Reviews (excerpts)
As Conductor
"A Mendelssohnian warm up was provided by the Hebrides Overture. I have heard some performances so polite that Mendelssohn’s Atlantic rollers could have been a wafting breeze in an English country garden. Not so here, as the music drove onwards with necessary turbulence, contrasting with those precious moments of repose.
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The concerto has the soloist launching straight in with a tune which many violinists attack as if they were still in Mendelssohn’s Hebrides. I have witnessed many performances of the concerto from Menuhin onwards but I do believe this one had a beauty of tone that surpassed them all.
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The London Mozart Players were formed well over sixty years ago.... Under Janusz Piotrowicz they supplied a background energy with cleanly pointed textures in an interpretation in which orchestra and soloist were at one.
...These demands became considerable in the Eroica which the conductor launched into with one of the fastest first movements I have ever heard. Yet the players were on their toes from the start, realising a performance of power and punch. The final two movements were also above average in speed. The resulting impact was considerable and made this old warhorse of a symphony sound stingingly fresh."
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Seen and Heard International
"Piotrowicz brought about in Beethoven’s celebrated overture a performance of classical dimensions, which was full of power and excitement.
In the Mendelssohn Concerto Tasmin Little tonight played as I have never heard her play before; by turning her back on all thoughts of the virtuoso she concerned herself entirely with the lyrical aspects of the score. Throughout the work she soared above the orchestra, singing the most eloquent songs and creating a magical, heart-rending atmosphere in the slow movement.
Piotrowicz directed DvoÅ™ák’s most popular symphony with a clear purpose and strong line from beginning to end.... a powerhouse of a performance which was unrelenting in its forward thrust. This was spine-tingling stuff.
Yet again, the Royal Philharmonic was on top form, responsive and alert to everything Piotrowicz demanded of them."
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Seen and Heard International
"‘Rarely will you hear the anger and bitterness of Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony unleashed with such unremitting force and acerbity. It took the Orchestra of Opera North to the edge of their combined virtuosity, strings digging deep into their instruments to match the power of the brass blow for blow, percussion capping the enormous climaxes. The Allegro was taken just about as fast as any orchestra could tackle, but it worked in adding that final tingle factor. It was a powerhouse approach ... though in the moments when the composer looked forward to peace, the woodwind floated beautifully as if suspended on air"
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Yorkshire Post
"Janusz Piotrowicz has something of a reputation for generating high octane performances and this was already evident in the opening work...Come the Violin Concerto he met his match in Alexandra Soumm, but it made for a perfect match, for this was one of the finest performances of the work I have ever heard. It positively sizzled, but not at the expense of the lovely Mendelssohnian lyricisms. The three component parts of orchestra, conductor and soloist were interpretively at one ... many interpretations of the Pastoral take a fairly relaxed view of Beethoven’s rustic world; Piotrowicz’s countryside, however, was a place of colour-heightened vibrancy - this country tour kept moving, there being a sense of constant latent energy that helped breathe new life into an old favourite"
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Seen and Heard International
"Fresh and spontaneous...atmospheric contrasts…were especially ravishing... the Andante Religioso was sublime… celestial surrealism...power and introspection...a profound performance"
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The Guardian
As Pianist
Janusz's 40 years as a pianist took him all over the world, performing up to 300 concerts a year. He toured in Denmark, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, and throughout the UK, receiving the highest tributes from critics for his qualities of poetry and sensitivity
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"intensity, meditation and absorption. This may have been a recital from another age; it may have been from another world such was the rapt stillness that followed each piece."
Inverurie Acorn Centre
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​"magical tonal mastery…..a velvet touch"
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Il Tempo, Rome
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"white hot intensity"
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The West Australian
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"runs and roulades soft as pearls, rather than hard and bright like diamonds"
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Faro de Vigo, Spain
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The Oxford Times wrote after his recital at All Souls College of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier and Liszt’s B minor Sonatas:
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"infinitely musicianly … alive to the constructional virtues, not less than the emotional content, keen understanding of the prophetic writing in this sonata … ability to penetrate into the vast landscape of Beethoven’s creation … infinite depth and breadth of expression … authoritative, magisterial"
Janusz is now taking bookings for piano recitals
Janusz's solo recital repertoire focuses on Chopin
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He is available for private, commercial and fundraising events on terms to fit a variety of budgets, depending on the venue and location
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Recent and forthcoming appearances include various locations in England Scotland and Austria.
