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Performs Chopin Piano Concerto No.2 with Het Residentie Orkest
“The Polish pianist Ewa Kupiec drew from the piano a beautiful pearly sound and painted clear lines…. the Larghetto was performed with a clear touch and fluent tempo of a great beauty.”
AD Haagsche Courant, April 08
Performs Chopin Piano Concerto No.2 with Bruckner Orchester Linz
“The polish pianist Ewa Kupiec inspired all with her technical brilliance and extremely wonderful sound.”
Ö Nachrichten, 07 March 2008
Performs Lizst Piano Concerto No.2 with Iceland Symphony Orchestra
"… the piece was outstandingly well performed by the orchestra, and no less by the young but thoroughly musical Ewa Kupiec, whose playing combined immense power with crystalline clarity. The enthusiastic response called for an encore, Schumann´s Traumerei, and turned it into a schoolbook example of how to make even the simplest of pieces sound interesting and fresh."
Morgunblaðið (Reykjavík), 1 March 2008
Performs Chopin Piano Concerto No.2 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
“The heart of this romantic programme was undoubtedly Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 performed by the brilliant Polish pianist Ewa Kupiec, a leading interpreter of the music of Chopin.”
Press and Journal, Aberdeen, February 2008
Performs a recital in Neubeuern
"...Her playing was characterized by clearness and perfection and also in the tender passages by sensitivity and density of sound...
The audience was somewhat hypnotized by the swirling, expressive sound cascades and furious rapidity of the third [Chopin] Mazurka. Kupiec played the dazzling colour effects and enthusiastically swelling augmentations, anticipating impressionism as if in a trance, totally immersing herself in Chopin's sound cosmos..."
Oberbayerisches Volksblatt, December 2007
Performs with Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
"As an encore she played the Nocturne in C-sharp minor, producing beautiful pianissimos and shifting tempos with subtle grace"
Matthew Westwood, The Australian, Nov 2007
Performs in Garmisch, Strauss-Festival with WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln / Bychkov
"Young polish pianist Ewa Kupiec was in line with the work. Effortlessly, she demonstrated her brilliant playing technique, letting herself embed into the orchestra, before stepping out soloistically again and taking on a musical dialogue with the solo timpanist."
Münchner Merkur, June 2007
Performs Chopin Piano Concerto No.2 in Wiesbaden, Rheingau Musik Festival with Camerata Salzburg
"...Again the diversity of articulation impressed: petite and sensitively modelled larghetto phrases stood next to a distinct and resolute grasp in the introductory measures of the maestoso and the finale..."
Wiesbadener Tagblatt , August 2007
Janacek: Works for Solo Piano (Hanssler Classic label) (Naxos)
"Polish pianist Ewa Kupiec is so tuned in to the connections Janacek made between the melody of words and the human soul in her new Janacek album, that it is as if she had eavesdropped on his expeditions into the spoken expression of the human heart. Kupiec reveals the great dramas in the miniatures of the piano cycles 'Im Nebel' and 'Auf verwachsenem Pfaden' as if she is telling a story. She sounds the depths of the compressed arches of tension, the outcries and the keywords emerging from the flow of sound, with expressive perception and carefully shaped attack. ...
Ewa Kupiec is true to Janacek's heartfelt cry that is the Piano Sonata 1.X.1905 with the relentlessness of her sharply formed, tonally rich playing. ...
Ewa Kupiec, already famed for her interpretation of her Polish compatriots, such as Paderewski, Bacewitz and Lutoslawski, adopts the same subtle shading for Janacek's folk songs and variations."
Ellen Kohlhaas, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 2007
Clara Schumann's Concerto in A minor
"Ewa Kupiec, whose playing has remarkable warm and natural charisma, was made for Bayer-Kultur's homage to Schumann. (…) Kupiec plays with a clarity without frills, and is reminiscent of piano legends such as Monique Haas, who was an excellent interpreter of Schumann's music. With "Träumerei" as an encore, Kupiec enticed us with a depth rarely experienced."
