Reviews
“In Salzburg the violin-virtuoso can be often heard playing works of the 20th and 21st centuries. He has an exceptional capability to connect technical brilliance with musical logic and “narrates” the often cumbrous compositions of the contemporary violin literature in a convincing rhetoric, so that they sound completely uncomplicated and catchy. (…) Schneider offers a pithy and “modern” interpretation, thus emphasizing the obvious musical connection between Bach, Ysaÿe and Bartók. (…) The Solo Sonata by Bartók was composed in 1944 for Yehudi Menuhin and it represents a creative acme of the composer, who died in 1945. Despite its extreme technical demand the work sounds in Schneiderʼs interpretation effortlessly easy.“
Michael Malkiewciz, Drehpunkt Kultur
“(...) This challenge, Georges-Emmanuel Schneider did rise to, and effortlessly so! In all these especially daunting pieces, he offers unassuming performances, remarkably polished and thought through, thoroughly investigated and exceptionally rich in nuances. An outstanding recital, each second of which kindles attention and admiration.“
Michel Tibbaut, Resmusica, 2011
“Manifold richness of melody
(...) As a soloist, the violinist gains attention thanks to his attention to melodic variation. He made recordings of Bach, Ysaÿe and Bartók Sonatas in 2010. What is special about this? Schneider does not play Yehudi Menuhin’s version of Bartók's Solosonata, in which the quarter tones have been removed, but goes back to the composer’s original.“
Reinmar Wagner, Musik und Theater, 2011
“The Swiss-born violinist plays unaccompanied sonatas by Bach and Ysaye together with the north-face original version of the Bartók work, the one that gave Menuhin so much trouble before the composer consented to gentle revisions. Schneider has the measure of the piece (…) The Ysaye op 27/4 is a winner.”
Norman Lebrecht, La Scena Musicale, 2011
“Georges-Emmanuel Schneider eases his way through the difficulties with the talent and sensibility that is the hallmark of the great.”
Antoine Gresland, Ecoutez-Voir, 2010
“Georges-Emmanuel Schneider shows himself quite equal in quality to his performance we attended on the 30th of April 2009 (...): technical ease, heartfelt and warmly expressive playing, deep understanding of the meaning of chamber music in its purest expression, all of this comes astoundingly naturally to this beautiful and generous artist nature. (...) It is hardly surprising that Georges-Emmanuel Schneider, fostered in his vocation from a young age by Edmond de Stoutz, has taken up the challenge of adding this intense work of Frank Martin to his repertory and in delivering us an interpretation entirely worthy of that of his illustrious colleague and predecessor Yehudi Menuhin. We would also wish that all violinists of high-rank should make such judicious and eclectic choices in setting up their repertoire.”
Michel Tibbaut, Resmusica, 2010
“The violinist Georges-Emmanuel Schneider played with a soft, harmonically rounded bow, setting its own highlights, particularly in the second half. A melting "Berceuse" by Gabriel Fauré touched the spot with its delicate impressionism, just as did Claude Debussy's thread of pearls in "Beau Soir", in which Schneider was accompanied by Johannes Hämmerle.”
Augsburger Allgemeine, 2010
“The concert’s guest soloist was the remarkable Swiss violinist Georges-Emmanuel Schneider… Georges-Emmanuel Schneider already conquered the Belgian public with his chamber music program performed. He duetted with the superb pianist Peter Petrov: the Darius Duo. With the Louis Poulet Chamber Orchestra, he confirms his status as an exceptional violinist in the Rondo for violin and strings in A major by Schubert, which he rendered with the greatest strength of expressivity. Sarasate’s Gipsy Airs then were a flood of virtuosity, at times poetic, then enthusiastic. He managed to convey the impression of constant improvisation, filling the music with numerous rubatos, truly evocative of gipsy campfires. In these two works, it was a great pleasure, not only to discover the very interior musical style of this fabulous musician, but also to see him, face alight with radiant pleasure at the honour of playing music in the company of the orchestra conducted by Ondrej Kukal…”
Michel Tibbaut, Resmusica, 2009
“Elegant tonalities resonate…
Approximately 450 visitors from Hamamatsu gladly let themselves be carried away by elegant tonalities…The young violinist Schneider played with the pianist Kimiko Imani from Hamamatsu. They mainly presented French “chefs d’œuvres”, amongst others « Le Cygne » by Saint-Saëns and « Berceuse » by Fauré. The audience praised them with their applause.”
