SELECTED REVIEWS

Review of concert in Neuruppin (Germany)  11 April 2010
Julianne Felsch, Ruppiner Tageblatt, 13/04/2010

The concert was by no means a night of suppressed emotions. What the over 400 listeners experienced was above all the play of a remarkably talented soloist.
Although Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 is the music of celebration and wandering, Bilińska stays focused and in contact with the orchestra. With wide movements of her arms the soloist marks the entrances of instruments, yet in between she stays close to the keys, interweaving hearself with the music, so that – just from the first phrase – at times one may even wonder which sound comes from the piano and which from the orchestra.
Beata Bilińska does not care that much for virtuosity – it is naturally visible in her entire self. She is more fascinated by life that the concert pulsates with. The pianist follows it with a great joy from playing, which even lifts her from her piano stool and makes her exchange smiles with the conductor after each great passage.

Adam Walaciński DZIENNIK POLSKI, 11th June 2007

"She can surely be counted one of the aces among Polish pianists. Her Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergiei Rachmaninov was played brightly, with huge easiness, while it is well known that the composer larded this late piece with many difficulties. It is a real anthology of piano structures; yet, skills do not suffice, as the Rhapsody is not only very difficult, but also compound, requiring a lot of sound imagination and fantasy. Bilińska has got enough of it and is also endowed with capricious coquetry, which worked perfectly with the character of the famous theme in 24th Caprice by Paganini. As an encore, she offered a beautifully performed lyrical Preludium d minor by Karol Szymanowski"

Roderic Dunnett THE STRAD, April 2007, album review:
20th Century Polish Music for Violin & Piano

"This sophisticated recording, consisting of three great pieces from last century composed in Poland, shows perfect capabilities of two excellent, young women performers.
The recording presents inspiring interpretation of the early Sonata by Szymanowski, but not only this, because Patrycja Piekutowska contributed her satiated lyric in an ingenious way, showing the pieces in a different, clearer light.
In spite of a brave performance, fragments of Allegro achieve a distinct sensibility, in which Piekutowska is supported by Beata Bilińska with her abilities to appease a huge faktura of the work. As a result, the piece is presented brilliantly.
In Sonata by Bacewicz, both artists achieve a certain contrast between the main, classic theme and fragments based on folk music and truly absorb the attention of a listener.
Their Scherzo full of brave humour is played with easiness, and Piekutowska doesn’t lose the deepness of sound at all, applying an impressively temperate vibrato. The Final is the more spectacular and full of fascinating fireworks.
Both the stately Largo and the diverse Presto in Partita by Lutosławski are performed in a moving way. Particularly effective are the two cadenzas appearing in between three main parts, which emphasize the beautiful and expressive play of the two remarkable and energetic performers.
Because of the directness of this great recording, all three pieces hold their listener in expectation for more."

Amazon.uk - Evan Dickerson, 03/2007

The Szymanowski sonata receives a commanding and involving performance. Both players are fully up to the significant technical demands made upon them, and together they show an impressive grasp of the magisterial sweep of the music. Around three minutes into the opening movement a more reflective episode appears and both players allow the change of mood fully to register. For the most part though the first movement radiates emotions and thoughts that have lofty ambitions. The performance here certainly pulls out all the stops.

Piekutowska and Bilińska cope well in grading their various passages, ensuring that much variety of expression finds its way into their playing. Frequent shifts in modulation account for much of the movement’s restless character, and this comes across freely in the playing.

Grażyna Bacewicz's Sonata The sonata proclaims confidence in the instrument, posing several significant challenges for the soloist. The piano part is scarcely less daunting. On my first hearing of the work, there seems no reason not to find Piekutowska and Bilińska highly recommendable advocates of this intricate compositional voice.

Lutosławski’s Partita for violin and piano was later re-scored by the composer for violin, orchestra and piano obbligato, and the work is better known in that form.  In the original scoring, the work exhibits rough edges and sparse textures that the performers should not try to disguise or detract from. Happily, Piekutowska and Bilińska do not attempt to take away from the fundamental fabric of the piece. From nervous openings they take the five movements through passages of relative freedom, though perhaps constrained a little by formalities, and quiet intensity, before returning once again to freedom before concluding with elements of disquiet to the fore.  The performance might not carry the impact of the later scoring, but it does allow the tight sinews of Lutosławski’s writing to be clearly heard.