Jan Sting, Kölner Stadtanzeiger , March 2007
Bacewicz: Works for Piano and Violin with Piotr Plawner (Hänssler Classic Label)
"(Piotr Plawner)... is fortunate in his skilled fellow-performer, the sparklingly intelligent, constantly alert Ewa Kupiec. This well-matched pair respond to each other with flair and evident enthusiasm for the music."
Roderick Dunnett, The Strad, January 2007
Recital in Stuttgart / Janacek's piano cycle "On Overgrown Paths "
"Ewa Kupiec's hands created concise musical eloquence…..Kupiec's interpretation is like a phenomenon of nature"
Stuttgarter Nachrichten, February 2007
"Ewa Kupiec brought these atmospheric miniatures to life with touching intensity. She avoided all sentimentality and held to a sharp, expressive tone with which the music surrendered itself to reality….Kupiec's interpretation impressed through its passionate succinctness"
Esslinger Zeitung, February 2007
Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra
"Outside the usual context of a piano recital, the immensity of the piece stood out, especially in the first movement: so much blatant melancholy and isolation, played with deceptive simplicity, instead of the usual heroic introduction. Kupiec's playing, intense and deliberate, made this movement seem almost subversive … Kupiec achieved a similar effect with Chopin's second piano concerto. She played the larghetto, with its practically indiscrete beauty, not affectingly and introverted, but as a yearning, dynamic monologue, which only faded into melancholy near the end"
Stuttgarter Zeitung, October 2006
Rheingau Festival / Liszt Petrarch Sonette
"Kupiec played with a covered espressivo, less perhaps in the colour than in the singing shapes of the melodies. This was not an interpretation built on high pressured virtuosity, but a delicate approach, which stood by the feelings of young Liszt"
Frankfurter Neue Press, August 2006
Moritzburg Festival/ Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet
"Ewa Kupiec commendably played the entire work with great enthusiasm and keen contrasts. The deathly grief of the lovers' farewell so impressed the audience that they were silent for many seconds - a far greater honour than when they break out into the usual applause."
Gerard Schroth, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, August 2006
St Louis Symphony Orchestra / Stanislaw Skrowaczewski / Liszt Piano Concerto No.2
"The soloist for the Liszt was another Pole, Ewa Kupiec. Kupiec brought physical strength and passion to her playing ... [the] lyrical passages were superb, and she won the vocal approval of the audience for the concerto..."
St Louis Post Dispatch, March 2006
International Piano Series recital / Chopin, Liszt, Debussy & Stravinsky
""...[In Debussy's Children's Corner] Kupiec's powerfully vivid musical imagination could at last take flight. If played whimsically, these pieces can seem slight, but Kupiec, approaching them with the earnest solemnity of childhood, caught them spot on, giving Jimbo's Lullaby a solemn, angular lilt and making Golliwog's Cakewalk into a loping knees-up. Her Paderewski encore, which went with a Polish swing, found her similarly relaxed..."
The Guardian, February 2006
Recital / Janacek, Chopin & Myers
“Kupiec painted the intimate portraits of Book One with the emotional precision of a world-class actor. Each life vignette was imbued with a new colour, sweeping us into compelling fictions...”
Sun Herald, May 2005
“Kupiec brought a persuasive intensity to this series, following each startling melodic trajectory with clear dedication.”
Capital City Daily, May 2005
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra / Chopin Piano Concerto No.1
“Kupiec brought a persuasive intensity to this series, following each starling melodic trajectory with clear dedication. ... digital agility, tonal variety and staying power that mark her as a pianist of the first rank.
... The pianist showed a calm mastery of the challenges that confront the performer… the young musician showed a fine frasp of this seminal piano composer’s art, summoning up a set of deft nationalistic images…”
The Age, 5 May 2005
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Chopin Piano Concerto No.1
“Kupiec gave all three movements of the work…completely fitting expression; gripping, wildly demanding with outstanding virtuosity, as well as dreamy, ethereal, dance-like elements festooned around the themes. Even her whispered pianissimo passages had expressive power.”