Chunichi Shimbun, 2008
„ (…) The Swiss violinist, Georges-Emmanuel Schneider, and the pianist Kimiko Imani from Nakaku Hamamatsu-Shi presently living in Berlin performed eight pieces, notably « La fille aux cheveux de lin » by Debussy and « Berceuse » by Fauré. The astonishing unison of violin and piano filled the room and conquered the audience.“
Shizuoka Shimbun, 2008
”(…) Incidentally, the second violinist (Georges-Emmanuel Schneider) deserves particular mention. Despite his heavily bandaged fingers - a 25 percent handicap in fact - he even mastered the unbelievably fast accompanying figures in the KV 136 Finale flawlessly and still found the strength to give an encore.“
Karl Winkler, Drehpunkt Kultur, 2006
”The soloists Georges-Emmanuel Schneider and Zsuzsa Debre were on a very high level of interpretation. The impressed audience applauded for several minutes, thanking all the collaborators for this moving concert.“
Ruhr Nachrichten, 2005
“The violinist Georges-Emmanuel Schneider and the pianist Eung-Gu Kim … fascinated the audience in their rendition of a new composition especially devised by Uzong Choe for the duet Schneider/Kim…
It is a tempest of emotions, brisk gusts galloping wildly across the piano keys, then transforming into the residual shine of isolated flageolets. At times, the violin surges forth like a storm, before carefully detaching chords into individual notes. Full of surprises, insistent, nostalgic, then energetic once more, the musicians render the piece with sensitivity and virtuosity…
After the interval, the two artists leap into César Franck’s Sonata. The mood swings from gentle rocking to virulence…Schneider invests himself entirely in the notes, freeing a fleet of warm tonalities from his instrument that lead the intense and subtle dialogue with the piano. –Standing up, one would find it most fitting to spot a woman in imperial dress in the back row.”
Annette Marti, Jungfrau Zeitung, 2004
“…the soloists Georges-Emmanuel Schneider at the violon and Hanny Schmid Wyss at the piano were center stage in the Kammerkonzert for piano, violin and thirteen wind instruments, by Alban Berg…The soloists were particularly brilliant, confirming their talent during the cadenza in the third movement which synthesises the first two movements”
Irene Schleifer, Schwäbische Zeitung, 2003
“…This time, there was no new composition programmed, Alban Berg’s chamber concert was sufficient to make a sensation. The piece is rarely heard in concert halls. This is understandable, given the unusual orchestration and the abstract character of the work…Schneider at the violin and the pianist Hanny Schmid Wyss honoured the heterogonous character of the composition.”
Thomas Schacher, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2003
“Starting a career as a soloist off the beaten track is unusual. The young violinist Georges-Emmanuel Schneider chose to interpret Frank Martin’s „Polyptyque“. Composed the year before his death, the piece has an emotional resonance. Picture by picture, the young soloist takes us through the score with remarkable and deep feeling. The most lay auditor cannot help but be struck by the interior greatness of this atmosphere, by the weight of this repose. Georges-Emmanuel Schneider plays on the Guadagnini which formerly belonged to Arthur Grumiaux.“
Denise de Ceuninck, L’impartial, 2003
“…In Bach’s … double concert, Georges-Emmanuel Schneider and Jean-Jacques Goumaz revealed themselves as sensitive partners.“
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2002
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