Ilya Gringolts

lya Gringolts is a virtuoso of the highest order. The arpeggios of the “harmonious labyrinth” flutter airily and a sense of ease permeates the runs, with the highest notes climbing up to the 5-line octave.
Helsingin Sanomat, Jukka Isopuro on the Locatelli CD with Finnish Baroque, 12/01/2021

Ilya Gringolts’ recording [of Locatelli's L'arte del violino] with the Finnish Baroque Orchestra does justice to the virtuoso as well as to the elaborate ornamentation.The performance is consistently fresh, inventive, detailed and clearly phrased. It shows that Locatelli had a distinctive individual style and why he was called by contemporaries as an ‘unrivalled virtuoso’, by Diderot even as an ‘apostle of new music’. Gringolts emphasizes all aspects of Locatelli’s tonal language, whether lyrical, sentimental, virtuosic or dance-like.
Pizzicato, Remy Franck, 9/01/2021

Every note, every harmony, every individual tone and glissando has its right place in this work. The precision and intensity with which the MKO and Ilya Gringolts – who, both technically and musically, is nothing short of masterful – illuminate the score and render it an event leaves the listener completely enthralled. This is how contemporary music should be: urgent and compelling.
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Klaus Kalchschmid, 17/10/2020

A wildly propulsive work far removed from virtuosic gestures in the conventional sense. Yet it demands of the soloist a broad array of technical and sonic ability, which Gringolts mastered brilliantly; he deserves to be heralded for this performance in the Prinzregententheater.
Münchner Merkur, Tobias Hell, 15/10/2020

The sensual surface of Beat Furrer’s violin concerto could be best described as a heady mixture of “sex and Formula One”. [...] In contrast to the majority of recent violin concertos, Furrer’s piece places the emphasis on the soloist.
Münchener Abendzeitung, Robert Braunmüller, 15/10/2020

Gringolts compares Furrer’s music to lava. But he, the violinist, is clearly the volcano in the room. Without any excess movements, but inwardly glowing and furious, Gringolts blasts rapid cascades of sound into the room. [...] No one could step in ad hoc – particularly not for Ilya Gringolts. Especially since none of the other great violinists even comes close to having the unfettered expressiveness that Furrer’s twenty-minute eruption absolutely requires.
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Reinhard Brembeck, 14/10/2020

The Russian violinist Ilya Gringolts [...] fully absorbed in the moment, made his violin sing and shriek with delight, without misplacing a single note – a virtuoso piece [Schubert's Rondo in A major D 438 with the MKO] that goes down easy but is very difficult to play.
Schwäbische Zeitung, Dorothee L. Schaefer, 14/10/2020

The musicians from the Gringolts Quartet and Meta4 fuse into a single body, finding in certain moments a sort of orchestral fullness – just as Mendelssohn was aiming for with his eight-string instrumentation.
WDR 3 Tonart, Markus Stäbler, Alben der Woche 16/03-20/03/2020

Phenomenal – there‘s just no other words to describe the new CD with which the Gringolts Quartet and the Finnish quartet Meta4 come onto the scene. [...] They are two of the most remarkable string quartets of the younger generation. [...] The way in which the two very individually distinct ensembles find a common ground and succeed in taming Enescu's far-reaching and imaginatively dissolute octet is just stunning. [...] The disc’s highlight, however, is the Mendelssohn octet, whose interpretation by Meta4 and the Gringolts Quartet radiates with a bright tonality that is audible down to the smallest details. Highly virtuosic tempi, which are kept alive with clever bursts of energy, alongside piquant articulation, which is enriched by surprising ornamentation, as well as fresh playfulness combine here to create an aha! experience of the highest order. The ideal interpretation of this youthful stroke of genius does not, cannot exist. Those who nevertheless (quite rightly) go looking for it come quite close thanks to the Gringolts Quartet and Meta4. Peter Hagmann, 18/03/2020

[Joannes Maria Staud's Oskar sets] the violin ablaze [...]. Throughout the virtuosic 20 minutes, you’re on the edge of your seat worrying over the fingers of the famed Ilya Gringolts, who vibrates so often at the bridge, suggesting a heightening and heating up of the action, that you feel the flames just by listening to it. Süddeutsche Zeitung, Klaus Kalchschmid, 04/02/2020 

This concert was in a class of its own, a positively unforgettable experience, featuring a musician who was committed and inspired down to his bones. [Ilya Gringolts'] interpretations [are a testament] to his profound engagement with and deep understanding of the works [Sciarrino, Widmann and Paganini], and to his unflappable, confident mastery of the instrument.
Pizzicato, Uwe Krusch, 16/01/2020