Badisches Tagblatt, 8 November 2004
“It was not just played as a show piece, but with natural flow, each entry crafted to the very finger tips. In the hands of the Polish pianist the paring of power and elegance was ideal. Even the energetic chords never sounded sharp or jarring. Everything was gently rounded, without being too soft or falsified by too much pedal. Perhaps even more magical than the dramatic passages, were the lyrical parts, played with the finest of pianissimo accompanied by a totally awake orchestra. A great event.”
Rheinische Post, 9 November 2004
Berlin Symphony Orchestra / Symanowski Symphony No.4
“She played excellently… with temperament, heartfulness and glitter, so that in the work in which the soloist is always pushed to one side, she still reigned.”
Berliner Morgenpost, 3 November 2004
Frankfurt Radio Symphony at Rheingau Festival / Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1.
“Kupiec plays with a rare mixture of spirit, a faultless technique, a complete understanding of musical texture and an ability to shape music with transparency and an impressive richness of colours. Her playing is brilliant but never obtrusive, full of atmosphere and subtly virtuosic. Kupiec and Hugh Wolff collaborated together to produce some truly magical moments.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 29 August 2004
Saarbrucken Radio Symphony / Chopin Piano Concertos (Oehms Classics OC326)
"The soloist enters gracefully rather than fiercely… Kupiec produces a lovely singing tone, the kind the makes one want to hear her in the Nocturnes, and touches the heart with her limpid phrasing."
Gramophone , July 2004
Ulster Orchestra / Chopin Piano Concerto No.1
“Kupiec proved up to the task. Immensely lyrical, and with an enchanting palate of tone colour, the Polish pianist was able to evoke the beauty of Chopin’s intimate style. Indeed, the music was often at its best (and this applies to the encore as well) when the orchestra wasn’t present and the piano part was given more of the usual rubato freedom.”
Belfast Telegraph , February 2004
St Louis Symphony / Chopin Piano Concerto No.2
“Kupiec, a dark haired beauty, brought the right mix of power and flowing delicacy to the evening’s second work, Chopin’s Concerto No.2 in F minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op.21. She is grateful and attractive in her playing, without ever giving the impression that she is trading on her attractiveness, as well as somewhat emotive in her style. She offered some particularly exquisite passages in the concerto’s second movement.”
St Louis Post , January 2004
Moritzburg Festival / Chopin and Dvorak
“…For a spirited pianist who enjoys playing as much as Ewa Kupiec … the task of performing soon becomes one that is undertaken enjoyably and passionately, and was one that she completed brilliantly and without mistake or blemish … This Dvorak could not be rendered more beautiful…”
Dresdener Neueste Nachrichten , August 2003
Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival
“…if I had to single out one player who blew me away piece after piece throughout the week, it was Kupiec. Here is a monster player, capable of expressive power, emotion, musicality and limitless technical precision. There is simply no work beyond her powers, and every composer whose work she plays is in her debt…”
Tucson Citizen , March 2003
Leipzig Gewandhausorchester /Ingo Metzmacher / Stravinsky Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
“Ewa Kupiec proved that she can not only play wonderful Chopin, but that she can also successfully take on the difficult peaks of the 20th century repertoire.”
Leipziger Volkszeitung , March 2003
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra /Marin Alsop / Chopin Concertos 1 and 2
“Ewa Kupiec, frequent and celebrated guest of the festival, was an excellent portrayer of Chopin’s piano concerti, demonstrating her usual stupendous technique... In both works, the delicacy and transparency of her playing, the light, rippling yet also marked attack, the virtuosity in the arpeggios and the complicated runs were captivating. Particularly impressive were the cantabile and lyrical slow movements, which contrasted completely with the first movement’s pompous and celebratory manner, and the finale’s dancing, swinging vigour.”