 I feel compelled to add that the recording level on this disc is rather higher than one often encounters. The Szymanowski sonata begins with an imposing flourish for both players. Should one listen to the disc first through headphones or even through loudspeakers with the volume up slightly, as I did, the sheer force of the opening movement is likely to startle. One soon adjusts to the level, but I found it more comfortable overall to stop the disc, reduce the volume and start again from the beginning.

Overall, an interesting trio of works in recommendable performances, supported by lucid and informative documentation.

Kazimierz Rozbicki NOWY DZIENNIK KOSZALIN, 9th October 2006

"Beata Bilińska played this infernally difficult piece with real bravado, technically flawless: her piano part was sparkling with colour, exciting expression and noble lyric. Enormous concentration of the soloist, her total integration with the art, and furthermore her joy of music-making radiated with the real magic of art and the artistry of performance. It was a rare musical experience."

The GRAMOPHONE, Great Britain 08/2005
John Allison

Penderecki's varied styles are all here, and all are faithfully reproduced.

Few major contemporary composers have met with such a mixed response as Krzysztof Penderecki, but then few have produced quite such a mixed output. Starting out as an avant-gardist who enjoyed genuine public success, he went through a neo-Romantic phase but now treads a precarious line between adventurism and tradition - something that is reflected in this excellent new disc of the complete music for violin and piano. At just under 51 minutes duration, it underlines the fact that chamber music has never been really central to Penderecki's creativity, yet there is real substance here.

The violin and Piano Sonata of 1953 is one of his earliest works, written eight years before his breakthrough with Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima and only published much later. Its striving, angular language may lack individuality, but the models are good mid-20^th-century composers and in a bracing account such as Patrycja Piekutowska and Beata Bilinska give here the piece comes alive. This young Polish duo perform commandingly, with both players summoning up a range of colour. The slow movement is deeply felt.

The Violin and Piano Sonata No 2 was written five years ago for Anne-Sophie Mutter, and is substantial at least in length. By turns clever and empty, lively and bittersweet, it sounds a little like Shostakovich without the pain. But the finale, a good synthesis of Penderecki's styles, is hauntingly played.

Piekutowska reveals her virtuosity in a transcription of the solo-viola Cadenza (1984), but perhaps the most rewarding moments are to be found in the three Miniatures of 1959. Here Penderecki is at his scrunchy best, calling on the violinist to bend her tone, and he inspires concentrated performances from both musicians.

Supersonic Pizzicato Award CD review

PIZZICATO Magazine nr 149 01/2005, Luxembourg

Patrycja Piekutowska and Beata Bilinska have been discovered by Krzysztof Penderecki as the most suitable musical interpreters to record his complete set of works for violin and piano. Composer points out, that the material has been recorded under his strict guidance and with a strict cooperation between him and the artists. Especially in his Sonata nr.2, Penderecki has been able to implement some of his new ideas concerning the articulation and tempo. Thanks to that, Patrycja Piekutowska's exceptionally performed violin part and Beata Bilinska's vigorous piano part could be considered as the ones that entirely fulfilled his intentions. The positive opinions expressed by Penderecki are perfectly understandable, as both of the young talented artists have been able to express their talents and possibilities while performing the music from their country of origin.
It is only a matter of taste when choosing between the work of Piekutowska and Bilinska or the interpretation of Ida Bieler and Nina Tichman (NAXOS recording). However, when comparing Naxos version and the newest polish CD, it’s hard not to discover, that the one performed by Patrycja Piekutowska and Beata Bilinska seems to be more natural, authentic, and performed more expressively and emotionally as well. Piekutowska’s interpretation of The Cadenza for Violin Solo is just fabulous.

Kazimierz Rozbicki, GLOS POMORZA, 8th June 2004

"The closing of the 48th season in Koszalin Philharmonic, which occasioned many musical presentations, was illumined by Beata Bilińska performance [...] - for his artist is luminous phenomenon in Polish piano life, to which all those who have experienced her magnificent art can amply testify [...] In the radio parlour, she played the Bach - Busoni Chaconne, interpreting his hellishly difficult transcription in a bold and imaginative way, with subtlest shades of colour and expression. Her technique defies all criticism, it is simply marvellous, with an immense range of possibilities, and absolute musicality. [...]

