“The playing from Kopatchinskaja, including the finest gradations of vibrato control and agogic phrasing, is exceptional and the idea of a first among equals unavoidable.”

“No-one familiar with the work of these unfailingly imaginative and challenging musicians will be disappointed with this absorbing disc, and for the light it shines on Vivaldi and our contemporary responses to his music it counts as essential listening”

“Constantly characterised (and slightly demeaned) as a ​“quirky maverick”, Kopatchinskaja proved here that she’s in a class of her own.”

“The orchestra’s brilliantly daft staging of John Cage’s Europeras inside a backlot stage at Sony Studios would have been a landmark event in any year, and yet L.A. Phil’s presentation of provocative violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and pianist Gloria Cheng deconstructing pieces by John Cage and Sofia Gubaidulina at the Getty Center proved anew how exciting new music can be when it’s delivered in unusual formats and settings by subversive and committed musicians who don’t mind standing in bathtubs and popping balloons while they perform.”

Kopatchinskaja’s wild Tchaikovsky
“…it was clear that Kopatchinskaja and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla were musically, historically, and emotionally on the same page. Conductor and soloist wielded their bow and baton like a pair of swashbucklers in a duel between the violin and the orchestra that made everything old sound new again.”

“Patricia Kopatchinskaja never fails to engage both the listener’s ears and mind with performances of personality that make scores live as if freshly discovered. Leschenko is the perfect partner.”

“She is a player of rare expressive energy and disarming informality, of whimsy and theatrical ambition. (Listen to her Tchaikovsky concerto recording, now!) In all these qualities, she was a perfect choice for Ojai, which each year invites a different artist — a performer, director, composer, conductor or choreographer — to plan the four-day festival as a concentrated shot of his or her enthusiasms.”

“Nor is there anything ordinary about this latest CD, a recital with the pianist Polina Leschenko that is a feast of edgy, risk-filled music-making.”

“In the moments before pressing play on any new recording from Patricia Kopatchinskaja, the only thing you can be absolutely certain of is that you’re about to hear something brimming with personality, individuality and panache”

“Her voice was her instrument, Sprechstimme her style, a cross between speaking and singing to which she added dramatic movement and expression…She was a sprite in a deconstructed tux, fearless and wild.”

“In between came a wondrous account of Berg’s violin concerto, written both to mark a death and in the year that Berg himself died. Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s account was fragile, eloquent and never portentous. Her playing captured this heartbreaking music with just the right mixture of tenderness and transcendence.”

“Patricia Kopatchinskaja shows her astonishing artistry on ​‘Take Two’ and ​‘Chiaroscuro … Her body and her instrument and the music she makes all seem one. She is ever thrilling alive to the moment … I don’t have to think twice about making my recording of the year.”