Rheiner Aktuelle Nachrichten , September 2002
“…gentle, enchanting and intimate…”
Frankfurter Rundschau, September 2002
Saarländischer Rundfunk / Stanislaw Skrowaczewski / Chopin Piano Concerto No.2
“Ewa Kupiec had every rich, flexible, singingly-soft, light attack which, according to Berlioz, Chopin himself possessed. An inner, glowing passion, which never appeared as triumphing virtuosity, and a dreamy, beautiful sound characterised piano playing whose technical brilliance the pianist never used for self-publicity.”
Saarbrücker Zeitung , November 2002
Bacewicz: Works for Piano (Hännsler Classic Label)
“Ewa Kupiec … plays with complete technical assurance and perfect sympathy for the music. She has a big, bold, powerful sound, vividly captured…“
American Record Guide , May 2002
“Ewa Kupiec’s fabulous variety of tone and rhythmic suppleness make her an ideal guide through these musical cascades, but, apart from the Sonata, it is the simplicity of the Children’s Suite that conveys the most meaning… The music could not be better played or recorded than it is here.”
Pianist Magazine , May 2002
“Ewa Kupiec’s well recorded performances are marked by both insight and sympathetic virtuosity.”
BBC Music Magazine , April 2002
Orchestre National de Montpellier / Friedemann Layer / Ravel First Concerto
“Ewa Kupiec is divine in the Ravel Piano Concerto, and her "aura" and physical grace convey themselves even in the silences, not to mention her sensitive, precise touch. Each note is illuminated by an idea. As clear cut in irony as in quotation ... she astonished us by putting even more soul than muscle into the virtuosity.”
Midi Libre , November 2002
“Ewa Kupiec, the soloist in the Ravel Concerto, never for one moment looking for easy effects played her part with sensitivity, elegance and great purity of tone.”
La Gazette , November 2002
Staatsphilharmonie Rheinlandpfalz at the Salzburg Festival / Bartok Piano Concerto No.1
“She played with crystal-clear, razor-sharp precision, lending inner weight to the more peaceful passages, while summoning up sufficient energy for the breathlessly fast sequences which bring each of the three movements to a close.”
Salzburger Nachrichten , October 2000
In recital
“……[Kupiec] performed this unusual programme with great technical ability…She awoke the audience’s aural interest in the ten Janacek pieces, performing the repertoire with a very delicate and sonorous touch…One cannot criticise her technique or the clarity of performance, which was entirely secure.”
La Nacion , September 2003
“…there are few who can play Chopin as wonderfully as she can … the sensational part was her interpretation … with an exceptionally varied approach to each Prelude.”
Saale Zeitung , December 2003
“Here is a monster player, capable of expressive power, emotion, musicality and limitless technical precision. There is simply no work beyond her powers, and every composer whose work she plays is in her debt.”
Tucson Citizen , March 2003
“Ewa Kupiec put her programme together with care … Huge chordal storms rolled from the Bechstein piano and she worked the extravagant rhythms of the dances thrillingly…”
Westdeutsche Zeitung , January 2003
“The power, the youthful force and vehemence from Kupiec was more than one expected … Kupiec’s virtuosity in this furious piece [Stravinsky Trois Mouvements de Petrushka] was wonderful – the way she used her whole body to pound and trill, the way the softness of her arm movements, fight down to her fingertips, was carried through to the keys; once again the whole creation exploded under her hands.”
Main Post , January 2003
“There are few among her colleagues who can play Chopin as wonderfully as she can ... She steps behind the music, playing unpretentiously, putting in gestures only where they are needed to aid technique. The sensational part was her interpretation. Unusually she played every Prelude personally, and put much emotion into the playing without suggesting any element of distance.”
Saale-Zeitung , December 2002
“…An intelligent artist through and through…”
Westfällische Nachrichtung, January 2002