Jed Distler, CLASSICS TODAY.com 1st February 2004, about the CD:
"Sergey Rachmaninow Solo Piano Works"

"Pianist Beata Bilińska has everything it takes for world - class Rachmaninow playing:
A big technique, a natural affinity for the composer's idiom, and a huge, bronze sonority that accommodates the music's most massive textures [...] This superbly engineered collection honorably supplements your basic Horowitz, Richter, and Ashkenazy Rachmaninow benchmarks."

Harris Goldsmith, THE NEW YORK CONCERT REVIEW, winter 2004, vol. II, no. 1, pp. 11 - 12; on Beata Bilińska's performance in Carnegie Hall - 18th October 2003

"Ms. Bilińska is obviously a fine pianist and she gave an impressive account of her abilities in her Carnegie Hall debut October 18th. Her version of Bach's English Suite in A Minor, BWV 807 was bracing and unfettered; stylistically knowledgeable - although utterly unapologetically pianistic and straightforwardly unpretentious.

[...] Next came a Chopin group. [...] The Mazurkas went splendidly. They had naturalness and shape, obvious structural insight ( phrase divisions; appreciation of hemeolas etc.), lovely singing tone, and best of all, a requisite dance - like flexibility that can sometimes elude many less idiomatic Chopinists [...] Bilińska's way (of playing Chopin's Tarantella), although technically impressive, stressed rapidly plunging tempos and the aforementioned fever to fine effect. The early Introduction and Polonaise were taken at an audacious clip and produced a sprinting effective performance. [...] As for three of Rachmaninov's Etudes Tableaux, Op. 39, Nos.1, 5 and 6, and the Sonata No. 2 in B flat Minor Op. 36 No. 2, played in the revised 1931 version, Ms. Bilińska emotionaly open, warm - hearted approach came near to producing what I would have thought impossible, the feat of making his sprawling sonata actually enjoyable! [...] Fine recital!"

Kazimierz Rozbicki, MUZYKA 21, no. 11 [40], November 2003, on the Festivsal of Polish Piano Music - "The Rejuvenated Piano"

"[...] The older soloists gave excellent performances, both in concerts with the orchestra and in recitals.Their presentations began with Beata Bilińska's phenomenal interpretation of Saint - Saens' G - Minor Concerto. The pianist's outstanding technique, unfailing artistic intuition and taste allowed her to reveal the whole wealth and beauty of that music, which has been unjustly labelled as eclectic, a judgment now proved to be compleletely outdated. It was marvellous performance, which could rival the great creations of masters.[...]"

Tomasz Jakub Handzlik, GAZETA WYBORCZA, October 2003, about a concert in the Jewish Culture Centre in Cracow

"[...] Virtuosity and faithful representation of the Romantic culminated in performance of Chopin's Andante Spianato and Great Polonaise, in which Beata Bilińska presented musical perfection in every detail. Her instrument sparkled with dynamic splendour, from the most silent piano to a powerful forte - fortissimo. The difficult passages, runs and trills were played to perfection. Another accomplishment was the artist's genuine musical painting art, interpretations replete with vivid colours.

When it seemed that Bilińska could not surprise the audience any more, her feat continued after a short break with Karol Szymanowski's 5 Preludes, an Etude (op. 4 no. 3 in B - flat Minor) and Sergey Rachmaninov's Sonata No. 2 ( op. 36 in B - flat Minor, 2nd version ).

While listening to the brief dynamic Preludes and the stormy Sonata, one could non stop admiring the pianist's art. The tempestuous applause started even before the last notes of the music had died down. [...]

Bilińska's natural musical element is lyrical Romantic music and the fascinating expression of" works by Chopin, Szymanowski and Rachmaninov. She gave ample proof of this during the Sunday concert. The young artist's play, rich in varied emotions and splendid musical impressions, was one word - beautiful."

Bernard Holland, THE NEW YORK TIMES, 12th April 1994, about a recital in Lincoln Centre in
New York.

A month - long survery of Polish art and artists continued on Saturday afternoon with three young musicians at Bruno Walter Auditorium. The securest of them, who played three big Romantic statements with considerable poise and confidence , Miss Bilinska gave near letter - perfect performance of the Bach - Busoni Chaconne, Chopin's A - flat Major Ballade and the Liszt B - Minor Sonata, familiar repertory, to be sure but handled with considerable musical understanding. This is a pianist with a sure sense of how musical lines bend and expand. [...]