Press

"A recording combining strength, precision, character, but also delicacy in a myriad of atmospheres unfolding from one piece to another. We are seduced by the ardor of von Oeyen, and by this offering full of invigorating and redemptive energy."

"The album includes no shortage of breathtaking dazzle, but von Oeyen's playing is as compelling during the slower passages too. When the seventy-five-minute recording's over, you might well find yourself concurring with the comment made by the album's producer, Michael Fine: 'The results speak for themselves and for me establish Andrew in the top rank of pianists.'"

"This is Andrew Von Oeyen's third album for Warner Classics, following two well-received albums of Piano Concertos by Saint-Saëns, Ravel and Gershwin, and Debussy's Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra (which Tim Ashley described as 'an impressive achievement'), both of which were collaborations with the Prague Philharmonia and conductor Emmanuel Villaume. This album juxtaposes music by JS Bach (French Overture in B minor, BWV831) and Beethoven (Piano Sonatas Nos 13, Quasi una fantasia and 23, Appassionata)."

"The fervent energy of Oeyen's coda might convince even Sviatoslav Richter acolytes of a worthy rival's arrival."

"Pianist Andrew Von Oeyen's year was a challenging but productive one, resulting in a shift in his musical priorities, and it brings us a quite remarkable album of music by Bach and Beethoven. . . beautifully balanced, and beautifully played."

"This is a remarkable collection featuring a superb artist at the peak of his powers and only in need of the kind of music making for which we all long: a live performance in front of a live audience: a consummation devoutly to be wished."

Piano soloist Andrew von Oeyen joined [the Atlanta Symphony] to perform Liszt’s Piano Concerto no. 1 in E flat major...it was incredible! [Von Oeyen's] power and musicality are undeniable. He and the conductor were fully together in their conception of this music and they made frequent eye-contact throughout the performance as if to ensure a shared vision. The musicians seemed maximally inspired in their playing...In response to numerous curtain calls, von Oeyen treated the audience to a sublime performance of Liszt’s Liebestraum, nuanced with some well-placed rubatos...Overall, this was a very fine concert...That, in addition to a powerful piano soloist who impressed with his musicianship, made this a stand-out performance."

Atlanta audiences last heard von Oeyen just over a year ago in an impressive solo recital at Spivey Hall which included a body of French music and another big work by Liszt: the mighty Sonata in B minor. It was an impressive performance that was insightful and colorful. Von Oeyen brought the same impressive power and musicianship to Thursday’s performance of the Piano Concerto No. 1 [with the Atlanta Symphony]. He and Villaume were a good match, seemingly symbiotic in inspiration and lively execution, with the orchestra musicians fully in league with them. The performance had am energy and momentum that never stalled or stagnated. Afterward, von Oeyen returned to the stage with more Liszt as an exquisite encore: the highly popular Liebestraum.

Von Oeyen’s style, weighty yet elegant, suits it wonderfully well, though. There’s reflection as well as bravado in the opening movement, while the central Lento really is molto espressivo, becoming darker and increasingly introspective as it progresses...Von Oeyen’s treatment of the finale, meanwhile, dispatched with breezy wit over pizzicato basses sounding positively jazzy, makes you question Debussy’s judgement about its inferiority to the rest of the score.

The rarest of the three pieces is the Fantaisie for piano and orchestra of Debussy, the composer's only work for piano and orchestra. It's from early in Debussy's career, in the classical three-movement form, and the trick, expertly executed by pianist Andrew von Oeyen, is to catch the incipient mature Debussy bubbling under the surface. Sample the first movement, where all the student moves to a new theme are in place, but the music then stalls as Debussy begins to realize the possibilities of stasis. 

The highlight of the beautiful dramaturgy was Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, performed by pianist Andrew von Oeyen of German-Dutch origin. A handsome and elegant musician, he works regularly with the PKF-Prague Philharmonia. Last year they released a CD with French authors. Oeyen completely conquered the audience already in the first movement - after her first thunderous applause (true, the sentence ends so triumphantly that no wonder). Oeyen plays vigorously, but with great grace, she has a velvety light-crafted stroke and clear sober pedalization. It is a contagious appetite, it increases the pace, it plays with syncope, the technical elements are not a topic for it. Technically, he has no limitations and focuses on expression. Also, the orchestra enjoyed great jazz solos (trumpet, oboe, flute, pretty clarinets). The conductor Newman led him with a certain and legible gesture and, as well as the soloist Andrew von Oeyen, he was delighted with the success of the Prague audience.

