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REVIEWS

Vorarlberger Nachrichten

FLAWLESS TECHNICAL DOMINANCE AND INTENSE EXPRESSION

``...Beethoven`s Piano Concerto No 5 in E flat major - played at the beginning of the concert - demands a great deal of building up power, working out details and melting sweetness for both orchestra and soloist.
The soloist, the internationally renowned Serbian-Austrian pianist Jasminka Stancul, who, in her 3rd concert with the Collegium Instrumentale under Maestro Guntram Simma, delivered a brilliant performance and showed her strong ties to both Simma and the orchestra.
Her rushing arpeggios in the introduction resemble a spark for a highly inspired concord with both the conductor and the orchestra which , after a wonderfully lyrical breather in the middle section of the concert, perform the dance-like rondo all the more exuberantly.
Stancul shows her usual mastery with nearly flawless technical dominance and intense expression...``

Ruhr Nachrichten

PIANIST LIT A PIANO FIREWORKS

``...Jasminka Stancul was the soloist, and the 57-year-old Serbian worked out the very contrasting characteristics of the two minor works written in 1831 and 1837 very clearly.
Mendelssohn promised a ``piano firework`` in the finale of the second concerto, although he ignited it much more in the first piano concerto. Jasminka Stancul played the first movements in a fresh, lively and spirited way. And she turned the Andante into a “song without words” with a very singing tone.
Mendelssohn's Second Piano Concerto is more compact, has a more restrained gesture and is perhaps more elaborate. The soloist gave this work a lot of maturity in sound. The Serbian has a brilliant technique, with which she gave almost a feeling of a“Liszt’s spirit” presence. And the promised ``piano fireworks``, which also gave the concert its title, did not fail to have a rousing effect...``
Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 2 is mysterious and melancholic. The interplay of soloist Jasminka Stancul and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra sounds as if it were made of one piece. Making music on the front edge of the chair. Jasminka Stancul has focused entirely on shaping the emotions: sometimes very intimate, just concentrating on the melody, almost a bit naive, but very dense; then Stancul uses all the possibilities of the concert, plays the technically artful figures quickly and easily, sometimes downright casually and with a cheeky wink.

Crown newspaper

Emotional diversity

In the fourth concert cycle of the ``Great Symphony`` at the Musikverein, the exceptional Serbian pianist Jasminka Stancul shone with Mendelssohn Bartholdy's 2nd Piano Concerto and the Italian conductor Enrique Mazzola with Dvořák's ``Seventh``. Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 2 is mysterious and melancholic. The interplay of soloist Jasminka Stancul and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra sounds as if it were made of one piece. Making music on the front edge of the chair. Jasminka Stancul has focused entirely on shaping the emotions: sometimes very intimate, just concentrating on the melody, almost a bit naive, but very dense; then Stancul uses all the possibilities of the concert, plays the technically artful figures quickly and easily, sometimes downright casually and with a cheeky wink.

Janáčkova Filharmonie Ostrava

COLOSSAL VIRTUOSITY

``The pianist showed her colossal virtuosity in Ostrava. Her playing was musically fascinating, vital and intellectual, never robust or schoolmasterly. Stancul based her performance of the Saint-Saens concerto on polarity and bravura, full-blooded musicality, strict discipline, strong tension and difference of contrasts.``

Musiksommers in Bohinj

Great piano performance by Jasminka Stančul

Jasminka Stančul clearly proved that she is an artist of great musical-poetic stature, an artist whom we already know, who we trust a lot, but who nevertheless always manages to surprise us. It seemed like her musical potential was limitless. She also knows how to give the masters of romanticism a deeply personal and human touch. But you could also just enjoy this concert. As a great pianist of international standing, Jasminka Stančul has given Slovenian piano playing a new dimension, from the beginning of Beethoven's sonata to the addition of the concluding lullaby, and the one-and-a-half-hour long program faded into the starry night sky over Bohinj.