Gripping and beautifully played […] bold and hugely committed performances of three very striking duos spanning almost 90 years.
The Strad, Edward Bhesania, 2/12/2019 (on the CD Eisler, Ravel, Widman Duos with Dmitry Kouzov)

The concerto [Heinz Holliger Violin Concert "Hommage à Louis Soutter] – played here with harrowing conviction by soloist Ilya Gringolts – draws on the starkness of Soutter’s visual images.
The Scotsman, Ken Walton, 9/12/2019

The soloist in tonight’s concert [Tommie Haglund: Hymns to the Night] was the remarkable Ilya Gringolts. He is one of those blessed players for whom no technical hurdles seem to exist which given the ferocious demands of the solo writing here is hugely beneficial.
Seen and Heard International, Nick Barnard, 5/04/2019

The Russian violinist draws from his Guarneri del Gesù a sound of such luminosity and rich timbre that it renders the Finnish work [Concerto for violin and orchestra in D minor op.47 by Jean Sibelius] an immense aurora borealis, to which his attentive and warm interpretation lent a shimmering quality.
El País, Julián Carrillo, 24/03/2019

It has been proven countless times that Ilya Gringolts is one of the best violinists of his generation [...]. A Korngold of stunning transparency, Gringolts brings, with almost ridiculous ease, a clarity of execution to even the most difficult passages.
L´ape musicale, Mario Tedeschi Turco, 6/03/2019

Often the violinist is pitted against the orchestra’s work and it is easy to miss those triplet runs and warp speed phrases. Gringolts flew through all of them cleanly and with strong sense of dynamics, as well as a modest sense of showmanship. Intent on the music, rather than the workout, Gringolts gave a riveting performance.
Naples Daily News, Harriet Howard Heithaus, 12/02/2019

The Russian violinist also demonstrates the feat of making music from the solo part [of the concerto for violin and larger chamber orchestra Op. 36 No. 3 by Paul Hindemith]. [...] His tone is not only filigree-fine, but also so radiant that the figurations are highly enjoyable, the mechanics soothing.
Münchener Abendzeitung, Michael Bastian Weiß, 1/02/2019

Ilya Gringolts played Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1 in E-flat, Opus 6 with a hugely impressive display of apparently effortless technical mastery, grasping harmonics, extreme high notes, elegant double stopped slides and rich G-string melodies with nonchalant playfulness.
The Sidney Morning Herald, Clive O'Connell, 14/10/2018

To Gringolts’ dazzling assurance in Paganini’s First Violin Concerto (here heard in a string-orchestra-only version), no mere reviewer can do justice. Surely the sports world’s equivalent of such assurance would be doing handstands on a unicycle while singing the national anthem backwards.
The Limelight Australia, R.J. Stove, 2/10/2018

Most impressive is Gringolts’ musical intelligence. Still, serious and visually unassuming, he shapes Paganini’s flourishes into stylish sweeps, avoiding virtuosic overstatement, yet allowing phrases to drive forward with a sense of complete freedom. Joyously exposing the work’s lyrical foundations, he keeps his lines sweet and carefree, never hunting for gravitas where it cannot be found.
The Australian, Eamonn Kelly, 3/10/2018

Bartók’s monumental Sonata for Solo Violin, made a perfect vehicle for [Gringolts' deep musicality and intense fire]. Playing from memory, Gringolts mastered this beast of a piece, displaying every technique under the sun and, more importantly, providing a convincing interpretation.
Bachtrack, Mark Thomas, 23/07/2018

A thorough survey of Stravinsky’s violin music, Gringolts’s mastery of the composer’s idiom makes his CD and its earlier companion credible front-runners, or at the very least level-pegging with the excellent though rather less comprehensive Marwood collection.
Gramophone, Rob Cowan, 10/2017

A performance of the century – one truly heard Paganini’s Capricci for the very first time. (…) the phrasing was so elegant, nimble and illuminating, the intonation so squeaky-clean, the line so multi-faceted.
Der Standard, Heidemarie Klabacher, 23/8/2017

Gringolts’ playing has a character, gesture, expression and a musical language that composers can only dream of. (…) One can hardly play the violin more expressively and uncompromisingly than Gringolts.
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Harald Eggebrecht, 30/8/2017

It’s [Adams’s violin concerto] played with authority and spark by Gringolts (…) Korngold’s 1974 concerto is an even better showcase for Grigolts, whose strikingly expansive lyricism keeps schmaltz at bay.
THE GUARDIAN, Erica Jeal, 6/4/2017

