Search - Oscar Peterson :: Solo

Mind Blowing!!

Roger Saxton | Las Cruces, New Mexico USA | 10/14/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Oscar spends the better part of an hour doing things on the piano
that can't be done on the piano. I have recordings of the most
technically demanding works of Liszt, Alkan, and Sorabji, as well
as the Ligeti Etudes. In comparison with the Peterson performances of Corcovado, Autumn Leaves, and Sweet Georgia Brown(just to mention a few), the works of the above mentioned
composers seem much less difficult to me than they did before I
heard this recording! However, this album wouldn't rate even
one star if it only had dazzling technique to offer the listener.It is great because of how Oscar uses his technique. He approaches these songs as multifaceted tone poems and uses tempo changes, huge variations in loudness and softness,and the full range of the piano to bring out every facet in each of them. Despite the volcanic eruption of sound, not one note is wasted. The music laughs,whispers, shouts, cries, and dances. I don't own a greater recording of solo piano music in any genre. I hope enough people buy it to make it a best seller. It Deserves it!"

Down Beat review April 2003

Roger Saxton | 04/11/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Down Beat: Excellent-to-classic. Solo is yet another previously unreleased discovery, a pair of 1972 solo concerts that, in addition to being relatively rare, are utterly dazzling in their intensity and rapidly shifting diversity of décor, dynamics, tempo and tone. The arpeggios swoop and dive like tracer fire in a program rich with both fluttering rose petals and hard rain power. -- John McDonough"