Ludwigsburg district newspaper

``Fully on par with the orchestra``

The Stuttgart Philharmonic and pianist Jasminka Stancul demonstrate technical brilliance in the Liederhalle. ``...Already in the first movement, Jasminka Stancul combined technical brilliance with expressive interpretation. Crystalline touch, expressive phrasing, the Serbian pianist inspired in rare congruence of creative will and ability with dizzying fluency and joy of playing. The recapitulation sparked, the coda breathed. Carved chords, sparkling runs, excitingly staged persistence and striking trills in the Andante, breathtaking the Far Eastern secondary theme, the astral transparency of the strings. Again and again she addresses the musicians directly - this pianist actually needs a full orchestra as an equal counterpart: the Philharmonic at eye level.``

Esslinger Zeitung

``Like from an Arabian Night``

Traditionally in three movements, it is nevertheless so original that even experienced concert-goers in the Stuttgart Philharmonic subscription concert, who are now performing in the Beethoven Hall of the Stuttgart Liederhalle, must have been surprised at the exotic and freely developing sonority: arabesques, Spanish-Moorish inspired Rhythm and melody, pentatonic - all sounds that Saint-Saëns, fond of travelling, picked up during his years of forays through the world and ingeniously fused with his own style. And the Serbian-Austrian pianist Jasminka Stancul, together with the Philharmoniker, succeeded wonderfully in evoking the atmosphere of an Arabian night on the Nile: the middle movement as an oriental rhapsody dreamed and luxuriated, the keyboard lioness formed passages and arpeggios as airy as fine veils. Fairytale!
Back to the West.

Courier OÖ

``great lightness and intimacy of the romantic expression``

Before that, the popular Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was performed. One of the most attractive pieces for virtuosos, composed with catchy melody and Slavic coloring, was played by Jasminka Stancul in a fiery red tailcoat, with excellent technique, great lightness and intimacy of the romantic expression. The Serbian pianist conjured up ... energetic, but also light-footed tones like in the Largo from the grand piano. The colorful interplay with the well-disposed orchestra was balanced. She thanked her audience for the cheers with the encore ``October`` from Tchaikovsky's ``The Seasons``.

Dietmar Ebert, Ostthüringer Zeitung

Never-ending ovations for Jasminka Stančul

In the Piano Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op. 25, the Serbian pianist Jasminka Stančul, who is now internationally known, showed all facets of her pianistic skills. With a powerful touch she played the energetic, forceful main theme of the first movement, delicately, almost tenderly, she managed the lyrical E major Andante and took the melody intoned by violas and cellos: A song without words. After a fanfare of trumpets and horns, Jasminka Stančul began the cheerful, exhilarating solo runs of the last movement and ended in a carefree finale. It was a pleasure to hear how the solo and orchestral voices entered into a dialogue, played around and fused, and how the orchestra, under Marc Tardue, was a congenial partner to the soloist. The audience celebrated the soloist with never-ending ovations. She thanked her with a technically difficult encore, Etude No. 1 by a Croatian composer.

Tiroler Tageszeitung

Tiroler festspiele erl

...Confident interpretation. Gustav Kuhn and his orchestra of the Tyrolean Festival Erl are exemplary in showing Webern's tonal language. On the one hand, the late-Romantic exaggeration of the major-minor tonal system, borne by stimulus dissonances, on the other hand, the expressive beauty and polyphonic elaboration. All in all, extreme tonal sensitivity, it could hardly be finer. The Serbian pianist Jasminka Stancul was masterful. If you don't know the name, as a Beethoven interpreter, you should definitely make a note of it. Stancul isn't about putting her personal stamp on the work. However, it is far from fading behind it. Passionate and sensitive at the same time, she does not interrupt the orchestra. Her alternation between pithy grabbing and careful listening is more than just bowing to the great master...``

Classical Source

Debut in london

DEBUT IN LONDON
Mozart / Piano Concerto N° 23 A major KV 488 Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Daniele Gatti, conductor
Royal Festival Hall
„Der Höhepunkt kam in Form von Jasminka Stančuls makelloser Wiedergabe von Mozarts Klavierkonzert in A ... Ihre makellose Fingerarbeit hätte vielleicht klinisch wirken können,
wenn sie nicht ganz so schön gewesen wäre ... Ihre Zurückhaltung und Raffinesse war das genaue Gegenteil der Aussage, gemacht von ihrem knallroten Satin-Frack ...“

Nrz

Klavierfestival Ruhr

``Jasminka Stančul simply amazed the audience.``

Sydney Morning Herald

``Pianist's Whirlwind of Energy``

Perhaps Schumann had Jasminka Stančul in mind. She is a pianist of deft agility and some of the speeds in her recital were indeed breathless, although she makes it much more than a 200-metre dash. Fleetness becomes part of a musical personality characterised by polish and energy. (…)
In the first movement of Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata in C her approach emphasised whirlwind energy and deft virtuosity (…) She tackled Beethoven's textures and trills of the last movement with daring and drive, so that Beethoven emerged nimble and soaring.
In Mozart's Piano Concerto N°13 in C with the Sydney Symphony last week she played with poised clarity, bringing out the lines with focus, shape and taste, although the orchestra lacked her polish. She is a distinctive player of rare accomplishment.``