"This was the final concert of Ripon’s International Festival. The grand, rhetorical opening of Mozart’s Haffner Symphony suitably filled the vaulted spaces of Ripon’s medieval cathedral and the first thing I noticed was the power of the string sound in relation to the size of the orchestra..... sounded splendid in an especially energetic performance.
The Northern Sinfonia strings can be particularly nimble and they contributed to a very exciting last movement that Piotrowicz took at a cracking pace...culminating in the astonishing, contrapuntally hair-raising last movement of his last symphony, the Jupiter.
In the Flute Concerto, the Festival had engaged a young soloist who is clearly on the threshold of a distinguished career. Adam Walker wisely stood well in front of the orchestra which helped him to project his particularly fluid, lyrical sound. He was supported with style and sensitivity by the Northern Sinfonia.
After the interval, Piotrowicz launched into an uncompromising Eroica. In the past, it was generally accepted that Beethoven’s speed markings were inaccurate, some of them seeming impossibly fast. Piotrowicz was having none of this and successfully drove them onwards. He clearly takes the view, one that is difficult to challenge, that if Beethoven wanted the music to slow, he would mark the score appropriately, which he does when he wants it so.
The subject of Beethoven’s metronome speed markings is notoriously controversial. In spite of current wisdom there are still those who think many of them too fast. In fact I doubt if I have ever heard a performance that meets it. Piotrowicz sounded to me as if he was getting close to the composer’s apparent wishes. Towards the end, I yearn for a final “blow your socks off” climactic few bars. Somehow it never quite happens like that. But this time, for me, it did as the horns truly rode the orchestra, generating a searing excitement.
Much of Beethoven is – or at least should be - a dangerous place. Janusz Piotrowicz must be congratulated on having the courage to drag the players to that place."
Seen and Heard International
"The concert had opened in dramatic mood with Weber’s overture to his opera, Euryanthe, the brass bringing sonorous impact, the work’s ending suitably triumphant. Piotrowicz’s response to the Brahms Fourth Symphony was one of trenchant power, tempos always pushing forward with urgency in the outer movements, his slow movement drawing playing of beauty from the strings, and along the way the principal horn’s solo passages were outstanding."
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Yorkshire Post
"The other major orchestral concert later in the festival gave a chance for the Royal Philharmonic to resume its relationship with Piotrowicz after his conducting of a complete Beethoven symphony cycle in the orchestra’s London home last year. The concert reflected the conductor’s favoured approach to programming that he calls the “twin pillar principle”. That means two hefty works either side of the interval, in this case Dvorak’s “New World” and Brahms’ First Symphony. Both were given refreshing performances that were hard driven in parts where the music positively fizzed. The RPO players responded magnificently to some tempi that were surely faster than they were used to and they really did look as if they were enjoying themselves – in my experience something that is not always the case when major orchestras are churning out such standard symphonic repertoire. As with the Lohengrin Prelude, the famous – and beautifully played - cor anglais solo in the “New World “ slow movement was a revelation, seeming to float into space and come at me from above and all sides at once."
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Seen and Heard International
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of the quietly authoritative and impressive conductor Janusz Piotrowicz, visited the sumptuous Royal Hall, and left their audience completely satisfied and wanting much more. Piotrowicz, one of the world’s most lauded conductors, led the Orchestra through the familiar and crowd-pleasing four pieces; Beethoven’s Overture Fidelio, Schubert’s Symphony no 8 Unfinished, Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No 1: Morning, Death of Ase, Anitra’s Dance, In the Hall of the Mountain King and Dvorak’s Symphony no 9 From The New World. As a relative classical music novice it is nice to hear famous pieces as they should be heard with an audience who are truly appreciative.
The orchestra’s performance this evening was rousing, absorbing and truly enjoyable. The exceptional acoustics of the majestic Royal Hall helped to create this truly enjoyable evening of memorable music that ended far too soon.
The Reviews Hub