One could not have asked for a better current-day pianist than von Oeyen to serve as musical guide.

Pianist Andrew von Oeyen, in a tux coat but tie-less, nimbly manipulated the keyboard of the orchestra’s new 9-foot Steinway for a thrilling and fulfilling performance of Frederic Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2, one of the repertoire’s great finger-busters….The resultant ovation brought von Oeyen back on stage for three curtain calls but no encore.

The surprise was the performance of Rachmaninoff’s ever-popular third piano concerto by the pianist Andrew von Oeyen. For once, a pianist played the music and not the flash in a revealing performance.

…Grams ceded the spotlight to pianist Von Oeyen, who brought a sure technique and easy grasp of the romantic sensibilities of this showpiece; together, they leaned toward energetic accents assertive phrasing, emphasizing the folk-inspired elements of the work. For his part, pianist Von Oeyen created a nicely thunderous aura in the first movement cadenza (using Percy Grainger’s slightly dressed-up version of that segment); the high point of the entire concert arrived in the lyrical Adagio, with fine collaboration between Von Oeyen and assistant principal horn Alexander Kienle in that gorgeously nostalgic duet passage. [Dallas Symphony]

But, most likely, it was because of the performance of pianist Andrew Von Oeyen, which managed to be both eloquent and exciting at the same time. Von Oeyen bought his own distinctive stamp to the concerto. His is a completely unique approach that brought out Grieg’s gift for melody and sense of drama. His technique is marvelous, and it is hard to imagine a cleaner performance. [Dallas Symphony]

With Andrew von Oeyen at the piano, we are offered three great works by three French composers…Again, we are under the charm that is largely due to the talent of the orchestra and the pianist. It’s wonderful. Great, even.

von Oeyen is the sensitive and sparkling soloist in Debussy’s early and uncharacteristic Fantaisie, for piano and orchestra.

As for Debussy’s Fantaisie, an atypical concerto that his author had done everything to forget, even forbidding any performance during his lifetime, Andrew von Oeyen provides flexibility, energy, contrast.

Andrew von Oeyen, a highly accomplished young pianist, performed the piano solo in Rhapsody in Blue with the gusto and verve it deserves. Perhaps Gershwin’s most abstract composition, the concerto distills a kaleidoscope of sounds, whose origins were clearly distinguished in the previous pieces on the program, into a sinuous whole. Opening with the signature glissando clarinet, clean precise piano sounds were offset by the smooth orchestral tones of the San Francisco Symphony.

It was a superlative concert, immediately jumping to my favorite performances of the year, and earned the spontaneous standing ovation and shouts of “bravo” delivered by the audience…Risking the danger of hyperbole, let me state that pianist von Oeyen delivered one of the best performances of Rachmaninoff’s third concerto in memory — and I have heard a lot of them…

Together, conductor and pianist created the inexorable tidal pull of the final movement, landing on the cathartic final phrase with that combination of surprise and inevitability—in this performance, tinged with elegance—that this concerto evokes when all elements are in place.

…a multihued account of Rachmaninoff’s ‘Rhapsody’…von Oeyen dashed off the knotty passages in the “Rhapsody” with elegance, crisply evoking Paganini’s legendary left-hand pizzicato in Variation 19. He also showed touching moderation in the score’s famously swooning tune in Variation 18. Nothing schmaltzy — just the music, please.

…a multihued account of Rachmaninoff’s ‘Rhapsody’…von Oeyen dashed off the knotty passages in the “Rhapsody” with elegance, crisply evoking Paganini’s legendary left-hand pizzicato in Variation 19. He also showed touching moderation in the score’s famously swooning tune in Variation 18. Nothing schmaltzy — just the music, please.

With an abundance of technique, [von Oeyen] gave a wonderful performance of this sometimes underrated concerto….The second movement was an extended nocturne with von Oeyen at one with Chopin’s lovely melodies, each section seeming more romantic than the preceding one.The concerto’s finale was a thicket of technical bravura, complete with runs of double thirds, always a pianist’s nemesis, yet he performed them with such apparent ease they seemed mere child’s play. His enthusiastic audience was rewarded with an encore of von Oeyen’s transcription of the Meditation from Massenet’s opera “Thais,” which was played with simplicity and inherent beauty.

Pianist Andrew von Oeyen took the ensemble to greater heights with Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21. Tali and the orchestra were fitting partners as von Oeyen took the music wherever he saw fit with effortless panache. The music was at one point warm and enveloping and another bright and crystalline. It was magical.

