Martin Fröst

“Masterful, self-assured, his variable playing and enunciating body language confirms this soloist as one of the best, most recognised respected soloists around the world [...] One observation is surely that some music fans were quietly thanking God that they had been allowed to experience this concert.” (Anzeiger Harlingerland, January 2012)

“In the opening movement alone he displayed the entire register of his great technique. The musical ideas fizzed out of him and formed a brilliant dialogue with the orchestra [...] Thanks to his technical ability, Fröst led the work into new dimensions, showing a mix of playfulness and intellectual depth.” (Ostfriesischer Kurier, January 2012)

“[Anders Hillborg’s clarinet] concerto gains an extra dimension from the remarkable talents of the performer for whom it was written, the composer’s fellow Swede Martin Fröst.” (The Irish Times, October 2011)

“He is a naturally gestural player who launches himself into this music body and soul, striking angular poses and voguing - yes, voguing - with clarinet in hand… All this without compromising his astonishing control of relentless melodic lines (sustained with circular breathing), his refined, characterful tone and the mastery of a range of extended techniques at times giving the impression of a second soloist shadowing his every note.” (Limelight, May 2011)

“The Klezmer-like dance to which Fröst treated us as an encore showed his amazing ability to produce sounds rarely heard from a clarinet, combining circular breathing, astounding breath control and finger dexterity. Here were the real fireworks which brought rapturous applause.” (Australian Stage Online, May 2011)

“Frost belies his 40-plus years with a near-adolescent vitality and sprightly stage presence. In Anders Hillborg’s clarinet concerto Peacock Tales (without the trappings of mime and masks), his clarity across all registers and a superlative contrast in textures and dynamics revealed a master at work in an almost uninterrupted solo” (The Age, May 2011)

“Anders Hillborg’s Clarinet Concerto Peacock Tales was a splendidly decadent offering from the virtuosic Martin Frost. The Swedish musician threw himself into his performance, uniting kinaesthetic intelligence with his playing to animate Hillborg’s beautiful, arrogant peacock… I enjoyed the visual play with the lighting and the performer’s breath to make the audience and orchestra vanish and reappear at his will.” (Canberra Times, May 2011)

“The program is a display of what Fröst does well, which is just about everything. He makes himself at home at each genre – baroque and romantic, modern and postmodern, klezmer and jazz, country and rock, song and showpiece – and he plays it all with a clear timbre, amazing fingers, dazzling articulation, exquisite color changes, an occasional but tasteful vibrato, and most important of all, soul.” (American Record Guide on Frost and Friends CD, March/April 2011)

“Fröst can rattle the ceiling but is most remarkable in quiet moments. And his klezmer encore, with the orchestra in hot pursuit, is worth the ticket price.” (Star Tribune, February 2011)