Ilya Gringolts

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

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