Von Oeyen’s Saint-Saëns Concerto No.2 was colorful and a series of incredibly fast passages were played with splendid perfection and fabulous insight. His excellent, intelligent communication with the conductor and the orchestra was also a unique interplay as well as his balancing of piano dynamics with the orchestra. For a while, I had the feeling that I did not hear a solo instrument, but two orchestras that happily complement each other. Andrew von Oeyen combines the qualities of Svjatoslav Richter with a huge range of dynamic range and energetic expansion. The sense of musical poetry and the extraordinary technical equipment of the type of Vladimir Horowitz was demonstrated in a natural, unpretentious expression; he was completely immersed in the Saint-Saëns concerto. On his interpretation, I also appreciate the great rhythmic feeling, precision and the wonderfully mature rubato that was perfectly thought out. The performance of this pianist at Janáček’s May was a pure, unique experience.

It is von Oeyen’s touch that is a continuous joy to listen to...all in all, this is a simply lovely disc

All in all, this is a simply lovely disc; and I would certainly like to hear more from Mr. von Oeyen

Oeyen finds a natural, virtuoso vehicle in the 1868 Concerto No. 2 by Saint-Saens

Andrew von Oeyen is a piano virtuoso, has a brilliant technique that helps him solve natural passages of virtuosity.

When Gershwin inquired of Ravel how much he charged for composition lessons, the Frenchman allegedly asked him how much he earned. The American’s answer prompted Ravel to wonder whether he should take lessons from Gershwin. Von Oeyen’s coupling of Ravel’s G major concerto with Gershwin’s rarish Second Rhapsody is welcome, particularly as it is preceded by a barnstorming account of Saint-Saëns’s No 2 in G minor.

Von Oeyen gave a tasteful, yet restrained, performance alongside the orchestra. In the virtuosic solo passages, von Oeyen allowed the trademarks of Mozart’s style (balance, clarity and delicacy) to shine without adding any overly-dramatic flourishes. The woodwind section owned its important role of driving the musical conversation in the first and second sections of the piece. During the finale, von Oeyen articulated variations with quick-witted lightness — evocative of Mozart’s famed pet starling, the singing of which is sometimes said to have inspired the tune.

Here a very beautiful disc with an enticing program that sheds new light on the given works. Grand pianism and an album that provides a constant and renewing pleasure.

Andrew von Oeyen plays [Saint-Saëns Second Piano Concerto] with virtuoso relish and an equal feeling of proprietary gusto.

Andrew von Oeyen reveals a very strong sensitivity and a perfect understanding of French music.

The American pianist brought puissant energy to the craggy melodic lines and hammering rhythms that dominate the first movement, as well as pellucid clarity to the dizzyingly fast arpeggiated lines connecting the movement’s various sections.

Living as he does between Paris and Los Angeles, pianist Andrew von Oeyen is the ideal interpreter for this enticing programme: flanking Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2 and Gershwin’s Second Rhapsody, it explores Franco-American cross-currents. 

This Friday pianist Andrew von Oeyen will make his debut on the Warner Classics label with a Franco-American concerto album.

indisputable gifts [and] an extravagantly thorough and effortless technique…von Oeyen seems incapable of misarticulating a musical sentence.

All this Andrew von Oeyen and Fabio Bidini brought off with winning eclat as they tossed the perky tunes back and forth, galloping up and down their keyboards with pointed articulation and firm rhythm.

Soloists Andrew von Oeyen and Fabio Bidini put across the breezy boulevardier esprit with great virtuosity and panache.

His ability to build a towering climax, filling the space with tremendous sound, especially in the cadenzas, held the audience rapt.

The soloist in Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto was the outstanding young American pianist, Andrew von Oeyen, who dazzled the Saturday night audience with his strength and accuracy…[the piece] found in Von Oeyen a large-handed soloist with the incredible stamina to play the 40-minute piece which gives the pianist almost no rest at all. Von Oeyen is a force to be reckoned with – his power dominated the orchestra at all times – but the dominance was tasteful and technically impeccable – no wrong notes that I heard… The audience gave the soloist a well-deserved standing ovation.

His melodic differentiation ranging from pianissimo to mezzopiano was breathtaking.

Brilliant technique can be taken for granted among today’s concert pianists, but von Oeyen`s playing goes a step further. He leaves you convinced that he can do absolutely anything he likes with a keyboard.

