Martin Fröst

“We know that Fröst can articulate like a demon, his fingers a blur of hyperactivity, his head hunched forward ready to pounce or flung back in a kind of wild ecstasy. But then he’ll produce exquisite legatos on barely a breath of sound… a true performance artist as unpredictable as he is brilliant.” (The Independent, March 2010)

“Swedish clarinettist Martin Fröst appears like a snake charmer or faun from mythical times: slender, agile, like a dancer, and blessed with a stupendous technique, he makes Mozart’s well-known clarinet concerto a great experience. The way he shapes the sound, the way he differentiates dynamics…is truly unprecedented.” (Neue Vorarlberger Tageszeitung, July 2009)

“Martin Fröst's staggeringly virtuosic reading of Hillborg's Clarinet Concerto (complete with masked dance-mime and spooky lighting) was followed by a klezmer-style arrangement that showed off his skills in yet another light. Is he the best clarinettist in the world right now? Probably.” (Intermezzo, August 2008)

“…Fröst dazzled. His pianissimos were on the edge of audibility: they seemed to surround us, and at times he made a long-held note sound like an entire journey. Messiaen's Liturgie de cristal here evoked a landscape sparkling with frost, and this Fröst was its presiding deity.” (The Independent, November 2008)

“Whether he was chasing virtuoso passages, or taking back the tone to the edge of audibility, or creating almost avantgardistic sounds in the cadences – he achieved everything with the greatest effortlessness.” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, February 2009)