Ilya Gringolts mastered the exceedingly difficult solo part (in Ligeti’s Violin Concerto) with stoic serenity and did not shy away from the composer’s extremely tricky cadenza, but rather replaced it with one played at an even more breakneck pace.
FAZ, Max Nyffeler, 20/12/2016

Ilya Gringolts played the solo part with impressive precision in the fast passages, but above all with a very special tone, extremely slender yet vast and weighty.
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Michael Stallknecht, 18/12/2016

Ilya Gringolts performed the Brahms Violin Concerto with highly nuanced, lyrical passages and a romantic tone. (…) Particularly noteworthy was Ilya Gringolts’ own cadenza, in which he split melodic lines and revelled in his mastery of double-stopping. Here, he created a subtle web of musical relationships through a question-and-answer game interspersed with suspenseful pauses.
KULTUR, Silvia Thurner, 31/10/2016

The violinist Ilya Gringolts perfected the evening. In the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in G Major KV 21 his musical intuition and profound expressiveness shone through. (…) Simply good!
Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung Bochum, Nina Schröder, 8/4/2016

Ilya Gringolts’ debut in Lugano enchanted the audience. He produces a wonderful sound and possesses the time-honoured ability to always marry poignant vibrato and transparent lyricism, bright lightness and expressive intensity; (…) Gringolts is simply perfect: never playing fortissimo, often between mezzo-piano and pianissimo but without ever losing a single note, always giving the impression of supreme control of the expressions and hence of the impossibility of mistakes.
Giornale del Popolo, Manuela Camponovo, 9/1/2016

Ilya Gringolts, James Boyd and Nicolas Altstaedt] played not only amazingly flawlessly, but also with captivating spirit. (…) A sublime sensation -  small but perfectly formed.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Eleonore Büning, 23/09/2015

Surgically virtuosic (…). The trio, formed especially for the occasion by three soloists united by friendship and who obviously inspire each other, create sumptuous moments.
Berliner Morgenpost, Julia Kaiser, 22/09/2015(on the concert with Nicolas Altstaedt and James Boyd at the Musikfest Berlin)

Ilya Gringolts was the soloist this time [Bach’s A minor Violin Concerto] – rather luxury casting for a work that lasts barely 15 minutes, but his playing had enough panache and swagger about it to turn the concerto into a convincing showcase for his virtuosity.
The Guardian, Andrew Clements, 12/03/2015

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D proved the evening’s top drawcard, soloist Ilya Gringolts extracting its warm-hearted lyricism with compelling, focused commitment while riveting listeners’ attention so you could hear a pin drop. (…) Gringolts is a rare artist indeed — a virtuoso for whom soul comes before pyrotechnics.
The Advertiser, Rodney Smith, 15/02/2015

Few recordings [of Paganinis Caprices] search out the musical depths as convincingly as the youngest ever Premio Paganini competition winner, Ilya Gringolts. (…) and it is not too fanciful to imagine something of Paganini’s own ‘other-worldliness’.
The Strad, David Milsom, 5/1/2014

[Ilya Gringolts] presents here what may be ‘a work of archeology’ but is clearly a fresh, modern take on these technical masterpieces. What he has achieved is to make them playful. Having discovered the dramatic qualities within, he has reflected on them. What in other recordings is somewhat predictable here becomes an exciting journey. Where we were once content simply to marvel at the pyrotechnics, now, because of Gringolts’s [sic] acute sense of timing and close attention to dynamics, we hear the music.
Gramophone, Julie Anne Sadie, December 2013 --- CD: Paganini – 24 Caprices op 1

But the ultimate highlight was Schoenberg's Violin Concerto, played with stunning command and tenderness by Ilya Gringolts. Big vibrato, big gestures – he's an old-fashioned soloist of sorts, and turned one of the scariest concertos in the business into a work of expressive, emotive necessity.
The Guardian, 1/6/2012

In the hands of a player of Gringolts' calibre, [the technical demands] simply rendered the performance all the more thrilling. The dare-devilry of the cadenzas was matched by Gringolts' immense musicality. Even the quiet moments were electrifying, especially the opening of the final cadenza, which simultaneously features double-stopping and trills. (...) Gringolts seemed as engaged in [orchestral passages] as when in full flight. He really seemed to thrill to the orchestra's playing, and he clearly loves the work. This joy was reciprocated in the beaming faces of the BBC SSO, particularly the violinists.
Bachtrack, 30/5/2012

Gringolts, one of the most inspirational violinists around today, plays with panache and sensitivity, his partnership with pianist Peter Laul reaching heady heights in the slow movement of the second sonata, the most Janus-faced at all.
Financial Times, 10/7/2010 – on the CD recording Schumann. Violin sonatas 1-3