Before you read another line, go to the phone or Internet and grab a ticket for one of von Oeyen’s remaining performances. Friday morning, he delivered one of the most commanding accounts of Rach 2 that I can recall hearing live — majestic and singing, lucid and dramatic, and technically effortless.

Von Oeyen’s lithe articulation and sweet but unapologetic sonority brought out the unabashed rhapsodic character of the first movement

von Oeyen visually illustrated an authoritative quality sought by many a keyboardist.

Then came the Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto, with soloist Andrew von Oeyen. It has never been played better. The lyrical passages contained beauties not heard on a recording, and the brilliant finale, which has both a glorious melody and virtuoso coruscations, such as prestissimo double glissandos, had to be seen to be believed. In spite of a standing ovation and multiple curtain calls, the young pianist did not play an encore. Bravo!

Delos is lucky to have signed him…this is a very impressive disc

In Von Oeyen’s hands, though, the piano suite glittered and amused and challenged the listener.

von Oeyen’s sense of ensemble coupled with his forceful playing propelled the group, which needed no encouragement to play with passion and fire. It was one of the most magical performances.

Chang and von Oeyen were a musical union through hushed moments, sweet canons, or sparkling climaxes

The American pianist Andrew von Oeyen shows in this piece of agility at the same time as a colorful piano, especially at the treble, well captured by microphones that give it priority without veiling the accompaniment.

…totally delicious, was the presentation of then-22-year-old Felix Mendelssohn’s charming and somewhat cheeky “Piano Concerto No. 1 in G Minor” by a similarly young pianist, Andrew von Oeyen. There are a lot of notes in this piece, none of them missed or even smudged by von Oeyen as he calmly executed the flamboyant piano part.

With emphatic, expert support from Villaume and Co., von Oeyen nailed this one down tight. He dealt brilliantly with Bartok’s knuckle-busting fingerwork, imposssibly fast octaves, and precarious hand…the crowd screamed and shouted until von Oeyen gave us an encore: an exquisitely nuanced rendition of Debussy’s ever popular Claire de Lune.

Although he entranced the audience with the power of his individual performance, he also showed that he possessed something even more important: a thorough knowledge of the composer’s obvious desire to make the bravura playing of the soloist an integral part of the concerto. Both the soloist and the orchestra understood this, offering a performance that held the audience’s attention as thoroughly as any dramatic music could.

von Oeyen stunned everyone with an emotional power not soon forgotten

Von Oeyen has a flair for this lesser Rachmaninoff opus (Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Grant Park Orchestra). Without wallowing in the concerto’s romantic schmaltz, he mustered a winning combination of powerful fingers, rhapsodic freedom and emotional involvement that marked him as a pianist to watch.

Rising star in own class

As for star quality, von Oeyen is already risen.

What an ikioi there was in Andrew von Oeyen’s piano playing! This masterful playing was highlighted to perfection…Keep an eye out for recordings by this up-and-coming young pianist – they are sure to be of something very special.

Andrew von Oeyen, a virtuoso pianist full of brilliant energy and style, performed George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with great verve and brilliance. The audience was truly moved by the performance, and gave von Oeyen a well-earned standing ovation.

he has a substantial repertoire that he performs with great success around the world.

Von Oeyen’s tone was likewise lustrous, his playing forceful yet meaningful

von Oeyen quickly revealed a highly concentrated and focused approach, thoughtfully choosing lines to project above the thick, rich and dark orchestral accompaniment.

von Oeyen, Llewellyn, and the orchestra turned in a vivid, white-hot performance of the Ravel Piano Concerto in G Majot with razor-sharp attacks and a whirlwind impetus in the fast movements. Time seemed suspended in the gorgeous low movement… the trumpet solo was just one highlight of remarkable ensemble that held together in the mad dash of the finale.

Von Oeyen is already a top flight musician of major talent with rare insight.

Von Oeyen consistently has wowed with technical maturity and feeling far beyond his 25 years. The Rach Three, which pianists can spend their lives mastering, was no different.

Von Oeyen’s solid technique and probing musicianship were evident from the beginning of the work.

This was Chopin playing that was as good as you can get.

What matters about his playing is its musicality. Von Oeyen has a touch that lets a melody sing out from a cloudburst of accompanying notes. Most important of all, in this wildly varied program one heard each composer speak in his own voice.

He gave the impression that, technique-wise, he had easily put this concerto in the conquered category, and still had more to spare. He was by turns elegant, agitated and caressing

He plays with a pure and clean approach, remaining true to the music…his song-like and well-balanced approach to Chopin’s Fourth Ballade will remain in the memory…his artistry and technique shows off the beauty of Liszt without resorting to sentimentality.

