Reviews

"César Franck was a composer/organist like Bach: his much-loved Violin Sonata was a wedding present to Ysaÿe, and so a fitting conclusion to this concert. Hanslip’s playing of the opening movement was beautifully phrased, with lovely half-tones; Driver excelled in the turbulent Allegro and the lamenting Recitativo; and so we reached the clear, serene light of the canonic Allegretto, played con amore, Hanslip’s violin sweet-toned, passionate and sweeping as the music required, Driver’s piano expressive (and, at the end, thunderous). I think we all felt that we had been taken on a long, varied and endlessly fascinating journey to get there."

"Driver played the final variation [of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111]’s trills with quiet intensity and weightlessness. Less an ending than a transformation, they echoed Ligeti’s rhythmic illusions, Schumann’s sonorities, now deconstructed, and Handel’s ornaments–stretched to infinity. In this final gesture, Beethoven distilled the evening’s theme: how music never truly resolves, but remains an open-ended dialogue"

"British pianist Danny Driver showed how dazzling virtuosity can coexist with interpretive depth. His Tuesday night concert for San Francisco Performances tackled some of the most technically challenging works in the repertoire. While he catapulted confidently through reams of arpeggios, scales, and octave runs, he also avoided flashiness or superficiality. Rather, he played with crystalline precision, guiding the listener through structural intricacies and illuminating the connections between pieces with persuasive conviction."

Dynamic pianist Danny Driver sets a thrilling tone for memorable musical feast

‘He articulates the cross-rhythmic interplay of ‘Touches bloquées’ with the utmost independence from both hands and maintains a relaxed repartee between the left-hand scales and right-hand chords in ‘Fanfares’... Driver builds the central climax of ‘Arc-en ciel’ carefully and shades the gorgeous harmonies without milking them...The four Book 3 Études are no less detailed and vocally informed via Driver’s polished fingers and mindful musicianship. These qualities find a literary counterpart in the pianist’s informative, caring and well-written booklet notes. In essence, Driver’s Ligeti Études complement rather than compete with Aimard and Ullén, and that’s high praise.’

Driver’s recording of Ligeti’s virtuosity-testing Études is full of insight and exuberance.

The British pianist returns with an imaginative programme, gloriously played.

What splendidly adventurous programming! Danny Driver has never once disappointed in my experience, and this being my first concert at the Wigmore Hall since before March, it was a delight to hear performances as radiant as these.

Danny Driver may be the best pianist you’ve never heard. The British native, now in his early 40s, is one of the world-class artists who record for the prestigious UK record company Hyperion along with Marc-André Hamelin, Stephen Hough and Angela Hewitt among others.

The two solo piano Barcarolles by Fauré that followed certainly restored the gravitas to the occasion. Barcarolle no. 4 in A flat major, Op.44 is a sunny work still dominated by the seductiveness of the composer’s early style. This was still the Fauré who had enchanted Proust and Hahn with his youthful glamour. However, by the time he wrote Barcarolle no. 5 in F sharp minor, Op.66 the intensity that increasingly characterises his later works is already apparent, making for a more complex piece full of unexpected modulations and cumulative passage work. Driver proved to be an ideal interpreter of these beautiful but technically and atmospherically difficult works, finding the just right balance between textural clarity and Romantic ardour.

"There is never anything ostensibly showy about Driver’s playing, though he has a formidable technique at his disposal. His was an ultra-sensitive, classically restrained yet highly expressive response to the first movement’s opening mood of serenity, with superb articulation and a lovely tone quality. As the emotion of the music deepened, so did Driver’s range of expression expand, though in the most natural, sympathetic manner. He performed an unfamiliar cadenza which proved to be the seldom played second version written by the composer himself.

"'The Amy Beach Concerto … is a big, virtuoso vehicle demanding great endurance and a bravura technique … Driver surmounts these demands with real artistry and, in the lovely slow movement, immense sensitivity"

"JS Bach’s Fifth French Suite was full of personality, with ornamentation daringly abundant. There was a palpable sense of enjoyment of the physicality of Bach’s writing, particularly in the Courante and the irrepressible closing Gigue.

Driver is a fine colourist too, the theme of Schumann’s Études Symphoniques richly rendered. This is Schumann at his most unflaggingly virtuoso, and it’s a piece that can turn into a mere speed-fest in some hands. Driver’s focus was instead on elucidating the luxuriant textures and revealing the sheer imagination with which Schumann develops his theme..."

"Sunlight streamed through the crosshatch windows of Holy Trinity Church the next afternoon, when pianist Danny Driver gave an enthralling account of Ligeti’s first two books of Etudes and Debussy’s first two books of Images. Driver isn’t an overt colourist, and occasionally I missed touches of outright metal or flamboyance, but for someone who had never before performed the fearsome Ligeti pieces as a complete set, he was astoundingly cool: this was a performance of dauntless clarity, understated wit and graceful vitality."

"Miraculously, Driver appeared as relaxed at the end of this stupendous afternoon's playing as he had before beginning. Having mentioned Ligeti's assertion that playing the piano should be a physical pleasure he had certainly embodied that belief throughout this wonderfully conceived and stunningly executed programme. This was the most life-affirming concert I've attended in a long time."

'To hear in succession the tiny contemplative adagio of the Second Suite followed by its bright fugal allegro and then the quasi-improvisatory organ-like prelude of the Third Suite is to appreciate just how compellingly Driver intuits the music’s rich diversity.'

'If you want to hear these pieces played on a sleek grand piano using an engagingly post-historical approach, with flawlessly stylish ornamentation (eg the embellished vocalising line in the Sarabande from No 7) and a variety of dynamic nuances (the Chaconne in G major), then look no further.'

"Erik Chisholm's dazzling Second Piano Concerto and James MacMillan's arresting The Confession of Isobel Gowdie were among highlights of this Commonwealth Day concert....Driver's delivery was ideal: urgent, direct and unfussy, with touches of gentle eloquence and mysticism."

"One of the many children of JS Bach, CPE Bach is often overlooked. But this concert proved what an extraordinary and unsettling composer he was."

'....Chloë Hanslip plays with the most enviably sweet and subtly variegated tone throughout and she forms an outstandingly compelling partnership with Danny Driver, whose irreproachably eager and stylish pianism is a joy to encounter...'