Stewart Gordon, pianist
Stewart Gordon has played concerts in the
A sampling of press reviews
“His musical attributes came through to good advantage, a songful, bright tone, clear sight of the shape and
relations between musical lines, and illumination with contrast and tonal
coloring.” Blyth
Young,
“The musical level of the afternoon was on an extraordinarily
high plane.” Paul Hume, The
“Stewart Gordon’s program at the National Gallery on Sunday
was an example of how good a piano recital can be if you start with two basic
ingredients – a strong pianist and a strong program…This was a stunning
program, well planned, and well played, and a joy to hear.” Robert Evett, The
Evening Star (
“Only as winning and compelling a pianist as Stewart Gordon
could play as exotic a program as the one he presented last night at the
National Gallery and get away with it… He took us by storm…. His playing is so
assured in hand and mind, and so beautifully musical, that you find your ear
constantly on edge, grasping and savoring every quaver… Gordon’s program was so
ravishing in sound, persuasive in melodic outline, and sensitive to every
deflection of mood and texture. I would have listened to an immediate repeat of
the entire program with the greatest of pleasure.” Alan M. Kriegsman,
The
“Stewart Gordon is an artist of uncommon musical perception
and technical command…I can’t imagine a more dedicated, carefully prepared, and
expertly executed performance…” Wendell Margrave,
“Stewart Gordon is an excellent pianist. His technique is clean and sure; his control of dynamics and touch is remarkable; and his musicianship sound. In spite of the enormous technical demands he places on himself, his style is quiet and apparently easy…” Wendell Margrave, The Evening Star
“It has been approximately two seasons since we last heard
Stewart Gordon. In his recital last night at the Pan American Union, the
immensely gifted pianist showed that he is steadily continuing to add to, to undergird, to deepen those formidable aspects of his
playing which have already made him a powerful and wholly admirable artist…Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit was a vast eruption of glorious playing. A
panorama of color achieved through infinite gradations of touch, a mirage of
sound that swept the piano from top to bottom, and, in the great outburst, a
control that amplified Ravel’s terrifying demands. It
was the playing of a keyboard giant. ”
Paul Hume, The
“Stewart Gordon is an artist of unusual intelligence. He tackled the music in his own way, but it remained a way that always tried to get at the core and style of the works involved. ..extraordinarily expressive…with flashing colors…a keen mind at work on the music.” Raymond Ericson, The New York Times
“Stewart Gordon handled his difficult program with skill and
surety. Mr. Gordon possess a clean technique as well as a lovely singing
tone…the performance was expert, spun out with delicacy, color, and
considerable brilliance.” Igor
“It was at once evident that here is much more than a routine
pianist. His evocation of the soft textures of piano tone particularly
impressed this listener. Fleetness and strength are familiar equipment with
pianist in this day. Not so common are the qualities of fastidious care in the
shaping of tone and accent…there was, however, also brilliance to spare.”
Harvey Southgate,
“Stewart Gordon is a rare colorist at the keyboard. The
lyric line is always pronounced, his playing is emotionally warm, and his
technique is prodigious yet controlled.”
“Stewart Gordon, one of the least publicized American
pianists, proved he is one of the best. In the matter of virtuosity he left
little to be desired. H also upheld sound musicianship and fine artistry.”
Conrad B. Harrison, Desert News and Telegram (
“Stewart Gordon gave one of the most musically intelligent
and sensitive performances we have heard. His intriguing programming was
matched throughout by his virtuosity in performance and his artistry in
conception.”
“The spirited but sensitive recitalist presented a program
decidedly out of the ordinary. He played nothing that could be termed standard,
and nothing in his approach was less than individual. He revealed admirable
facility and his sense of mood and color was most refreshing. No doubt about
it, this American knows how to play.” Richard S. Davis, The
“Remember this name: Stewart Gordon. Whenever he plays a recital another few hundred music lovers are swept into the Gordon orbit, and critics fire off new salvos of superlatives. His is a legato that is well-night unbelievable. The phrase “making the piano sing” is used entirely too often to be brought into play here; even if it were not, it would be entirely inadequate to describe the vocal magic Gordon imparts in a basically percussive instrument…one of America’s finest pianists.” Dean Wallace, San Francisco Chronicle
“Stewart Gordon has been extravagantly praised in some quarters, and his first recording suggests that much of it is deserved. None of the admirers I know of, however, has mentioned the artist he most calls to mind, Guiomar Novaes. He shares with her a concern for the luminous, clinging tone that makes possible a true legato on the piano, plus the desire to “orchestrate” the different voices of the music.” R.E., High Fidelity Magazine
“It is sometimes difficult to make the simple truth
plausible. I face the problem at the moment. I have just heard a recital by a
pianist whose name, if not entirely unknown in the world of music, is so
obscure that I, who by nature remember names of and remarks about hundreds of
musicians I have never encountered, was quite unfamiliar with. Nevertheless,
Stewart Gordon, if I can judge on the basis of one recital – and it was a
recital of braod musical and technical scope – is one
of the outstanding pianists of the present time, and artist comparable in
stature to Gieseking, Schnabel, Lily Kraus, and Leon
Fleischer…His command of piano dynamics is sensational. A phrase under his
fingers speaks like a voice; if it is imitate from one register to another, it
converses like several voices. The clarity of his playing is unsurpassed – a
smooth and powerful bass line does not interfere with anything going on above it…Another
remarkable facet of Mr. Gordon’s genius at the keyboard is his ability to make
the piano sing. Sustained melodies on the piano are, by the very nature of the
instrument, a series of decrescendos. A few pianists, a very few, have
discovered the knack of deceiving the ear by skillfully handling the
accompanying figures, so that the melody seems to fluctuate in intensity, even
though the notes are long and slow…These remarks on the various phases of Mr.
Gordon’s playing cannot evoke his most striking achievement—the power to infuse
a whole movement or a whole sonata with a true inner meaning, and with a
purpose. Only one who hears Mr. Gordon can really be aware of this masterful
sense of form.”