…a most sensitive and intelligent pianist and musical insights beyond ones wildest imaginings. It doesn’t get any better than this.

Andrew von Oeyen proved a fierce, brilliant exponent of the Bartok Piano Concerto No. 2. He played with a gigantic tone, tossing off the composer’s clusters and counterpoint as though they were child’s play — at times, one could have sworn the piano was amplified — but then proved himself capable of rapt tenderness with an encore of Debussy’s “Clair de Lune."

Von Oeyen’s reputation as a performer of the first caliber is well deserved. Closing the first half with Schumann’s Concerto in A minor, he caressed the keys, coaxing the instrument into giving up melodies as if coaxing out a secret, then rattled them teasingly to stir the blood.

Andrew von Oeyen is an American treasure whom we should all recognize, and of whom we should all be proud.

Von Oeyen’s performance was further distinguished by an intelligent approach that found an ideal match between the concerto’s classical and romantic influences.

Von Oeyen’s playing combined a light, fluid touch with an almost dry tone that gave the music a conversational tone, so that the interplay with the now-subdued orchestra became a true conversation.

Now 24, a tall, smiling young man, he plays with a blend of crystalline fire and heartfelt poetry that was ideal for the changeable moods of Rachmaninoff’s youthful concerto

a synergy of listening and playing

von Oeyen’s playing always sounded organic in the way it was woven into and out of the orchestral texture.

Before intermission, young American pianist Andrew von Oeyen gave a wonderfully clear-eyed reading of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. He employed a muscular technique and sculpted sound that welcomed the music’s romanticism without preening.

Andrew von Oeyen, superstar in the making, then appeared for Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto. The impression he gave was of overwhelming, concentrated energy at the keyboard. Sinuous, smooth legato lines alternately sparkled and sang. Filigree patterns of notes took flight. The refurbished Steinway he played on never sounded so good.

Von Oeyen has the technique — trills that sparkle, scales that rise and fall, swelling and ebbing as organically as if they were coming form a wind instrument…he also has the ideas, remaining firmly in charge of his performance as he gently coaxed melodic lines out of the Steinway. While von Oeyen delivered on the flashier moments of his first -movement cadenza, they were leavened with grace and beauty.

Andrew von Oeyen was a ball of fire in Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Teeming with exuberance and armed with fluid, muscular technique, the lanky 26-year-old American tore through the concerto with mercurial insight.

von Oeyen quickly revealed a highly concentrated and focused approach

The Hayes Piano Series concluded triumphantly Saturday afternoon with a smart, varied and altogether engrossing recital by Andrew von Oeyen…In fact, I would go so far as to say that von Oeyen played the finest all-around performance of Franz Liszt’s Sonata in B Minor that I have heard in many years.

Andrew von Oeyen has a technique remarkable in its fluidity, a precise and balanced way of playing, but most of all a disarming elegance and charisma that allows him to communicate with the greatest of ease.

Soloist Andrew von Oeyen made a blazing debut with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, brushing aside the considerable technical challenges of Liszt’s Concerto No. 1. …He dispatched thundering double octaves and singing lines with ease

On Saturday, von Oeyen touched the soul of the collective audience with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466…he showed off his brilliant technical accomplishments in a variety of moods, from the simple, plaintive opening theme to the turbulent finale. The stunning chromatic passages flowed like a purling stream, and the soloist played the lovely melodic Romanze movement, so familiar to many serious piano students, with affectionate elegance.

The pianist Andrew von Oeyen is an exceptional musician…He got ardently involved in the culminations, he lived the pianissimo moments with sensitivity. His touch, the pedal technique, the rhythmical precision, the way in which he “dressed” the sound – everything was placed in the service of the sense of music.

At 28, von Oeyen has achieved superstar status as an international concert pianist. His approach to the “Emperor” is elegant without being effete, powerful without being overdone, rhapsodic – a hauntingly beautiful second movement – without any hint of schmaltz. Here is Beethoven’s marvel of a concerto (aren’t they all) with every note in place, every emotion explored, marinated (if you will) with the love for freedom which is at the soul of everything Beethoven wrote. The performance is sheer exhilaration.

Andrew von Oeyen played with surpassing clarity and a light touch that illuminated the familiar work [Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto]. From the opening cadenzas of the first movement through the spirited third movement, a true musical conversation evolved among soloist, conductor and orchestra.