“Şahan Arzruni is, from the standpoint of the living composer, one of our world’s most important pianists. His mastery of the keyboard includes a tone quality at once oceanic and limpid, a finger technique both crystalline and goldenly precise, and a comprehension both solemn and witty.”
“I have never attended a performance of Şahan Arzruni’s without sensing an electrical current through his playing. Şahan is never satisfied until he has completely ingested the kernel of each piece. “Do you hear an oboe here?” he might ask. “Or, rather, perhaps a flute?” Orchestral colors often arise from the keyboard in an Arzruni performance. Whether the mood is playful, sassy or tender, he brings a new sense of importance to what he plays—each piece becomes uniquely itself under his hands.”
“It is a great thing for a composer to have an interpreter of his music who is not only a superb pianist, but one who is able, by virtue of his superior artistry and musicianship, to comprehend totally the innermost meaning of whatever work he performs. Such a one is Şahan Arzruni
who conveys to the listener the technical and musical content of the music he plays in a
most satisfying manner.”
“Şahan Arzruni burst everywhere with grand enthusiasms...An ardent exponent of his people’s music, he displayed a flashy finger work, showed a talent for making the piano sound warm and colorful, and a real feel for the curves and inflections of his subject matter.”
“Şahan Arzruni showed himself as both a scintillating technician and a musician of fine, poetic insight.”
“There are pianists who sit at the piano, pondering, hoping for the muses to inspire them.
Not Şahan Arzruni. The moment he enters the stage, this daring pianist gets into the essence
of the music, grabs you and leads you across into the impenetrable realm of artistic meaning.
And suddenly, you depart the outside world and allow yourself to be swept away.”
The New York Times
Ned Rorem
Louise Talma
Berlingske Tidende, Denmark
William Mayer
Cumhuriyet, Turkey
