughts are expressed by the fingers of his imaginative confidante.
Die Zeit
Schirmer again proves herself to be a stylish and accomplished artist—she’s a keyboard stroker not hitter—producing a rich, organ-like sonority from the Steinway.
The Gramophone
Ragna Schirmer interprets this impressive piece with a lot of power, panache, and persuasion (Franz Schmidt Variations).
Monde de la musique
You have to search a long time before finding someone with a similar talent, a similar personality. Ragna Schirmer has lots to tell.
Berliner-Philharmonikermagazin
It is Schirmer’s incredible meticulousness at forming the striking discourse: every note, perfectly measured, weighed, and dosed in a mesh of simultaneous and intertwined lines, has its own characteristics. Every phrase shows in its wording the same determined meticulousness, the same decisive distinction. A game of impact, bounce, power, and release: all this is surprising and we don’t hesitate to say that this allows the pianist to position herself among the best in the world.
Piano, Le magazine